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Tito Clark, a business management degree student at City College Norwich, has launched a new branding agency with a distinctive mission: to help launch the professional careers of design students and recent graduates.

Mr Clark set up his Brand 21 agency after learning from friends that graphic design graduates were often finding it hard to break into the industry for which they have trained.

The agency employs talented young graphic designers on a freelance basis, providing graphic design for everything from company logos, to business cards, flyers, T-shirts, menus and other printed materials. Brand 21 also offers branding services, web design and marketing consultancy.

As well as looking to make Brand 21 successful as a business, Mr Clark says that there is a strong element of social enterprise running through his company:

“From talking to my graphic design friends I could see that there was an issue of students and recent graduate designers needing experience and projects to show on their CV. The idea of setting up a businesses that could really help with that appealed to me.”

The journey to setting up Brand 21 originated during the first year of Mr Clark’s BA (hons) Business Management degree course, in which students had to complete a project related to starting up a new business.

This inspired Mr Clark to go further and during the summer holidays he began working on setting up his own business for real. The 20 year old from Norwich recalls: “I just really enjoyed the process of starting up a new business” and Brand 21 quickly took shape.

Mr Clark, who is now in the second year of his degree, has gone on to devote a lot of time and energy outside of his studies to developing the business. To date Brand 21 has secured work for three current design students and two graduates, undertaken for a wide variety of clients.

Mr Clark has developed Brand 21 with support from the StartUp Lounge at City College Norwich, which provides advice and support to students wishing to set up their own businesses as well as opportunities to network and learn from local businesspeople.

Tito Clark, Managing Director, Brand 21, commented: “I am really enjoying the process of starting a business and seeing it grow. Brand 21’s designers are highly motivated to establish their reputations and build up their portfolios, so we are able to offer clients an excellent and very competitive service. The aim now is to grow our client base and in the process support our designers to progress in their careers.”

For more information about Brand 21 visit https://www.brand21agency.co.uk/ or email enquiries@brand21agency.co.uk

One of the goals for Naked Element in 2016 is to make more of their Norfolk Chamber of Commerce membership. We’re doing well so far, it’s early February and we’ve already attended our second event. Both events have yielded interesting new contacts with plenty of potential for both Naked Element and Norfolk Developers.

The venue for this year’s annual Norfolk Chamber MPs event was a marquee in the grounds of the Marriott hotel. Following an introduction by chamber CEO Caroline Williams, Emma Hutchinson, Political Correspondent at ITV Anglia, took over introducing the MPs and chairing the event. The format was differing groups of MPs discussing issues such as linking Norfolk nationally and globally, economic growth and young people and skills. After the discussions, led by Emma, questions were invited from the audience.

The questions and discussions were wide ranging and incorporated the state ofthe A47 (described as a third world road as you leave Great Yarmouth), rural broadband, lack of housing, spending while interest rates are low and, as you would expect, the potential Europe exit. I was also interested to learn that offshore wind is a growing industry in North Norfolk and that the NHS still sends and receives a lot of faxes.

Much to my surprise I was very impressed with the light-hearted approach and attitude of the MPs and the number of questions which actually got straight answers. There was plenty of conviction and not much sitting on the fence.

My overall impression was that it was an exceptionally good event and I’ll be back next year. Hopefully it won’t be a Friday afternoon and Clive Lewis will be available too.

The OPEN Youth Trust (OPEN) on Bank Plain is pleased to announce thatMark Jeffries has become its fourth patron, joining The Rt. Rev Graham James, Bishop of Norwich, Richard Jewson, Lord-Lieutenant of Norfolk and Chief Constable Simon Bailey. Mark was the Senior Partner of national law firm Mills & Reeve until last year but remains a consultant whilst also holding non-executive board roles at the Department of Education, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals, R G Carter and NW Brown.

Talking of his appointment as patron Mark Jeffries said: “OPEN plays a vital role in providing facilities and delivering services for young people in Norfolk. I am delighted to be able to support the energetic team there who are working so hard to deliver the benefits of education, industry and commerce working together. There is enormous potential for the future.”

John Gordon-Saker, Chief Executive of OPEN said: “Every penny of profit generated through conference and event hire goes directly to the benefit of vulnerable and disadvantaged young people. Mark is widely respected in the business, education and health sectors and can help tell our compelling story to organisations that might be looking for socially responsible opportunities in the local community. I am thrilled that he so readily agreed to be a patron.”

