Alex Butler-Zagni has joined Ashton KCJ’s Agriculture & Estates team in Norwich as an Agricultural Solicitor.
Alex joins us from the National Farmers Union (NFU), where he was the East Anglia Policy Adviser for almost seven years. Alex’s role included representing NFU members on all livestock, poultry and dairy related matters within the region.
Alex was called to Bar in 2002 and qualified as a Solicitor in 2010. Prior to the NFU, Alex worked for the Serious Fraud Office, 2 Paper Buildings, Temple and Russell Cooke Solicitors in London, as well as other firms in the Suffolk area.
Alex’s technical knowledge includes EU policy, CAP reform implications, livestock movement and recording rules, and funding opportunities under the Rural Development Programme for England. He also has a particular interest in renewable energy, rural crime, and the better regulation agenda.
Jonathan Long, Head of Agriculture & Estates at Ashton KCJ, comments: “We are delighted to welcome Alex to the team; his wide experience in agriculture in the region complements the work of the team. Alex joins partner Simon Cunningham in our Norwich office. I would like to wish Alex all the very best in his career at Ashton KCJ.”
We think it’s a good thing for live events and exhibitions
We can all agree that there’s been an awful lot of negativity surrounding GDPR. Certainly businesses need to get their houses in order from a personal data perspective before 25th May. In fact this seems to be the subject of every other email I’ve received over the past few months. You’ll be pleased to hear that this article isn’t intended to scare you to death and then offer to help you carry out an audit, cleanse your data and help you structure a re-engagement email campaign to ask existing contacts to opt in or double opt in to continue to receive your emails. I would hope by now you would have at least considered or preferably already put procedures in place so you comply with GDPR by 25 May.
In my opinion more rigid, far reaching regulations are well overdue to help protect our personal and business data, anything that reduces the amount of unwanted emails and phone calls I get gets my vote. However these new data protection regulations have left many companies and marketers very concerned about how they will reach their customers and potential customers after 25 May. The truth is that data-based emailing and calling campaigns have already become largely ineffective. We need now to be “magnetic marketers” as our potential audience has taken control of the process seeking out the solutions and products they require rather than being sold to. Subsequently our websites need to be more effective in providing advice, comment and content using blogs, news, articles and video to present products, solutions and communicate to build trust and a rapport. A return then to more traditional business values and level of personal contact that perhaps during this largely digital age we’ve grown unaccustomed to… or have we?
Well while you’ve been busy driving your keyboard and glued to your monitor pursuing an email quest you may not have noticed that face to face meetings such as breakfast meetings, seminar’s, conferences and exhibitions have become much more popular again. In fact many of the industry specific exhibitions we provide client’s stands at have waiting lists or rigid application procedures where stand space is in short supply, allocated on a first come, first served basis. We see GDPR helping to reinforce and grow this trend, proving a real positive in the wake of all the negativity. Face to face marketing, exhibitions and live events have never gone away and are today a stronger new business and marketing tool than ever before.
Abate Pest Management has been awarded the Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme (CHAS) accreditation for the 4th year running.
The accreditation means that the eastern regional Pest Control company, now in its 19th year of operation, can reassure clients about their commitment to comply with important health and safety legislation.
Working with pest control companies that are accredited with CHAS, offers peace of mind to customers that they are fully compliant with the highest levels of health and safety.
Jon Blake, Managing Director, said: “CHAS is an established industry benchmark, and the renewal of our accreditation means it’s easier for over 1,000 companies to use us. We have several clients that only work with CHAS approved contractors. These companies use CHAS, as it supports ongoing improvements in the control and selection of its contractors, helping them achieve Health and Safety compliance. It also demonstrates responsibility and safeguard their reputation.”
In addition to Chas, Abate Pest Management are accredited with SafeContractor, ISO9001, ISO 18001 and ISO14001. They are also a full servicing member of the British Pest Control Association.
CHAS (The Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme) was created by experienced health and safety professionals in 1997 to improve health and safety standards across the UK.
engaging people matters gives an overview of some of the work of The Engaging People Company, as well as thoughts on engagement, communications, wellbeing, facilitation, and writing. For more information about any of the articles, please get in touch.
Norwich Business School at UEA has recently aligned its Executive MBA to the new Level 7 Senior Leader Master’s Degree Apprenticeship standard. This means that employers will be able to access funding for this course if they are paying the apprenticeship levy.
