news

Local charity Future Projects invites
the community to kick off the holiday season with a night of Hollywood-style
glamour, all while helping raise funds for Norwich families facing hardship.

The festive fundraiser will take place
on Saturday, 14th December,
at Bar 19 and promises a memorable night of entertainment,
community spirit, and a chance to make a real difference.

Guests can look forward to live music
from local swing sensation Sam
and the Swingtones, DJ sets from Future
Radio DJs, drag performances, and complimentary 9-inch homemade
pizzas – all included in the ticket price.

Since the onset of the Cost of Living
crisis, Future Projects has been on the front lines, providing essential
support to a growing number of local families struggling to meet their basic
needs.

Last year’s Christmas party raised over £3,750, and with
increased demand this year, the charity aims to raise even more with the
community’s help. All funds raised will support programmes providing advice,
money management training, food and community meals and more.

Tickets
are priced at just £25,
with a special discount for charity workers, available now at .
All funds raised will go directly to Future Projects’ programs, providing
immediate assistance to local families in need.

 “We’re
delighted to be running our Christmas Party fundraiser for the second year in a
row,” said Camilla Wright – the event organiser for Future Projects. “This
event is not only a way for us to celebrate the season with our community but
also an opportunity to thank our incredible staff, volunteers, and partners in
the voluntary and public sectors who work tirelessly for the people of Norfolk.
We’re excited to welcome everyone for a memorable evening filled with holiday
spirit and community cheer!” 

I’ve been using JavaScript reluctantly on and off for years. I’m currently working on a project that is highly dependant on JQuery based, handwritten JavaScript. Just as Rupert described in this workshop, I am one of the world’s copy-and-paste JavaScripters, so I thought it was about time I looked at it more closely to see what I was missing. I recently took on an apprentice who also needed to learn JavaScript, so a Norfolk Developers workshop was ideal for us.

We all know there’s a software development skills shortage nationally and very much so locally and this is something Norfolk Developers is trying to do something about by introducing a series of introductory workshops aimed at those with little or no experience. Initially Norfolk Developers will be concentrating on web development skills such as HTML & CSS, JavaScript and JQuery. There are also plans for introductory workshops for iOS and Android mobile development. The group will also continue to cater for the more experienced developers with their regular series of intermediate and advanced workshops.

We all know JavaScript is evil, right? Yes, but it’s a necessary evil and there are reasons it’s evil. This was very well explained by Rupert Redington at Norfolk Developers’ JavaScript Starter Kit, beginners full day workshop. It was created in two weeks and suffered a little because of that, but we are where we are.

What was really great about the workshop for me was that I was able to learn and understand the details of the language I had missed before, such as the different ways things are compared for equality in the language.

After an interesting and in depth introduction to the language Rupert introduced us to NodeSchool, which is a series of tasks designed to help you learn and write JavaScript one step at a time in a rewarding way. You write the code to solve a problem, run the test and it tells you whether you have it right or not. I could have done that for hours!

In the afternoon we brought together a lot of what we had learnt in the morning to write a simple one page web application which used our browser’s API (Application Programming Interface) to find our current location and an external API to look up where the nearest public toilets were to us. It was fantastic to see what we’d learnt solving a real world problem.

Rupert will be back in the summer running an updated beginners JavaScript workshop.

Words: Paul Grenyer

Pure Resourcing Solutions (Pure) are pleased to congratulate Cambscuisine, winners of the Pure-sponsored “Employer of the Year” category at theCambridge News Business Excellence Awardsheld last night (17 March) at King’s College, Cambridge.

With many of the region’s leading businesses in attendance, the award celebrates an organisation that successfully inspires, motivates, develops and rewards its staff.

Cambscuisine was one of three companies shortlisted for the category and they were successful due to their culture; genuinely placing “people at the heart of the business”. Cambscuisine has 130 people working across six restaurants: St John’s Chop House, Smokeworks, The Cock Hemingford Grey, The Tickell Arms, The Cambridge Chop House and The Crown & Punchbowl and prides itself with having high staff retention in a sector where staff turnover is typically high.

