Chamber

Join us for the West Norfolk Business Breakfast at Ffolkes Coaching Inn, Lynn Road.

Enjoy a morning of networking over breakfast and hear from our guest speaker, Simon Ring of Ring Associates. 

Ring Associates has won a prestigious award from the Financial Times FTAdviser Publication. After competing with thousands of other advisers across the country, Ring Associates has been voted in the top 25 adviser firms in the UK. Managing director Simon Ring said: “This is a fantastic achievement for our company and recognition of all of the hard work put in by our staff on behalf of our clients every day. A huge thank-you goes out to all of our clients for their continued support.”

West Norfolk Mayor Nick Daubney performed the official opening ceremony of their new offices in the heart of Lynn town centre making their services even more accessible to customers. Ring Associates director Steven Watling said: “The new walk-in advice centre is important for Ring Associates as it allows us to highlight our offering of independent financial advice to a new larger audience.

Simon will be talking about Risk and financial Myth busting. So book yourself in to hear from the Director one of Lynn’s leading businesses.

 

This event has now sold out – why not check out our other upcoming networking events? Enjoy a morning of networking over breakfast as we bring over 80 businesses together at Dragon Hall, the home of the National Centre for Writing, to build new relationships through networking ice breakers. We are delighted to partner with the National Centre for Writing for the morning. We will be in their beautiful venue, the 15th century Dragon Hall, soaking up history and hearing from their Chief Executive, Chris Gribble and Hannah Garrad, Programme Manager. Chris and Hannah will talk about the vital impact culture has on the local, regional and national economy. The National Centre launched in 2018 but the organisation has a much longer history, having led the bid for Norwich to be recognised as a UNESCO City of Literature in 2012. Their work focuses around three aims; Learning – working with young people across Norwich & Norfolk to encourage a life-long love of books and stories through projects such as Poems in Care Homes and the Young Norfolk Writing Competition. Through their Artistic aim, they work with upcoming writers and translators providing mentoring and support and finding new ways to engage people with literature. Through Place they seek to celebrate Norwich as a world-leader for creative writing, and develop tourism projects designed to support the local economy – such as their annual crime writing festival, Noirwich, which attracts  hundreds of visitors to Norwich each year.   Photo credit: Thom Law

Bookings for this event have now closed, but please do look at our other upcoming events. Join us at our West Norfolk Business Lunch – Come along and enjoy the Ffolkes hospitality and scrumptious lunch of Bangers and mash with onion gravy, followed by a winter crumble and custard – all made from local produce.  Catch up with existing contacts and make new ones as you take part in our networking ice breakers, designed to help break down the barriers of networking and get to know local businesses in a different way. Enjoy relaxed networking over Lunch and hear from our guest speaker Steve Gaskin, Managing Director of Right Angle Corporate Ltd.The company specialises in management training, critical incidents and team building, as well as conferences, meetings and events.

Steve was a senior police officer within the Metropolitan Police for more than 25 years. As a detective, he undertook serious criminal investigations (murder and terrorist activities), specialising in drugs, money laundering and serious major incidents. Following his retirement from the police, he worked within Education, the Prison Service and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary. In 2007 he took this broad range of skills, with his partner Kate Gaskin, to establish Right Angle.

Steve’s talk is entitled, ‘Psychopaths and business! How they can help’.

Everyone thinks of Psychopaths as Hannibal Lector but actually the traits can be exceptionally valuable in business and/or sport. This interesting and entertaining talk show how these characteristics can work well in business including a short (voluntary) questionnaire as to where they fit on the scale.

We look forward to welcoming you along for a very interesting lunch indeed!

Bookings have now closed for this event but if you would like to attend, please email us at ‘hello@norfolkchamber.co.uk’ We’ve changed the timings, but not the format! This networking West Norfolk get-together will be a summer lunch rather than our usual early start breakfast! Enjoy the sunshine (pre ordered) and network over a delicious lunch, with a choice of Quiche, Vegan PIe (sweet potato, spinach and mushroom) or a homemade vegetable Burger – all served with salad. Hear from our guest speaker, Kathy Ennis – author, entrepreneur and mentor. Her talk is entitled ‘Convert, Create, Engage: Turning Word of Mouth into Word of Mouse’ Ask business owners and you will often be told, word of mouth is still the most effective marketing method for any business. Or is it? Over 80% of consumers make their purchase decisions based on what they see online – even after a word of mouth recommendation by their best friend. So, how do we turn word of mouth into word of mouse?

ENAGEMENT

In this session Kathy Ennis will explain her Six-Step Social Visibility Plan; developed to help businesses boost engagement that turns their customers and connections into raving fans and word of mouse champions.

Organisations have adopted Remote Working and many look to continue the process in the future. But do the information frameworks available fully meet the needs of the business for effective management and also data security in the future.