The programme is aimed at those in senior leadership positions who wish to enhance and develop their leadership skills and also those in middle management roles who aspire to continue to progress through their organisation.
As a member of the Norwich Financial Industry Group (FIG), the School is currently exploring interest in developing a Senior Leader Master’s Degree Apprenticeship specifically for financial and related professional services. This would enable participants to complete the Executive MBA but with some sector-specific elements.
An open evening will be held at the Marsh offices in Norwich on Thursday 26 April and is open to HR professionals (with responsibility for identifying potential leaders within your organisation), finance managers and prospective candidates. The evening will be an informal chance to learn more about the programme and ask any questions you may have.
To register a place – or find about more about the MBA programme and degree apprenticeships – email mbateam@uea.ac.uk or call 01603 591753.
Norwich International is delighted to announce that commencing from 4th April; tour operator OSKA-TRAVEL, a member of KENBA Group International will be operating 7 night escorted tours around the Turkish Riviera every Thursday in April.
The luxury break includes guided tours to Antalya, Kemer, Pamukkale, Tava & Perga, overnight accommodation in luxury 4 & 5 star hotels and a buffet breakfast with prices ranging from £249 up to £299 depending on dates. Passengers can have full confidence in their booking as the whole charter is ATOL protected.
Andreas F Forsthuber, Director KENBA Group said “We are really excited to add a regional airport such as Norwich to our portfolio. At KENBA Group we have handled more than 60,000 passengers from 6 different countries in 2012. This high passenger volume together with the support we have experienced from the Turkish tourism industry gives us the opportunity to make low budget trips of a high standard available to the people of East Anglia and to give them more choice from their local airport. We are sure that the region will love this tour. It might well be their first – but it will definitely not be their last trip”.
Andrew Bell, CEO at Norwich International commented “We are delighted that OSKA-TRAVEL have selected to operate their low cost luxury charter breaks from Norwich this April and we are certain this popular destination will prove a hit with our customers. This development further demonstrates the strength of the growth in charter flights from Norwich International this year – our customers now have over twenty direct sun and city destinations to choose from with some of the leading tour operators and airlines”
Mine Aslan, Commercial Director CORENDON Airlines “We look forward to the cooperation with NWI Airport as only with their substantial support are we able to offer this kind of low budget charter services and we hope, that we will have the opportunity to add more flights at a later stage”.
Staff from Flagship Group will be donning their high vis jackets from next week (Tuesday 24 April) for seven weeks for their first ever Community Campaign. The project will see Flagship employees, Flagship customers, and members of the public come together to regenerate two cemetery sites on Kitchener Road in Great Yarmouth.
Working in partnership with The Conservation Volunteers, as well as the Norfolk Community Foundation and The Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust, volunteers will take part in activities every Tuesday afternoon (1pm-4pm) to boost the biodiversity of the green space and improve their own wellbeing.
The activities volunteers will be involved in include: the removal of ivy and bracken, restoring graves and conservation work such as identifying wildflower species.
CSR Manager at Flagship Group Callum James said: “Volunteering is a great way to improve your wellbeing as it’s creating new experiences and skills. It will also create a sense of value and pride for those taking part as they’re making a positive difference by enhancing the local area. We therefore hope lots of people will come along to make the project a success.”
Mark Webster from The Conservation Volunteers said: “The Old and New Cemeteries are a fascinating place to work – right in the centre of Great Yarmouth we have some wonderful wildlife and extraordinary history. I’m sure that people who join us for this project will really enjoy conserving their local heritage.”
The project is open to anyone aged 18 years and over. Sturdy shoes will need to be worn.
For anyone interested in taking part please contact Callum James on 0845 258 6210 or callum.james@flagship-group.co.uk
This project is a continuation of the award-winning regeneration work to cemeteries undertaken by Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust and The Friends of the Cemeteries Group.
Come and enjoy our Street Food Sundays! We will be launching
this exciting new menu on Sunday 15th June for Father’s Day.
To celebrate Father’s Day, we will be offering Street Food
and an Ale Flight (which includes 3 of our favourite ales from the Maids Head
Bar). To make Dads Day extra special book a complimentary spin in one of our
Vintage Bentleys!
AFI KLM E&M subsidiary is delighted to announce the signing of a line maintenance agreement with SAS.