M+A Partners Georgina Lemmon has been studying for her ACCA qualification since September 2014 and in her Corporate Reporting exam taken last December she beat over 16,700 other trainees worldwide who took the same exam. This was Georgina’s seventh exam out of eleven and she has been in the top 2% for the previous six.

Georgina said “I am so pleased to be the global prize winner for P2 from the December 2015 sitting. I had been warned before starting my ACCA exams that P2 was going to be a tough paper, therefore I am delighted to have done so well. It is very motivational to face such a challenge and in turn be rewarded for all the hard work you put in. This achievement has made me feel very proud, as there are so many talented minds around the world taking the ACCA journey. I really appreciate the support M+A Partners has provided me during my studies. Without their help I would not be able to perform at my best and I would like to say thank you for helping me to learn and progress in my career”

M+A Partners Managing Partner Jeremy Robson said “We are extremely proud of Georgina for her accomplishment. We endeavour to support our staff in any way we can to allow them to grow whilst they are with us. Georgina is one of many staff achieving great things and we wish her and all our other trainees continued success with their exams”.

Georgina will receive a cash prize from the ACCA and M+A Partners has matched this prize.

KLM UK Engineering & KLM Cityhopper jointly present an ex-Fokker 70 Rolls Royce Tay620 aircraft engine to University Technical College Norfolk. The engine will remain on display during 2016 for students and teachers to promote aviation and inspire students to lead the way to careers in aviation industry.

KLM UK Engineering Limited (KLMUKE) & KLM Cityhopper (KLC) are delighted to be presenting University Technical College (UTC) Norfolk with a rebuilt ex-Fokker 70 Rolls Royce Tay620 Engine, which will be displayed in the facility’s auditorium. The engine flew 26 years of revenue service at different airlines, and since 1996 operated for KLM Cityhopper (formerly Air-UK / KLM-UK).

The 2.4m-long engine, which has a dry weight of 3,310 lb (1,501 Kg) was received in a disassembled status from KLC and rebuilt by hand at KLMUKE by two engineering technicians over the last couple of months. UTC Norfolk has a broad engineering focus and is the perfect place to host this engine to build a bridge between students and real-life technology. The next host for the engine will be the International Aviation Academy in Norwich, which will receive the engine early 2017 when the new facility is commissioned.

Arjan Meijer, Managing Director, KLM UK Engineering – ‘Our Company is strongly dedicated to promoting aviation careers within the region, not only because working in aviation is motivating, challenging and fun, but also because we strongly need local skills and knowledge from the region to support our company in the future. This Rolls Royce engine will bring students at University Technical College Norfolk as close as possible to some of the prime technology behind flying aircraft and will help them take the right decisions for their future careers’.

Stefan Vermeeren, Fleet Manager Fokker 70 at KLM Cityhopper – ‘This Rolls Royce Tay engine played an important role for the 2.1 million passengers it carried. It connected them to their families, loved ones, holidays, careers and many other events. Driven by technology, engineering and maintained by professionals, this now continues at UTC Norfolk, made possible by KLMUKE and I hope it will inspire many students for years to come’.

Alex Hayes, Principal UTC Norfolk – ‘We are thrilled to receive this engine on loan from KLM UK Engineering and KLM Cityhopper. I am sure that it will inspire many young people to find out more about the fascinating world of aviation engineering. Indeed, I hope that many of our students will follow in the engine’s path as it makes the journey, next year,to its permanent home at thenew Aviation Academy’.

Potential students will be able to see the engine on display at UTC Norfolk for the next few months and will be in place for the Open Morning that is taking place on Saturday 6th February 2016 (10am-1pm).

Over 100 business leaders from across East Anglia took part in the Best Employers Eastern Region employee engagement seminar on Thursday 28 January, which also raised over £2,000 for two local charities.

The event was arranged as part of the ongoing Best Employers Eastern Region initiative, organised by professional recruitment specialists Pure Resourcing Solutions (Pure) along with people development and psychometrics experts eras ltd. It attracted high profile guest speakers including Sharron Pommells, head of operations at Virgin Management, who discussed the productivity benefits of making your employees feel as important as your clients.