With a number of innovative people development approaches -instead of having a head office and a traditional board, the Directors stay connected by working from their restaurants “surrounded by their team”. The Board is replaced with a team of “challengers” selected from across the business to provide feedback and ideas that has helped to nurture a strong family culture. Their aim is to help staff realise their full potential and many of their General Managers have started in roles such as dish washing and waiting, progressing through the business supported by a personalised development plan.

Lynn Walters, Director at Pure and awards judge, says: “We were proud to sponsor the category for the fourth year – it’s a huge privilege to watch Cambridge’s businesses thrive.”

“This year we met 3 diverse and amazing businesses who all have inspired teams of passionate people who are proud of their organisation and deliver a great customer experience. When a company gets it right, you can almost tangibly feel the culture that permeates throughout the business and Cambscuisine clearly showed a genuine passion for people development which shone through in the presentation. Congratulations to Oliver and his team.”

Lynn is well qualified in judging the best employer categories with a track record of developing employee engagement strategies and supporting talent management with Pure’s clients. In addition to core recruitment services, Lynn runs the highly successful Best Employers Eastern Region initiative – a biennial online survey, in partnership with eras Ltd, a provider of psychometric and talent solutions. The survey is open between April and September 2016 culminating in awards being presented at employee engagement seminars in October 2016, bringing together senior business leaders from the region Congratulations are also extended to the shortlisted companies Newmarket Racecourse and Genie Ventures for their commitment to their exceptionally engaged employees.

To find out more about the Cambridge News Business Awards or the Best Employers Eastern Region initiative, contact Lynn Walters on: 01223 209888 orlynn.walters@prs.uk.com.

BBA – Exclusive providers of DOOH at Sundown 2016

BBA Digital Media are proud to announce that we are now selling premium spots at our next POP UP Event -Sundown Festival 2016.With HUGE names (Jason Derulo, Jess Glyne, Dizzie Rascal, Kano and Chase and Status to name a few) entertaining the crowds this event pulls in a massive audience. And we will be the exclusive Digital Out of Home Providers for the event!

About Sundown

The festival is in its fifth year, and growing ever bigger based at the 150 acre Royal Norfolk Showground, from the 2nd to the 4th of September, this is a HUGE event for East Anglia and an incredible festival to advertise at, showcase anybrand and getmaximum exposure to a crowd of over 50,000.

The event attracts a crowd from East Anglia as well as further afield, with an average age range of 14-35. There are day tickets, weekend and camping tickets as well as VIP hospitality tickets drawing a diverse and exciting customer demographic. This year the festivals capacity exceeds wireless festival!

Digital Out of Home at the Event

We will have 2×72 inchscreensplaced in the bar areas either side of the stage in high footfall locations, where waiting times will be for long periods of time for the duration of the festival.

We will be selling spots of 10 seconds, on a three minute rotation for the 3 days.This translates to anadvert showing 1680timeson both screensover the course of the three days.

Screen Specifications

Our 72″ Outdoor Screen is one of the largest outdoor screens of its kind. Standing 2.5 metres tall with a 1000% brighter display, it is perfect for hosting digital content, links to social media, augmented reality, and interactive campaigns at Sundown Festival.

– Screen Size: 72 inches

– Screen Aspect Ratio: 16:9

– Screen Resolution: 1080×1920 Dimensions: 2420mm x 1300mm x 350mm Brightness: 2000cd/m2

– Audio Output: 2x Built in 10w speakers

What people are saying about Sundown

This event has its genesis in the Norfolk Spectacular, becoming the Sundown festival in 2012. Since then it has grown into a top quality event taking place over three days at the very beginning of September….As one of the later events in the calendar, this has a good end of summer vibe with many party people taking that one last bite of the sunshine cherry before hibernation.This is one festival that admits young people on an individual ticket basis, so expect an energetic and up for it crowd from the moment the music starts playing.

– festivalmag.com

A Norfolk firm which specialises in finding and structuring funding to help local business prosper and grow has been recognised with a prestigious national award.

