Leading research company Ipsos MORI has taken a journey into the minds of the region’s business leaders to discover their concerns and strategies for growth. The research, commissioned by Price Bailey, also reveals how business leaders feel about EU membership and international trade, uncovers their perceptions of leadership and explores the challenges of maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
MORI and Price Bailey will be presenting the full results of the research at Dunston Hall on Tuesday, 26th April at 5:30pm
They will be joined by an expert panel of business professionals including James Sproule of the Institute of Directors; Tim Pike, Deputy Agent for South East and East Anglia at the Bank of England; and Maxine Dolan, formerly Group Leadership Development Director at Tesco who will offer valuable insight into the findings from this bespoke, real-time research and provide their expert opinion on the economic landscape for the region.
The event will also provide a valuable opportunity to network with other regional business leaders.
Greater Anglia has completed work at North Walsham rail station to install environmentally friendly lighting.
The existing lighting at North Walsham has been replaced by more energy efficient LED lights which will provide the same level of light but consume far less energy in the process, as part of a carbon reduction scheme.
The work, which represents an investment of £8,000, is the second phase of a £50,000 investment by Norfolk County Council which has already seen voltage regulators installed at nine stations along the Norwich – Cromer / Sheringham Bittern Line railway line, which has reduced energy consumption at stations by between 8% and 20% (depending on the station) along the route.
New Customer Information Screens have also been installed at North Walsham for more energy efficient ones as the final phase of the scheme.
Both the lighting and enhanced Customer Information Screens emerged as priorities from the North Walsham Station Travel Plan which was drawn up in consultation with passengers and stakeholders.
Chris Wood, of Community Rail Norfolk, said, “The railway is already the most energy efficient form of motorised transport and the work at North Walsham station helps to extend this advantage. Taking the train instead of the car is a sure way of reducing your carbon footprint.”
At a recent West Norfolk Chamber Council meeting, a lively discussion was held on topics ranging from broadband and the regeneration of the town centre, to increasing Chamber engagement with the local business community.
The members agreed that more effort should be made to highlight the positive aspects of doing business in West Norfolk and discussed how to ensure the West Norfolk business voice is heard. They decided on a dialogue exercise with Chamber members based in West Norfolk. The Chamber Council will take a cross-section of West Norfolk Chamber members and hold one-to-one conversations with them as to what their main issues are, how the Chamber can engage further with these members, and what we can all do to create economic prosperity in West Norfolk.
Heather Garrod, President of West Norfolk Chamber Council said “it is important that the business community plays an active part in helping to promote economic growth in West Norfolk. Engaging on a one-to-one basis with local businesses will contribute towards the ‘voice of West Norfolk business’ being heard at a local, regional and national level.”
The West Norfolk Chamber Council members also highlighted that improved broadband in West Norfolk is an essential tool to promote economic growth and will help level the playing field for SMEs. Currently, the larger organisations can afford to install fibre-optic cables to their business premises however, for smaller organisations this cost prohibitive. Over the next 12 to 18 months BT will be improving access to broadband and are currently rolling out fibre-optic cabling in Clenchwarton and West Lynn. West Norfolk Chamber Council members are keen to see that businesses throughout West Norfolk benefit from the anticipated broadband improvements.
The King’s Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council’s Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) was debated. This initiative involves the regeneration of the town by linking the retail core with the historic town centre. This regeneration will be fundamental in improving what King’s Lynn has to offer and will help attract both tourism and business to the area and the West Norfolk Chamber Council is in full support of this project.
If you are a West Norfolk Chamber member and want to be involved in the dialogue exercise, please contact Nova Fairbank on Tel: 01603 729713 or Email: nova.fairbank@norfolkchamber.co.uk.
Frustrated by not enough hours in your day? Annoyed that you don’t get everything done on time? Over committed? Drowning in email? Procrastinating when you don’t want to? Not making progress on the really important projects at home or at work?
Ermine has stepped in to replace the speaker who cancelled. This hands on session will help you work out how to take control of your time management hell. If you were at Ermine’s sold out session at NorDevCon, come for a top up and be ready to make a plan to succeed this spring.
If you didn’t go to NorDevCon, then you may have heard Ermine got rave reviews. You’ll be provoked into thinking about where time goes and some practical steps to take to get back into control and improve your results.
