The Eye Film team enjoyed a great night out together at this year’s Royal Television Society East Awards. We were thrilled to win, especially in two categories contested by such incredible talent from across the region, best Promotional Film and best Production Craft Skills. Thank you to everyone and of course, our client Humphries Weaving, who gave us the opportunity to make the film for them!
www.eyefilm.co.uk
Some tips for turning those valuable interviews into contracts with new clients. Just follow the acronymUPPERand you will be in with a winning chance.
U– USP – what is it and what exactly do you offer – make sure you can describe yourself in the equivalent of a tweet. For example ” I presented BBC TV’s Tomorrow’s World and now offer communications training, ensuring that any media encounter you have is an opportunity not an ordeal.”
P– problems and concerns. make sure you have researched their needs and concerns before you go to the meeting. Can you solve the problem or need? Are they most concerned about price, quality, timescale or safety for instance. Make sure your offer takes these concerns into account.
P– prioritise – you only have 10 mins!! Make your most important points first – think what is the one thing you want them to remember if they remember nothing else, and start with it. If they digress bring them back.
E– examples, testimonials. People are not convinced by what you say – credibility comes with what you DO, so give brief examples of your experience and track record.
R– result, solution. Explain how you can help them. Be clear, concise and demonstrate your competence. Your testimonials and evidence of experience will cement this.
Su Ingle Mediawww.suingle.co.ukInfo@suingle.co.uk 07789 430642
Lolcal News is a brand new exhibition celebrating Norfolk’s finest creatives. Featuring 30 local designers, illustrators, artists and photographers, each piece of work is based on a Norfolk related news headline. The concept for this exhibition is that of Norwich designer Sinead Birmingham, who moved back home from London after ten years working the creative industries, and immediately found comfort and joy in the local headlines and Norfolk humour. Sinead has collated Norfolk news headlines over the past year, which include such gems as “Person stuck in bathroom, fire service called in” and “£300 operation by vet on constipated goldfish” were the inspiration behind the exhibition. After collecting a strong selection of news gold, Sinead approached Norfolk’s design talent including; Owen Mathers, who recently completed a mural in Norwich’s Ivy Restaurant, Matt Whitehead, the creative behind Patterns of Play and the OTBC match day programme, as well as her talented designer colleagues at borne, one of Norwich’s leading design agencies. Wanting for the exhibition to remain local in every sense, Lolcal News ticket sales profits and profits from the artist’s prints will be donated to the OPEN Youth Trust (OPEN), a charity which develop high-quality arts initiatives helping children and young people express themselves through creativity. Sinead Birmingham, Lolcal News creator said: “The exhibition is a vehicle for building an even stronger design community within the city. With Norwich University of the Arts’ Course Leaders involved, along with alumni, Sam Harrons from the Shhhh collective and London based Norfolk native designers, the standard of the work will be as high as the headline humour.” All the headlines have been kept under wraps until the private view on 4th April, but until then archive headlines are being featured @lolcal_news instagram account. The exhibition will then be open to the public at OPEN Norwich, from 10.00am – 10.00pm on Friday 5th April and from 10.00am – 4.00pm on Saturday 6th April. Tickets are £5 + booking fee (under 12s free with a paying adult). Available from https://opennorwich.org.uk/whats-on/gigs-events/lolcal-news/ or call OPEN’s Box Office on 01603 763111
The Everline and Real Business Future 50 Awards celebrate the UK’s most disruptive businesses. The annually published list provides definitive analysis of game-changing UK companies and is a major programme to support disruptive organisations that are triggering change in their markets.
The 2014 entries were as diverse as they were brilliant, showcasing businesses poised to revolutionise the way we do just about everything: from the way we shop, to the way we communicate, the way we travel, the way we eat, and even the way we die!
The final 50, which included Norwich-based Liftshare, was announced in the heart of London’s start-up scene and was hosted by comedian Seann Walsh. Liftshare’s founder, Ali Clabburn, attended the event: “The Liftshare team has always maintained a start-up mentality that keeps our thinking fresh and our approach innovative. We established the UK’s sharing economy, which is fast becoming a mainstream movement – Forbes tipped it as the hottest trend for 2014 and the Government is also eager to lend its support. We are hugely proud to have remained at the forefront of this dynamic industry and this award is further recognition that Liftshare is setting trends for others to follow.”
Several other businesses from the East made it onto the prestigious list including Norwich-based Rainbird and ServiceTick, confirming the city’s position as a hub for talent and innovation.
The list was compiled by professor Julian Beer, pro-vice chancellor (regional enterprise) at Plymouth University; serial technology entrepreneur Shakil Khan; Anthony Eskinazi, founder and chairman of Parkatmyhouse; Darren Westlake, CEO of CrowdCube; Cate Trotter, founder of Insider Trends; Matthew Rock, former editor of Real Business and Russell Gould, managing director of Everline.
Russell Gould, managing director of Everline, said: “We had hundreds of high-calibre entries to this year’s Future 50, showing that small businesses are continuing to find innovative ways to drive the UK economy. The UK continues to prove itself as a hub of innovation and we’re really proud to support and celebrate the achievements of these businesses and wish them every success in the future.”