KLM UK Engineering will be supporting SAS with their Boeing 737 & Airbus A320 Family aircraft providing line maintenance support in Edinburgh & Aberdeen commencing early 2018. Ian Bartholomew, Director Business Development & Sales – “We will be supporting SAS with both the Boeing & A320 aircraft at our established line maintenance stations in Edinburgh & Aberdeen. We are delighted to support SAS at these line stations and look forward to developing the relationship further over the coming years“.
All of the team here at Tudor Lodge Consultants are thrilled to announce that we are working with world-renowned hairdressers and stylists, Charles Worthington Salons. Based in Fitzrovia, Broadgate and Covent Garden, Charles Worthington have been at the forefront of hairdressing and hair fashion trends for many decades. Regularly styling celebrities and red carpet stars means that their online traffic, reputation and business is extremely important.
Working with a brand of the ilk of Charles Worthington is as exciting as it is challenging and by their very nature and due to the sheer size of the brand, there have been a few unique opportunities and occurrences which we have worked with to achieve already great success.
Starting the Journey Together
Upon beginning our work with the team at Charles Worthington, we knew we were working with an industry powerhouse. This meant from the outset that not only did they have a brand that is extremely well-known, but their online PR is continuously strong and positive, something very beneficial for search engine optimisation (SEO) as well as general online presence and reputation as a whole.
Their website however, was suffering from a lack of various SEO factors which meant that even for local search terms, they were simply not appearing anywhere near the top positions they have previously been targeting. Furthermore, they had little data on previous periods of time for the website meaning they had little idea about users and from where their traffic had come and how.
Working with their marketing and development teams, we analysed a range of data for the website including Google Analytics and a number of other sources to form a picture of where the brand is at and what it needs to properly engage users. We also worked (and continue to work) to improve various SEO factors and best practices across their website.
Our Work with Charles Worthington
Undertaking this exciting project with one of the best-known hairdressers and stylists in the UK, we have undertaken numerous improvements which have already been applied to the website including:
Meta Data – Improving and optimising the meta titles and descriptions for the Charles Worthington has meant that Google and other search engines are able to crawl [read and understand] the subject matter of the website and specific pages’ offerings much better
Website Speed – Improvements to the speed of the website means that users are able to engage and interact with the website in a much more user-friendly way, leading to increased engagements and contacts for the company. This has also greatly helped with increasing mobile users who traditionally have even less time than others
Errors and Fixes – We are continuously working to fix broken links and crawl errors across the site meaning that the user journey upon reaching the website is sharper, streamlined and cleaner. This means that there are no ‘dead-ends’ with regards to dysfunctional links and errors that may otherwise be detrimental to the running and therefore rankings of the site as a whole
Charles Worthington have already enjoyed a range of successes including reaching page 1 for numerous target terms including ‘hairdressers in Fitzrovia’ and ‘hairdressers in Covent Garden’ amongst many others. Further building on their currently achieved progress, we look forward to continuing these successes and many more with the great team at Charles Worthington.
M+A’s Managing Partner Jeremy Robson is be joined by GDPR expert Alex Saunders, Solicitor at Leathes Prior Solicitors. Together they respond to questions relating to GDPR. Jeremy and Alex debunk the myths surrounding GDPR legislation.
Holkham Studios will be the venue for the next Coffee Means Business networking event on Tuesday 15th May, organised by GENIX, the business support specialists. Leanne Castle of GENIX said, “We’re pleased to have been invited to host Coffee Means Business at Holkham Studios during May. As well as the opportunity to network over coffee in a lovely environment there will be a tour of international jewellery business, Monica Vinader Ltd, along with the opportunity to view the award winning serviced offices available at Holkham.” “We always receive very positive comments on the friendliness and easy format of the mornings as they’re the ideal place to make new business connections.” James Bracey, General Manager – Land and Property at Holkham, commented, “Making new contacts and gaining recommendations are an important part of building a business and networking is a great way of achieving this. I’m looking forward to showing delegates our purpose built, serviced office spaces, with fantastic broadband too.” North Norfolk District Council commissioned GENIX in 2016 to organise and host Coffee Means Business in the North Norfolk area. They could see a need for a regular networking opportunity for businesses which didn’t involve expensive membership fees. For more details regarding Coffee Means Business go to www.genix.org.uk or call 0800 096 3013.