Ermine’s no nonsense approach makes this session suitable for everyone – from founders and CEOs to new hires. Her good humour and deep understanding of how the human psyche plays games means you’ll have fun too.
The East of England was the most represented UK region at last month’s Offshore Wind Energy event in Paris.
Those businesses now have the opportunity to capitalise on this success and follow up the leads and contacts made in Paris by attending THETIS. This is an international convention on Marine Renewable Energies that will take place in Brest, Brittany from 10 – 11 April 2013. (www.thetis-emr.com/uk).
Many of the French companies, who attended in Paris and had expressed a strong interest in partnering with UK, have already registered for THETIS, so this is an excellent opportunity to consolidate any gains, or simply to meet those companies that you did not quite manage to meet in Paris.
UKTI are subsidising a UK pavillion at THETIS and companies that are among the first to commit to THETIS will be able to have their own area to hang posters, put up pop up banners and run presentations/videos on laptops, as well being able to access a “meeting area” and set up one-to-one meetings within the UK pavilion.
Participation is via the OMIS programme @ £585 plus VAT per company, which is considerably less than it would cost independently for up to two delegates, including their entrance fee, two days exhibiting at the event, UKTI support and up to 20 one-to-one meetings during the event.
East of England businesses can register their interest in THETIS, by sending an email to the following email address: a.highet@uktieast.org.uk which will gain them access to the support provided by UKTI in the East of England.
Space in the UKTI pavilion will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis and will depend on a combination of when you send your email and when you agree formally to the OMIS.
For more details of THETIS, please see the attached document.
Ian Massingham of AWS returns to Norfolk Developers to give his cancelled NorDevCon 2016 session. Building Serverless Applications with AWS Ian Massingham (@IanMmmm)
It is important that you spend as much time as possible on what differentiates the application or service that you are building. Managing infrastructure can detract from this goal. Attend this session and learn how you can let AWS do the undifferentiated heavy lifting for you whilst you focus on building a robust, scalable and highly available applications and services by utilising AWS services such as AWS Lambda, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon S3 and more. Forget about infrastructure and focus on your code and the outcomes that you want to achieve.
Ian Massingham
Ian Massingham is a Technical Evangelist at Amazon Web Services and has been working with cloud computing technologies since 2008. In his role he works to increase the awareness of AWS cloud services and works with customers of all sizes, from start-ups to large enterprises, to help them benefit from the adoption of AWS.
Ian has more than 15 years’ experience in the IT industry, covering operations and engineering within hosting and cloud service providers.
Hackathon 101 – Lessons Learnt Tom Morgan (@tomorgan)
If you’ve never been to a hackathon before, the concept can be daunting. A deadly combination of technical snobbery and social awkwardness? Who wants to spend their free time doing that?! I’ve finally confronted my worst fears and attended my first hackathon – and it was not at all what I expected. Now, I’d like to dispel what I believe are commonly-held myths by those who have never been, as well as dispense some advice to first-time attendees. I’ll keep it light and (hopefully) entertaining, and will cover what I think our team did well, what we could have done better, who we should have listened to, and what was completely different to what I expected.
Tom Morgan
I’m a Skype for Business MVP, working for Modality Systems, a software development company in Norwich. In March, I took part in the Hacking Health hackathon together with a team of other devs and QA from Modality, plus some pharmacy students and business experts we meet at at the event. Our solution (MediPhone) won the People’s Choice award.
The European Commission has announced that it is planning to hold a major trade conference later this year.
EU Trade Policy Day will take place in Brussels on 27 November 2018 under the banner title of In Defence of Fair and Open Trade – Rising to the Challenges, Tackling the Threats.
While new technologies promise to transform trade, the Commission notes, the post-1945 multilateral trading system is being questioned as never before: protectionism is raising its head and the benefits of open trade are increasingly being called into question.
Setting out the details of the proposed conference (available at trade.ec.europa.eu), the Commission highlights that already this year the EU has agreed an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Japan and its trade deal with Canada (CETA) became operational.
It has also reached a political agreement with Mexico on a modernised trade agreement while continuing to make progress on its negotiations with the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay).
In June, it also launched negotiations for trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand.
“Despite these and previous trade successes,” the Commission said, “the challenges continue to grow and the threats to the open-trading system to multiply. Policy makers and citizens ask themselves many questions, and seek answers and reassurances about the benefits of trade to all.”