Here are some proposed solutions that address these issues and support compliance to ISO 9001 (Quality), ISO14001 (Environmental, ISO27001 (Data Security) and ISO45001 (Health & Safety) standards.

How information regarding the effective operation of the business may be securely stored and accessed for a remote working employee group, including data to assist in the decision making and management of the operation, be it team, group or whole organisation.

What are the options and some of the alternatives that may be adopted, including the RAMS (Remote Access Management System) developed as a cost effective solution to wide ranging company needs.

Data security is important at all times and becomes more of a focus when the vulnerabilities of remote working are added into the mix.

To take away;

• Paperless working. How far could we or should we go?
• Full legal and regulatory compliance. How do I tell?
• A guide to data security requirements

About the presenter

Laurence Brooks is a chartered physicist and a member of the Institutes of Quality Assurance and Business Advisers. He spent nearly 20 years in the electronics sector focusing on quality, business development and general management, to European Operations responsibility level.

This experience and knowledge has been applied to supporting the management system needs of UK organisations, particularly the manufacturing sector in the Eastern Region.

About Performance Plus Partnership

PerformancePlus has a 100% success record in helping companies in the East Anglia region gain the International Standards certifications they want. Their philosophy has always been to make the systems work for you rather than trying to make you change to suit some arbitrary system or process. Their subtle, yet supportive, approach has gained them an ever-increasing circle of friends amongst their clients (and some amazingly good testimonials).

Their clients have found them to be a genuinely cost-effective solution to their management system development, support and registration needs.

It’s Networking. Only better. And now sponsored by the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce.

Set your alarm, bring your business cards, and join us bright and early for one of King’s Lynn’s friendliest, most rewarding and enjoyable networking – see you there!

Everyone’s welcome – all types and sizes of business – Join us!

What’s the format?

Arrive at the King’s Lynn Town Hall for around 07:30 and network for 20-25 minutes, after a fifteen-minute talk, back into the business lounge for another 20-25 minutes or so of networking. Many people choose to stay much longer and are more than welcome to continue chatting and developing new contacts.

Who’s it for?

Business owners, managers, entrepreneurs, start-ups, young businesses and anyone who wants to connect and engage with other businesses in King’s Lynn and West Norfolk. Newbies are always welcome, whether it’s to our group or to networking in general.

Who’s behind it?

The networking events are sponsored by Norfolk Chamber of Commerce and held at the King’s Lynn Innovation Centre this month. Swarm Apprenticeships created the network and Harry Harris from Swarm Apprenticehships or Paul Ward, Solace Coaching normally host it. Norfolk Chamber facilitate the events to engage with local businesses and the wider community.

Can I find out more?

If you’d like to talk at one of our events, get in touch, it’s a great opportunity to bring your message to our audience.

The Speaker:

Harry Harris from Swarm Apprenticeships will be talking about apprenticeships in general and what the new employer rate contribution means to SME’s.

Meet The Experts

After the event you will have the opportunity to meet with experts in business. Glenn Savill from Aston Shaw will be on hand to give advice on Making Tax Digital.

Bookings for this event have now closed.

There’s a first time for everything… and this time we’re combining two as we do our first ‘Netwalking’ event at our first North Norfolk business breakfast! 

Held at the Hawk & Owl Trust, you’ll arrive for some networking with a morning tea or coffee and breakfast selection. Following a talk from the Hawk & Owl Trust on the hard work they do, you’ll be taken on a guided walk around the reserve to continue your conversations. 

Sculthorpe Moor Nature Reserve is a 53 acre site housing some of the UK’s rarest birds and mammals. Depending on the time of year visitors can see Marsh Harriers, Kites, several types of owl and huge numbers of songbirds. The reserve sits on the River Wensum, itself a rare chalk stream and home to Otters and Water Voles. With some 17,000 visitors each year it is a popular natural attraction.

Netwalking is an opportunity for you to improve your wellbeing through exercise and make new contacts in a natural setting. 

You are invited to join Norfolk Chambers in partnership with Hawk & Owl Trust and Norfolk Gin for an exciting event at Norwich Cathedral, viewing the Peregrines.

Upon arrival you’ll be welcomed with drinks and nibbles, as well as gins to sample from Norfolk Gin, who are generously supporting this event with a specially made gin cocktail called ‘The Falconer’s Fancy’ to celebrate the Hawk & Owl Trust’s 50th Anniversary.

There will be a brief presentation from Adrian Blumfield, CEO of Hawk and Owl Trust on the urban peregrines project. Attendees will then be able to view the Peregrines via various scopes and binoculars, with trained volunteers to assist.

You’ll be able to network with local businesses at this unique event.

Limited spaces available. 

Remote working is more relevant today than ever. Most companies were completely unprepared for remote working with zero or pretty sketchy contingency plans.

Most companies have moved to work remotely. This is my story about having a remote/distributed team for more than three years and why, I would never go back to having an office based team again.