Participants also heard from Cathy Brown, part of the national employee engagement group ‘Engage for Success’, who discussed the business costs of not having engaged staff. Local guest speaker Steve Turpie, business transformation expert and founder of ASD1 Limited in Bury St Edmunds, covered techniques on building a deeper connection between employees and their company.

Lynn Walters, director at Pure, said: “Having 114 business people in a room, all brought together by the common goal of improving employee engagement in their organisations, resulted in a fantastic atmosphere. We originally founded the Best Employers initiative to help strengthen the region’s economy by supporting local businesses to attract, develop and retain more talented people. It’s grown immensely over the last four years. Now it looks set to develop even further, as around two-thirds of the people who took part in this latest seminar were all new to the initiative.”

The event also marked the launch of the next Best Employers Eastern Region employee survey, which is provided free of charge to local businesses every two years as part of the initiative. The surveys allows employers to gain insight as to how their employees perceive their organisations culture, learning and development, values, leadership style and communication.

Margaret Burnside, Director of People Development at eras Ltd, added: “A lot of common themes came out of the seminar. These included the importance of understanding the changing needs of employees and establishing what really motivates people as individuals. The Best Employers survey is a great way for businesses to help capture data around this. At the event, Sharron described the results of the Virgin staff surveys as being ‘as important as balance sheets’ when it comes to gathering information on employee engagement. We feel the same, which is why we provide local businesses with the tools to gather the same type of information. A similar online employee survey would typically cost an organisation in the region of £2k, but if businesses implement it as part of the Best Employers initiative we provide it completely free of charge.”

The seminar was also free for people to attend, but the organisers did ask participants to make a donation to their two chosen charities, raising £2,000 for St Helena Hospice in Colchester and Brightstars in Bury St Edmunds. The share of the money raised will have a significant impact on Brightstars in particular. This newly formed charity, set up by guest speaker Steve Turpie and his wife Paula, supports disabled children and young people through a Saturday club in Bury St Edmunds. This additional funding will cover the cost of bringing in another team member for a full year, opening up four more spaces for children to attend.

Businesses can still register to take part in the Best Employers Eastern Region 2016 survey which opens in April. Participants will also automatically entered into a series of awards which will be presented later this year to celebrate the region’s Best Employers across Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex. For more information visithttps://www.prs.uk.com/about-us/best-employers-initiativeor email Lucy Plumb onBestemployers@prs.uk.com

Digital Marketing Agency, Bigfork, have redesigned the website for the Property Investor Partnership who help their clients generate income through investing in UK property. The website is designed to be more appealing, easier to use and encourage visitors to Register to see what UK properties are available to purchase.

The website was optimised for search engines and also includes an easy to use content management system so that the website can be easily updated inhouse. The new site has already seen an increase in new registrations and further online marketing is planned to increase enquiries.

The new website is at www.propertyip.net

Bigfork – we make websites stand out T:01603 513080www.bigfork.co.uk

Flybe launches new flights from Norwich to Exeter

Flybe has today confirmed the launch of new direct flights from Norwich Airport to Exeter Airport in Devon, saving hours on the equivalent journey by road or rail.

The new flights will operate six days a week from 24 March with one-way fares starting from just £17.49, available at www.flybe.com

The new route is being supported by the Government’s Regional Air Connectivity Fund. This supports routes that might not initially be commercially viable, giving airlines time to build passenger numbers and deliver more sustainable services.

Richard Pace, General Manager at Norwich Airport, said: “Today’s announcement is further good news for Norwich Airport and we think this route will be popular with business and leisure passengers because the equivalent journey by road or rail takes five to six hours. The fact that the Government is supporting the new service with its Regional Air Connectivity Fund is further recognition of Norwich Airport’s role as a key economic driver in our region.

“We are also looking forward to the start in March of new flights to Alicante and Malaga through our partnership with Flybe. These year-round services mark the first time in almost a decade that Norwich has offered scheduled sunshine flights to Spain.”

Norwich Airport announced last October that airport owners Regional & City Airports, the airport division of Rigby Group, had entered a partnership agreement with Flybe to introduce new sunshine flights using one of Flybe’s E195 118-seater jet aircraft. Flybe will also launch a new service from Norwich to Geneva later this year.

Regional & City Airports owns Exeter Airport, Norwich Airport and Coventry Airport.