Speakers at the conference will include EU Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström and the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Roberto Azevêdo.
During the UK’s heatwave 30 delegates joined us at Chambers Cocktail Company for an informal evening of networking. Based in the heart of Norwich, along Wensum Street, Chambers Cocktail Company opened its doors back in March with beautifully-crafted cocktails, including old favourites and a few flavours unique to them. As delegates arrived for the evening we collected a fresh order of pizza from Brick Pizza, located next to Norwich Market. Brick has built up a reputation in Norwich for their delicious menu with most of their toppings coming from Norfolk suppliers. Following some networking over pizza, our mocktail group were up to the bar first to learn how to make a non-alcoholic cocktail, using a secret ingredient known only by Chambers Cocktail Company. The mocktail group was then followed by smaller groups making the alcoholic cocktails. Matt Saunders was our expert barman for the evening, showing delegates first how to make the drink, then helping them to make their own. Our next evening networking event is Look the Business – an evening of fashion, beauty and networking! Find out more.
Conference at the King’s Centre, Norwich on Friday 13th May
Norfolk has one of the oldest population profiles in the UK. This conference explores the economic opportunities presented by the ‘silver pound’, and aims to inspire local businesses and entrepreneurs to take advantage of this growing market with innovative products, services and collaborative ventures.
The event is FREE to attend and includes refreshments and a light lunch. Please note there will a £25 charge if you sign up but don’t attend.
Speakers include:
George Freeman MP, Minister for Life Sciences, a passionate advocate of the importance of technology in caring for older people.
Haidee Bell, Head of Design Programmes, Design Council, discussing their Design Challenges which have stimulated innovative design for older people, and have led to projects to support entrepreneurs to bring their designs to market.
Jackie Eveleigh, from the East of England European Partnership, will present the EU policy picture and discuss the EU funding potential around the Silver Economy.
Entrepreneurs at different stages of developing new products and services aimed at older people share their stories and experiences.
There will be a group discussion on potential business opportunities, and we hope to develop an ongoing network of collaborating businesses.
The Conference is helping to deliver the Norfolk Rural Development Strategy, which identified the ageing population in Norfolk as an important economic opportunity to drive rural growth.
Anglia Tonight presenter Emma Baker will be opening the Norfolk Chamber’s B2B Autumn 2012 free to attend business exhibition on 18 October then judging the exhibition stands. She will be joined during the day by Formula One and 2012 Olympic Games presenter Jake Humphrey and Norwich City Football Chief Executive David McNally who are lending their support to this important event.
Emma Baker is an experienced broadcast journalist. She got her first taste of the industry, working for The Independent and the BBC in Paris. She went on to secure sponsorship from ITV to study a Broadcast Journalism postgraduate degree at City University, later working at ITV London, and then ITV Anglia. She’s covered a range of stories both for ITV national news and regional news, including the 7/7 London bombings, the Suffolk murders, and the Olympic torch relay.
She has been nominated for a number of television journalism awards and most recently won an award for ITV News Group Feature of the Year. She is currently presenting Anglia Tonight on weekday evenings.
Emma said: “I’m very much looking forward to hosting this year’s Norfolk Autumn B2B exhibition. It’ll be great to see the wide range of innovation and business expertise that I know Norfolk has to offer.” Emma will open the event at 10.00am.
B2B Autumn 2012 will be held at Norwich city football Club on 18 October between 10am and 5pm. For more information or to book a stand, go here
Our engagement groups represent local businesses in the community, to connect, support, and give voice to every business in Norfolk.
As well as having the opportunity to discuss key topics, you’ll also be able to network with fellow businesses.
Our aim is to have groups in many cities, towns, market towns, and villages across Norfolk, to connect, support, and give voice to every business in Norfolk. These groups are accessible to all businesses, whether you are a Chambers member or a non-member.
These groups will provide you with a platform to debate issues that are most important to you, and your business and the Chamber network will lobby and influence on your behalf, using our dedicated team, our website, social media channels, and our digital platform.
Your feedback will be used by our team and the Chamber’s Board to help shape the strategic direction of Norfolk Chambers to ensure we can truly be the voice of Norfolk businesses.
Whether the local challenge is skills, road, rail, digital infrastructure, recruitment, or the rising costs of doing business, we want to hear from you.