This is a simple webinar about how to make remote working work for you and your team. Particularly about peoples’ concerns about communication.

It’s a personal story about getting the right people in the team and the right communication structure and the right tools for the job it works like a dream. When geography is no limit, the quality of the team can be extremely high. There are also many people that are super talented but unable to access the traditional office environment. They would otherwise be claiming PIP or similar. Remote working is perfect on many levels from the employer and employee perspective.

The benefits to remote working are:

• Environmental – no commute
• Work life balance
• Not infecting the whole work place with a cold or similar
• Better communication – yes, no office politics
• Better work output – you don’t need to start putting trackers and stuff on laptops etc…trust is everything
• Lower overheads

I will share the tools, strategies and systems we use to for communication, recruitment, collaboration and more…

About the presenter

Wendy Norman started LiveLink 10 years ago after two careers – ish!

Her early employed years started in the Navy as a Weapons Analyst. She quickly realised that conforming to rigid structure was not her thing. Next, she worked in hotel management – in small luxury hotels until moving to Jerusalem, Israel where she lived for 6 years.  Returning from Israel, Wendy worked in Primary Care Governance in the NHS until she could take no more and started LiveLink.

LiveLink is predominantly for private healthcare clinics. Combining her customer skills with healthcare seemed the obvious thing to do, so she did!

Wendy is lucky enough to live by the river in Norwich and owned by two cats, Mad Mary Moo and Lady Grace of Norwich.

When not locked down (100 days shielded and counting – RA Warrior (Rheumatoid Arthritis), Wendy really loves going to the theatre and eating out. She recently took up Pilates – never to be seen in public though so will continue at home in splendid isolation!

About LiveLink Resource Ltd

LiveLink started 10 years ago as a general virtual PA/call answering company.  In 2015, they niched into private healthcare and hotels (as they are Wendy’s areas of expertise).

Currently, LiveLink support around 80 clinics – many are podiatrists or speech and language therapists. 15 hotels/restaurants and the remainder are a mix of accountants, trainers, trades, finance, letting agents. In total, they have around 135 clients.

Many healthcare clinics are evaluating their businesses in the wake of Covid-19. Unfortunately for their team, many are being made redundant as the employment costs are too high. Which is where they benefit.

LiveLink’s intention is to grow rapidly in the next 18 months to either merge with a larger company or sell.

One of our members will be leaving with a fantastic prize from Barnham Broom Hotel & Spa! An Overnight stay for two, with breakfast and full use of the Health & Fitness Club!  So come along and start the New Year by making new connections at our first South Norfolk Networking Breakfast of 2020!  Our friendly team will welcome you as you arrive, helping to make you feel relaxed and ready to go. Don’t forget our team are there to support you, let us know if there’s specific people you’d like to meet and we can make those introductions.  There will be free networking time to allow you to meet new businesses or catch up with existing contacts. This will be followed by a networking activity to spark conversations, and breakfast to continue getting to know those on your table.  We also welcome our speaker, Graeme Taplin, Director of Drone Photography who moved to Norfolk in 2001 from Melbourne, Australia. Drones are an exciting and growing technology, used in a wide range of creative, commercial and industrial applications. As well as looking close up at hiis fleet of drones, find out what stops a drone from flying over the football ground during a match to watch it live? Following the Gatwick Drone incident last year find out how regulations have changed and what the future holds.  The breakfast will then come to a close, however all guests are welcome to continue discussion and networking.

Our first Norwich Networking Breakfast of 2020 is sure to be a busy one! Get back into the swing of networking at this regular sell out event. It’s the perfect way to catch up with existing contacts and create new ones, all before the working day. You’ll be treated to The Maids Head Hotel excellent breakfast and service whilst you network and hear from a guest speaker. Don’t forget that our team are also at the event to support you. Whether you want introductions to other attendees, or you just have questions about your membership, we’ll be there to help. Our Guest speaker is Cata Parrish, Owner and Director of Resource General Store and Cafe. Cata and her husband established a so called ‘zero waste’ and low impact store, Resource General Store & Cafe in 2019, after years of research and frustration at how difficult it was to live and buy simply, ethically and affordably – despite it being her main priority. Cata also co-runs The Wellhouse Foundation, a movement and nature based initiative supporting children and families to come home to their bodies and the land; to nurture resilience in families, communities and young people through connection with the land around and under us, and the present moment experience .

The title of Cata’s presentation is ‘They really should do something about it: Why waiting for them is getting us further off topic’

I don’t think it’s as bad as all that. Someone should definitely do something. Its pretty shocking. But we recycle. Its quite expensive isn’t it? Don’t worry, they’ll figure it out in time. I’m just too busy for this right now. Ah no, Tesco is just round the corner. I just don’t have the head space for it currently, sorry. They won’t do that. I don’t have time. They won’t let us do that. But we recycle. He definitely won’t do that. Yes but what actual difference does that make? It’s what milk?