B2B Cashflow Solutions, which has been a finalist in the Business Moneyfacts Awards for the past four years (‘Highly Commended’ last year and ‘Commended’ in 2014), this year became national winner in the category ‘Best Asset Based Finance Broker’ against stiff competition from eight other finalists across the UK at the Lancaster Hotel in London on 17th March.

Launched in 2006 by directors Ian Hart, Nick Flower and Simon Reynolds, who between them have nearly 90 years commercial finance and business banking experience, B2B Cashflow Solutions is an independent commercial finance brokerage and consultancy, based in Framingham Pigot, which has developed a range of products and services to accommodate the whole-life finance cycle needs to support the growth aspirations for local businesses.

Since becoming one of the first commercial finance brokers in the UK to be authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in March 2015, the firm has invested heavily in its infrastructure to underpin a 47% growth in its team of financial professionals throughout East Anglia and across the UK.

This geographical expansion has been complemented by further diversification of skills within the team. An accountant, a real estate consultant, and a business coach are among the seven highly experienced professionals B2B Cashflow Solutions has successfully attracted so far this year from financial organisations, and banks including HSBC and Barclays.

Simon Reynolds commented ‘Our aim has always been to develop a brand which local businesses could trust and identify with to find and structure funding which helps them prosper.

We believe our Business Moneyfacts Award represents recognition nationally that a Norfolk firm is leading the way in helping other local and UK businesses to achieve their own growth aspirations’.

Specialising in finding cash for businesses, and restructuring existing funding for companies to reduce debt burden and improve cash flow, B2B Cashflow Solutions aims to deliver these solutions, often where traditional mainstream funders have failed, through a diversity of alternative markets, and works closely to support its banks relationships and other professional partners.

Examples of success in helping local businesses range from delivering funding within a £2.6 million project to build an anaerobic digestion plant for Muntons Plc’s maltings facility in Stowmarket, to sourcing the investment which facilitated the management buy-in of Quinto Crane and Plant Ltd, a leading crane hire company based in Norwich.

Products include asset finance, fundraising against existing working assets, invoice finance, unsecured business loans, commercial mortgages, grant funding, and research and development relief. The company has also developed its own financial health checks to help business owners reduce debt and improve cash flow.

I actively avoid posting about politics on social media. To me it’s a personal thing. I’ve also been avoiding posting about the European Referendum. I have a view, in fact I’ve already voted, but it’s personal.

There are a lot of businesses who are encouraging their employees to vote one way or the other, notably BMW and JCB. I’ve considered the referendum form a Naked Element point of view and, as things stand, I cannot see clearly how either outcome would affect us. Our current clients are continuing to invest in the software we’re writing for them and don’t appear to be putting off any decisions until after the referendum. New enquiries are still flowing in at the same rate.

We have a client for whom we recently finished a web application. They asked us to bill them for the hosting every month. Following the first invoice they asked if they could be billed for the next twelve months instead. We use Digital Ocean for hosting and they charge in dollars. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, we’d calculate the cost of the hosting for the most recent month, multiply it by twelve and just absorb any, likely minor, fluctuations in the exchange rate.

One of the most frequently reported likely consequences of leaving the European Union is a significant drop in the value of sterling compared to other currencies, such as the dollar. This could significantly increase the cost of Digital Ocean hosting to Naked Element. Is it enough to worry me about the possibility of exit or to ask Naked Element employees and associates to vote in? No, of course not. If we do leave and the exchange rate does drop, it’s just something our business, like many others, will have to deal with. The worst case scenario is that we have to find ourselves a UK provider or one who charges a reasonable rate in GBP.

So far this is the only potential effect of the referendum I am aware of for Naked Element. I am sure time will tell, but Naked Element appears otherwise immune. Once we explained the situation, our client was happy to wait until after the referendum for their twelve month hosting invoice.

In the meantime I’m looking forward with interest to this week’s result and to see how the country votes and the immediate and long term effects of the decision.