Copy ends

Notes to Editors

The timetable for the new flights to Exeter is as follows:

Monday – Friday

Sunday

Depart

Arrive

Depart

Arrive

Norwich to Exeter

15:20

16:40

12:20

13:40

Exeter to Norwich

12:05

13:15

10:45

11:55

About Norwich Airport

Norwich International Airport is part of Regional & City Airports, the airport management division of Rigby Group plc having been acquired in June 2014.

The Airport offers direct scheduled flights to Amsterdam (with connections to over 600 destinations worldwide), Aberdeen, Alicante, Edinburgh, Exeter, Guernsey, Jersey, Malaga and Manchester. Connections through Manchester enable passengers to reach Belfast, Glasgow, Isle of Man, Inverness and many more.

Holiday flights operate to the Balearic and Canary Islands, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and Italy.

The scheduled airlines and charter operators currently active from the Airport are:

KLM, Eastern Airways, bmi regional, Flybe and Loganair Thomson, Thomas Cook, Balkan Holidays, Newmarket Holidays and Omega Holidays

The airport is a key hub for the southern North Sea offshore oil and gas industry. Four major offshore helicopter operators are based at the airport. These are Bristow, Bond CHC and NHV. Last year over 100,000 passengers travelled offshore from the Airport.

About Rigby Group plc

Formed in 1975, Rigby Group is the parent company for a portfolio of privately owned and highly successful businesses operating across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Rigby Group has diversified from its origins as a principally technology-led business and evolved – through smart, strategic acquisitions – into a £1.8 billion business with interests in the technology, airports, hotels, real estate, financial and aviation sectors. Rigby Group businesses include Europe’s largest independent technology provider SCC, British International Helicopters, the Eden Hotel Group, international property developers Rigby and Rigby and Regional & City Airports.

With two generations of the Rigby family at the helm, Rigby Group has built a distinguished reputation as both an investor and business operator; renowned for its independent thinking, seamless execution and a peerless approach to acquiring and nurturing businesses to unleash their potential.

About Regional & City Airports (RCA)

Regional & City Airports (RCA) is Rigby Group’s highly-innovative airport management company. RCA owns and operates Norwich Airport, Exeter Airport and Coventry Airport, holds management contracts for both Blackpool International Airport and City of Derry Airport and is actively building its portfolio of owned or managed airport assets across the next five years.

Regional airports are vitally important to the economic development of regions, not just in the UK but across the world. To survive and prosper, smaller regional airports need to cooperate and collaborate – enabling them to benefit from the economies of scale and sharing of best practice traditionally enjoyed by larger hub airports. This is the vision behind RCA.

RCA has built a reputation as an efficient, safe and commercially-savvy airport operator, driving improvements to route development, commercial revenues, operating costs and capital investment in order to deliver a consistently sound commercial return. As RCA grows it is increasingly able to leverage significant buying power and shared expertise. Already employing more than 650 people, RCA is on its way to becoming a leading player in the regional airport sector and is taking advantage of the lack of capacity at major hub airports in the UK to demonstrate how regional airports can ease the strain.

As a local family business, Norwich Sunblinds have always been keen to support other local businesses, so when they spotted a tweet asking if anyone could showcase some furniture in a shop window, they immediately replied.

The tweet was from Paul Wickett of Zebra Finchwhilst taking part in Norfolk Hour. Norfolk Hour is run by the Iceni Magazine. Anyone can join in the conversation using #norfolkhour between 8.30pm and 9.30pm every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

It’s a great way for local businesses to connect – which is exactly what happened in this instance.

Zebra Finch upcycle second-hand furniture. Norwich Sunblinds had a look at their website, loved their products, and loved the fact that the upcycling idea fitted in with their own environmentally friendly ethos.

A few weeks later Paul placed some of his key pieces of furniture in the windows of Norwich Sunblinds’ St Benedicts Street store. Since then each window display has changed around the furniture. The idea has worked – Paul has sold a number of pieces through the help of Norwich Sunblinds.

Paul’s business resonated on many levels with Norwich Sunblinds – both businesses involve craftsmanship – the blinds are made in Attleborough by local craftspeople, Paul uses his craftsmanship to turn unwanted pieces of furniture into beautiful products. Both businesses are committed to being environmentally friendly – Paul by upcycling second hand furniture and Norwich Sunblinds by sourcing all fabrics and components from the UK, thus reducing their carbon footprint. They also recycle their plastic, cardboard and metal and supply off cuts of fabrics to schools, playgroups and colleges.