Abate Pest Management Services of Morley near Wymondham has been crowned the Small Company of the Year at the British Pest Management Awards (BPMA). The awards ceremony took place last week during PestEx, the UK’s largest trade exhibition and conference for the pest control industry, held at London ExCeL. Abate Pest Management was shortlisted for the award along with five other UK pest control companies.
Abate Pest Management Services celebrates its 20th year of operations next month and recently they achieved EN 16636 CEPA certification, which is the European quality standard for pest management services. This was added to their triple ISO for quality and environmental and accreditations with CHAS and Safe Contractor for health and safety.
The company also operates to BRC, M&S, Tesco, SALSA, Soil Association, Organic and Red Tractor standards, which allows the business to service food grade operations.
During the past 12 months, Abate has seen a significant uplift in contracts, especially businesses within the food chain, Housing Associations and delivered a number of specific bird proofing projects. Like most pest control businesses, the summer of 2018 influenced growth in the domestic market with a record number of wasp nest emergency call outs.
Recently Abate also announced their UK franchising plans to build a network of Pest Management operations throughout the UK. Currently they service clients in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire and have operational work in parts of Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, making it an ideal time to expand.
Jon Blake, Managing Director of Abate, said, “We are delighted to have won this award which was independently judged by a select panel of industry experts. The 20 years of hard work has paid off and we are looking forward to our continued future growth. It doesn’t happen without a team and I am proud of everyone at Abate, especially my wife Jill who has supported and encouraged me to succeed.”
University Technical College Norfolk is holding an Employer-led Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) event on Thursday 4th April 4-7pm for 13-18 year olds and their parents to educate them on STEM careers and the opportunities available.
If you’re a STEM business and would like to attend please go to their eventbrite page to register your interest. They also have stand places available, if you’d like one please contact UTCN – office@utcn.org.uk
We are delighted to announce that Norfolk Chamber CEO, Chris Sargisson, has been named as one of five judges at the Sync The City Hackathon. He will be joined by Ian Watson – CEO at Start-Rite, Kirsty Jarvis – Founder & CEO at Luminous PR, Wayne Taylor – Chief Technology Officer at Thyngs and Juliana Meyer – CEO & Founder at Supapass.
Chris has been working tirelessly since taking the role of CEO at Norfolk Chamber to offer support to the Tech sector in Norfolk, including hosting our Talking Technology conference back in September.
Sync the City 2017 is a 54 Hour event that brings together budding entrepreneurs with experienced business mentors and technology expertise, during which groups of entrepreneurs, developers, business managers, marketing gurus, graphic artists pitch ideas for new startup companies.
Venue: The Hostry, Norwich Cathedral Dates: 23-25 November 2017
The Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) team at Tudor Lodge Consultants are proud to announce that we are now working with youTalk-Insurance, a news and information website dedicated to the happenings and developments across the insurance and risk management sectors in the UK.
youTalk-Insurance has for many years been providing the UK market as well as the wider world, with unique and thoroughly informative insights into what makes these unique industries tick as well as the latest news.
We were approached by the team at youTalk-Insurance as they have been seeking to update what they do and how they do it. With Google becoming more and more important to businesses right across all sectors, changing focuses to search engines has been a logical destination for youTalk-Insurance.
Why Google for News and Guides?
Although many people associate search engines with only offering up ‘sales’ and ‘products,’ there is an underlying core of information which lies at the very heart of what Google in particular does. Hence, over the last few years, ranking highly on search engines such as Google in cases of websites not explicitly selling something has become very important.
Millions of people in the UK and indeed around the world are turning away from traditional media and news outlets such as newspapers, television broadcasts and radio; the natural place most of these audiences have moved to is online. This is split between social media, such as Facebook and search engines such as Google, where people can pick the outlet whose views and leanings reverberate with them.
Therefore, for news, sites, it is now of paramount importance that when it comes to popular online searches like ‘UK latest news’ or ‘business news UK’ that they are right up there, where they will be found. For youTalk-Insurance this has been no different. The insurance and risk management industries are the same as other key industries, with consumers actively searching for relevant news and content.
What We are Doing for youTalk-Insurance
youTalk-Insurance have a bespoke content management system (CMS) and this has meant that implementing the necessary SEO updates and changes is quicker and more straightforward than it may otherwise be.
Meta Data – As with many news and information-focussed sites, youTalk-Insurance had some meta data (titles and descriptions) that were inadequate; too long, too short and duplicates, which we are working to clean up. This will help the site to be properly indexed by search engines
Backlinks – A crucial factor in SEO, we are ensuring that only clean and reputable sites link to youTalk-Insurance, making it a cleaner and more efficient site for Google to crawl
On Page Work – We are also working to ensure that youTalk-Insurance capitalise on their great content, structuring it all properly and to a satisfactory standard for SEO. This includes how H titles are used and the topics titles of the content
bmi regional is the UK’s most punctual scheduled airline for the ninth consecutive year, independent figures* just released show, placing it ahead of carriers such as British Airways, Ryanair, Flybe and British Airways.