If there was any concern that Brexit would have a negative impact on foreign investment in the UK, the doubts were somewhat quashed this week when ARM Holdings announced a takeover by Japanese tech giant, Softbank, in a deal worth a staggering £24bn.

ARM Holdings is Britain’s biggest and most successful tech firm. Founded by entrepreneur, Hermann Hauser in 1990, the company made its mark with the vintage Acorn Archimedes and BBC micro:bit.

Today, the ARM microchip powers practically every digital device imaginable, including computers, iPhones and Samsung’s range of mobile products. Last year, the company sold 15 million microchips – more than its US rival Intel has sold in its 48-year history.

The ARM microchip is seen as the next-generation for microprocessor architecture, and whilst Britons have a right to be proud, we can’t help but feel it’s a shame the company is being sold to overseas investors.

We’re also curious how the likes of Apple and Google feel knowing their industry “allies” have handed over the new-generation microchip to a Japanese firm.

The sell-out also raises questions about the impact such a massive acquisition will have on the British economy. New PM, Theresa May has already voiced her determination to put an end to foreign takeovers that do not favour national interest.

However, on this occasion the UK government has been quick to respond with a positive message. “This is good news for British workers, it’s good news for the British economy,” a spokesman said. Given Softbank has already stated its intention to double the 3000-strong workforce of ARM Holding, we can’t argue with this.

Furthermore, in Softbank, the British tech giant is being adopted by a faithful parent. In recent years, the Japanese firm has already acquired Vodafone and Sprint together with a French robotics company, Aldebaran. Founder of Softbank, Masayoshi Son has said that ARM Holdings is one of the pillars of the company’s growth strategy.

The ARM microchip is used in numerous household items such as smartphones and tablets, computers, TV’s, Smart home technology, Smart cars and wearable tech. The microchip also powers smart cities and drones. It seems the Japanese tech giant has acquired ARM with a view to progressing the next-generation of “The Internet of Things” (IoT).

IoT is the proposed idea that by interconnecting digital devices our lives become much easier and more convenient. Possible scenarios include fridges that add food to the shopping list on your mobile phone when you are almost out, and kettles that tell you it’s time for cuppa.

We are experiencing a rapid development in mobile technology and in the very near future we will practically be able to manage our lives from our smartphones. To many people this may be a scary proposition, but it is almost guaranteed that most will embrace the convenience IoT technology offers. And a certain Japanese-owned British company will be central to making our future lives possible.

Words:Lauren Yaxley

The life cycle of an employee through their time at your company can be broken into three distinct stages: stage 1 – their recruitment and the creation of their contract of employment; stage 2 – either their promotion and progression in your company, the rapid expansion of your company itself, or hopefully both of these at the same time; and stage 3 – the parting of the ways – termination of that contract either by you or the employee. At Steeles, we always hope to advise employers on ways they can reduce potential risks to their business in advance of these three stages, but all two often find employers coming to us once the next stage is already upon them, and those risks have become all too painful realities..

The importance of properly drafting contracts of employment for new senior staff cannot be stressed enough. Employers can often be tempted to use standard term contracts when recruiting senior employees but putting the best possible groundwork in early on can avoid issues occurring in the future.

There are of course terms which, by law, employers are obliged to include in an employee’s contract of employment. However, we often find that employers miss the opportunity to include additional clauses within contracts of employment which not only suit a senior employee and their employer’s needs better, but provide far more protection for the company. Consideration at these early stages of the future pitfalls – confidential information and trade secrets that your company has strived to develop; bonus schemes that make payments compulsory whether the company believes it fiscally sensible to pay bonuses or not; and restrictions on employee’s future competitions – all so often fail to be properly thought through.

For example, Payment in Lieu of Notice (PILON) clauses are not mandatory but in the case of senior employees, it can be a crucial part of their contract further down the line if you need to remove them from the company in a hurry. In the absence of a PILON clause, your company would be in breach of contract if it terminated the employee’s employment and paid the employee in lieu. This has important consequences – the company would arguably not be able to rely on any of the terms of the contract after termination, including restrictive covenants. In contrast, improperly executed PILON clauses can lead to employees successfully claiming continued employment following case law developments in recent years.