Norwich Sunblinds are keen to encourage local business whenever they can; they are an active member of Buy Local Norfolk, taking part in the Lord Mayor’s Parade last Summer and attending Buy Local exhibitions and networking events. They also promoted local food producers in their prize draw hamper at the Norfolk Chamber exhibition last October.

This is one of the reasons (along with fantastic products and great customer care, of course!) that Norwich Sunblinds have been in business for over 30 years.

We are delighted to announce that we are working with Stonehage Fleming and Partners. The company has recently undergone a merger between Stonehage and the Fleming family who created the James Bond series. The merger of the two firms has enabled Stonehage Fleming to become the largest asset management company in the world, looking after a total of £42 billion worth of assets including family wealth, property and art.

What work we have done for them

As part of the new merger, Stonehage Fleming needed a new website to combine the brands and this included a new image, colour scheme and values. But an issue with new sites is that Google may take weeks or months to update and your brand may fall off Google temporarily.

Our role as consultants wasto focus on the SEO, which is our speciality. We needed to ensure a smooth transitition of the new websites and allow the brands to maintain their high positions on Google so the firm couldbe easily contacted by existing and potential clients.

As a result, we focused heavily on cleaning up all the broken links and pages on the new site, a cleaned up link profile and some fresh content in the form of meta-data, text and images. In addition, we had to ensure all the correct address (all 13 offices) were showing correctly on Google maps and could be found easily by clients. We engaged in thorough testing to make surethe site worked well on all devices of desktop, mobile and tablet to consolidate the user experience.

We maximised the crawling and indexing of the site with a brand new sitemap and updated the webmaster tools account accordingly.We have monitored the search results very carefully using our SEO tools and have ensured that the new site has been ranking strongly since its launch, especially for competitive keywords such as family office.

We are thrilled to be working with Stonehage Fleming and wish them the best of luck with their new venture.

We are happy to announce thatMoosey Artthe city’s newest and most excitingart galleries has jumped on board our digital signage networks across Norfolk! Using our network of screens Moosey Art are looking to increase brand awareness of the gallery, and promote their latest solo exhibition ‘SUN SHINE OUT OF MY ARTS’ by the extremely talented artist Carl Cashman coming up in February.Based out of Devon Carl Cashman has shown work all over the world in places such as: New York, San Francisco, Berlin, Miami, Amsterdam.

Moosey Art is an Urban/contemporary art gallery down Bridwell Alley which is part of the famous Norwich Lanes andofferslimited edition prints, sort after original works, promoting local Norwich based talent as well as bringing in some of the worlds greatest artists. Originallystarted in 2013 with the aim to createpop up exhibitions, bringing in the worlds greatest street artists as well as introducing people to fresh up and coming talent.After every exhibition Moosey’s reach became bigger and eventually were in a position to open up their very own gallery in 2015.

Next door to the art gallery you will find the city’s latest cafe/bar’The Alley’which opened it’s doors in December 2015. Working closely withMoosey Art the door between the café and gallery is always open, so you can drift between the two as you please. The Alley providesgreat cups of coffee, choice beers, spirits, friendly conversation a vibrant and creative atmosphere, a very clever collaboration between two businesses.

Moosey Art is also involved with some brilliant local projects such as ‘Get Walls’ a project with approved permission to paint on residential and commercial properties in Norwich, working with local and international artists in order to decorate and brighten up the city. Moosey Artare also involved with ‘The Underground Gallery’ which can be found down the underpass on St Stephens roundabout. With the help of 48 local artists they have managed to transform the underpass from an eyesore into a pleasant and vibrant walk for commuters!

It’s a pleasure to be working alongside such a remarkable new business -increasing brand it’s awareness on our ‘Domination Circuit’ comprising of three screens and has a weekly audience of 350,000+ people. Moosey Art is certainly an asset to the business/local community and showcases what our fine city is about!

For more information on their latest exhibition visit their facebook event page Carl Cashman ‘Sun Shines Out Of My Arts’.For more information about Moosey Art, other up and coming exhibitions, the shop gallery, the artists and more, visit their website –www.mooseyart.co.uk