Independent website flightontime.info analyses UK flight punctuality data – which is then used by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) – to assess airlines’ punctuality. The latest figures, for 2013, show that bmi regional achieved an On-Time Performance of over 92 per cent in the previous twelve months, over six per cent greater than BA CityFlyer. This figure also places bmi regional above BA CityFlyer, KLM, CityJet , SAS, Aer Lingus, Flybe and EasyJet. A flight is deemed to be on time if it departs or arrives within 15 minutes of its published schedule.
Cathal O’Connell, CEO of bmi regional, said: “As we continue to develop and expand our network, punctuality is an enduring priority for us. Being named for the ninth consecutive year as the most punctual scheduled airline in the UK is testament to the commitment and hard work of our teams on the ground and in the air who never lose sight of our customers’ needs.”
bmi regional owns and operates an all-jet fleet of 18 Embraer aircraft that serve routes between nine European countries. In 2013 the airline – which became fully independent in June 2012 – expanded its profitable routes, doubled its charter business and launched domestic routes in Scandinavia to serve the oil and gas industry.
All bmi regional flights offer 20kg checked baggage, a full at-seat bar and snack service and 30-minute check-in. In 2013 the airline won the prestigious accolade of Silver Airline of the Year at the European Regions Airline (ERA) Association in Salzburg, Austria.
bmi regional operate daily services to Aberdeen from Norwich International, Please visit www.bmiregional.com for full details.
The waste recycling facility operated by Norse Commercial Services on the outskirts of Norwich has begun a major £8 million redevelopment aimed at increasing capacity and throughput, and expanding the range of materials that can be recycled.
“The expansion will save Norfolk’s councils considerable amounts of revenue as we will be able to handle much more waste and avoid unnecessary landfill,” said Norse Operations Director Dave Newell. “In addition there will be significant environmental benefits in that it will enable us to process waste quicker, and handle new waste streams in the future,” he added.
The expansion will include an extension to the existing building, together with new advanced processing machinery and the latest mobile plant.
This is yet another substantial investment by Norse, aimed at improving waste recycling services within Norfolk,” said Commercial Director Ruth Metcalf. “With pressure on local authorities to increase the amount of waste recycled, this commitment to providing a state-of-the-art facility within the county will mean that Norfolk is at the forefront of addressing environmental concern over sustainable waste management.”
It comes on top of a record year of growth for the company in terms of new business, all of which contributes much needed revenue to Norfolk County Council that will help safeguard vital frontline services,” she added.
Building work has recently started with completion planned for the end of July 2014. Installation of cutting-edge technology equipment and machinery will then be installed and commissioned during August and September.
Norse’s sister company NPS Group are to act as consultants and project manager for the construction of the new facility, with R G Carter carrying out the ground-work and building.
It is with great pleasure that Cozens-Hardy announces the promotion of Claire Nelson from Solicitor to Associate Solicitor.
Claire joined the firm in 2014 as a Trainee Solicitor and qualified into the Private Client team in July 2016. Claire advises on Wills, powers of attorney, trusts and estate administration and inheritance tax planning. She is currently an Affiliate member of STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) and is studying for the Diploma in Trusts and Estates.
Michelle Collins, Partner and head of Cozens-Hardy Private Client department:
“Claire has really come into her own as a private client solicitor since starting with the firm five years ago.She works incredibly hard and is very determined to increase her skill set and knowledge, alongside which she is always keen to participate in the firm’s marketing activities. Her ambition, coupled with technical abilities and highly approachable personality, have been quite rightly reflected in her promotion to the position of Associate in the firm.”
Claire Nelson, Associate Solicitor:
“I’m delighted to have been appointed as an Associate Solicitor. I undertook my training contract with the firm and am shortly coming up to three years’ qualified. It’s brilliant to have received recognition for my hard work to date and I’m looking forward to the next stage of my career with the firm.”
Anyone wondering how EU trade agreements actually work on the ground will find the answers in a new report from the European Commission.
It examines 25 trade agreements currently in force, together with the measures put in place to maximise their benefits and to ensure that the rules agreed are actually respected.
As well as confirming that trade agreements have led to significant increases in exports, and have boosted the EU economy, the report also considers what lessons can be learned and what can be improved when new agreements are being negotiated.
The first assessment of its type, it was welcomed by Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, who said: “The success of EU trade policy is measured not only by striking new trade deals but also by ensuring that our existing agreements actually deliver.”
Arguing that trade agreements have particularly benefitted EU exports, the Commission cites four countries to which the EU has increased sales: Mexico (+416% since 2000); Chile (+170% since 2003); South Korea (+59% since 2011) and Serbia (+62% since 2013).
The report shows that it is often the EU agricultural and motor vehicles’ sectors that benefit the most.
For example, exports of cars to South Korea have increased by 244% since 2011, while an agreement with Colombia and Peru has seen exports of agricultural goods to those countries rise by 92% and 73% respectively since 2013.
There is, however, scope for further growth, and with a lack of awareness having been identified as one of the main reasons why smaller companies do not use free trade agreements, the Commission is promising a digital campaign targeting SMEs.
Report on Implementation of Free Trade Agreements can be found here.
For more information exporting contact us on 01603 729712 or export@norfolkchamber.co.uk