An employee’s contract should always suit the needs of the business and this is particularly important for employers during rapid business expansion. In this situation it is not uncommon for an employer to require an employee to enter into a new contract of employment following their promotion to a more senior position or to more accurately reflect the changing needs of the company. Any such contract will generally include beneficial changes to terms (for example, an increase in pay), but may also contain new restrictions to reflect the additional requirements of the role within a much larger business. This is especially true where the employee joined the organisation at a junior level.

It is vital for employers to understand how to effectively alter and enforce a contract of employment to reduce risks to the company at all stages of the employee life-cycle. ­­­­­Departing senior employees are likely to have acquired, and be able to take advantage of, confidential information, company strategy, customer and client details or other information about their employer’s business, after the termination of their employment. If they attempt to use the information for the benefit of another employer, or in order to set up their own business it can be seriously damaging for the former employer’s business. At Steeles Law, we believe these risks can be effectively reduced by a proactive approach to HR early on and throughout an employee’s career.

Employment law experts from Steeles Law will be providing further detail and guidance on the senior employee life cycle at the forthcoming HR Forum on 6 September 2016. We will offer practical advice on providing a proactive HR approach to managing senior employees, from recruitment to exit.

Blue Heron Training Scoop Silver Award at the London Chamber SME Awards for Best New Business 2025.

On Thursday 27th February our MD Alex and our Commercial Director Reint attended their first ever awards ceremony at the London Chamber of Commerce SME awards at the prestigious Leonardo Hotel, Tower Bridge.

In the category of Best New Business 2025 we are absolutely delighted to announce that we have won Silver award.

Speaking on the night Alex said “For those who know me – you will know how much this means – a heartfelt thank you to everyone associated with this business!! The wonderful professionals who have chosen to work with us; our brilliant, amazing and supportive clients; the fantastic partners and wider network – you have all made this possible”

We create value through people.

At the very core of Blue Heron Training are people. We help develop your people and then hand you the reigns, empowering you to shape your business’ future.

Contact us.

If you are looking for a forward-thinking business to help you with your personnel training requirements, drop us a line to see how we can help you.

There is now no doubt that achieving a management qualification is the closest thing to a sure fire way of being highly successful in business.

Here are some statistics from recent research which summarises what achieving a management qualification will do for you:

Over 85% of managers agreed their management and leadership qualification improved their performance and by transferring their new skills to the work place, almost all have seen a vast improvement in their teams’ performance too.

78% of employers agreed that qualifications provide quality assurance for customers and that the benefits outweighed the time, money and effort invested in obtaining them.

More than 80% of managers say that taking a management qualification has resulted in increased professional recognition, with most stating that employers prefer qualified managers when recruiting.

This was confirmed by a further 53% advising that their qualification had helped them in gaining a promotion.

EACH YEAR OVER 30,000 PEOPLE STUDY A CHARTERED MANAGEMENT QUALIFICATION, AND HERE’S WHY… Valued by employers – CMI qualifications are designed in consultation with employers to meet today’s demands Progressive – progress through Award, Certificate and Diploma and qualification levels 2-8 Range – over 110 qualifications at every management level, providing development suitable to all managers Supported – resources designed specifically for your qualification to ensure you have the correct support Free membership – for the duration of your study you will have access to all key membership services WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF A PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION WITH THE CMI? Investing in a professional qualification takes time and dedication but the results are worth the effort:

You’ll be more marketable – a qualification speaks volumes to prospective employers, giving you the advantage when looking for your next career move.

You can earn more – research proves that those with a qualification will earn more through their career

You’ll perform better – a qualification will not only sharpen your existing skills, it will equip you with a range of ones.

Want to know more? Why not call us at TIPS for Good Management

Tel: 01362 699392

email:julian@tipsfgm.co.uk

or enquire via our website:https://www.tipsfgm.co.uk/featured-qualifications/

Be part of our dynamic team, driving innovation in electrical and renewable solutions. If you’re a qualified electrician with a passion for excellence, let’s talk!

Apply here