Member News

Book your August/September meetings at Barnham Broom for late availability discounts! 

Room Hire Offer Late availability offer for the months of August and September 2019:             Barford Suite Room Hire – £400 reduced from £800 (up to 200 theatre style) Kimberley Suite Room Hire – £300 reduced from £600 (up to 120 theatre style) Colton Suite Room Hire – £225 reduced from £400 (up to 60 theatre style) Bickerston Suite Room Hire – £175 reduced from £300 (up to 20 theatre style)                      Add on refreshments, lunch, equipment and overnight accommodation as you require to create your own bespoke package. Only available on selected dates in August and September 2019 – contact the hotel directly to check availability, contact us directly to check availability events@barnham-broom.co.uk   Day Delegate Rate Offer Late Availability Day Delegate Rate Offer for numbers of 10+ Only available in August and December 2019 – subject to availability

• Room Hire
• Conference Host
• Equipment Hire (projector, screen/TV, flip chart)
• Stationery
• Tea/coffee
• Morning snack
• Water and Cordial (still and sparkling)
• Sweets 
• 2 Course Lunch – healthy buffet with mini desserts and fruit served in the room or in the restaurant
• Afternoon snack

*Book for more than 25 people and receive free bacon rolls on arrival* Contact us directly to check availability events@barnham-broom.co.uk

We recently held a design a safety poster competition for our employees relatives in two age categories, under 8’s and 8-12 years. We have chosen two posters as the winners thanks to Amber and Kristianna! One poster focused on the hazards an engineer might face during their work in the hangar, whilst the other focused on the common PPE needed to control some of these hazards. The two girls came to collect their prizes and enjoyed a tour around the facility to see where their relatives work. These posters will proudly be displayed at our facility! #safety #health #klmuke #engineers #maintenance #apprenticeships #drawing #posters #careers #skilled #Norwich #Norfolk #families #workingsafely #training #MRO #inspiration #futureengineers #futuregeneration #engineer #design #competition

A local teddy bear is making waves in literary circles – and with young families – thanks to his debut novel.

Eddie Teddie has been a fixture at Face to Face Finance, a local firm of independent financial advisers, for a number of years. He has his own section on their blog as well as his own social media channels. Business owner, Julie Hunt, explains more:

“We believe the younger that people start to understand and take responsibility for their money, the better for their long-term financial security. Eddie Teddie is the perfect avenue for helping parents and carer to gently teach their children about money. We’ve had a great response to his articles and wanted to extend that through his book.”

Eddie Teddie’s Big Summer of Savingis aimed at children from age five to eight and is a fun story with a gentle message about the importance of saving up for things you really want. It features Eddie, along with some of his friends. Face to Face Finance is giving a copy to their clients – although some have already come back to buy more! Alternatively, you can buy directly from Face to Face Finance. Julie continues:

“When people buy from us directly, we’re giving them the option to buy a second copy at a discounted rate, with the spare copy being gifted to a disadvantaged child. We’re also setting aside a proportion of all profits to buy Medibears for the Jenny Lind Children’s Hospital at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. 

The book was created partly as a fun aside, but we hope to do some good as a result. The dream is to get the book into local schools.”

Eddie’s book was officially launched at the Great Ellingham Teddy Bear Festival. He’s since been spreading the word with Julie amongst local businesses and will be making more personal appearances, with signed copies available, in the coming weeks.

The book was written, designed and printed with the help of local marketing agency, Example Marketing and Web Design.

To buy a copy of the book, please email info@ftof-finance.co.uk. Eddie’s book will soon also be available to buy on Amazon.

Photo credit: Paul Macro Photography

The whole team at Tudor Lodge Consultants is thrilled to announce that we are now working with Business Reviewed, the new way for businesses to discover and explore related services for their business.

Business Reviewed are changing the way in which business services and products are discovered and dealt with. Traditionally, to find business services like accountancy software, business bank accounts, merchant services for retail premises, businesses would undertake what was a very manual research process. Whilst comparison sites certainly exist for the likes of insurance and other consumer financial products, businesses are often left behind.

This is something that the team at Business Reviewed are working to change. 

What We Are Doing

Crawling Factors – Working through the site, we are working to ensure that every page of the Business Reviewed website and all content on the site are crawled [read and understood] by search engines. This has entailed us working on the meta data, on page titles and image tags (alt-texts) to help search engines understand what is on the site and what it all means in the context of search engine rankings.

User-Friendly Factors – In this day and age, user experience and user intent are everything. Hence, it has been one of the priorities to ensure the site is geared up for users to understand the purpose of all of the content on the site and be led to a point of becoming a lead. The Business Reviewed website has taken the specific intent of business owners and decision makers into account throughout the design process.

Content and Information – One of the key factors in SEO is the content and its ability to be read and understood by both readers and search engines. There is a fine line to tread to ensure the content does not become too technical to satisfy search engines, nor too conversational to only satisfy users. Maintaining this fine balance will always be at the forefront of the Business Reviewed website

When we first went to meet the team at Harrogate Ladies College they made it clear that they wanted a different kind of school film, one that told their story and that incorporated their ideal of ‘I am me’, encouraging their students to be very much individuals. We love to tell stories and this was a great fit for us with our background, so after brain storming as a team we went back to them with the concept of using a poem to take the viewer on a journey. They loved the idea and having won the pitch, we then spent some time getting to know the school and devising the poem with the marketing team there, before carefully planning the shoot. After time in the edit suite, here is the final result. Thank you to everyone involved.

Liftshare have been chosen to be part of the influential new cohort of Intelligent Mobility companies that will help shape future innovations in transport and mobility.

Based in Milton Keynes, the IM Accelerator is a partnership between Connected Places Catapult and Wayra UK, the world-leading scale-up accelerator that is part of Telefónica Open Future. The program is also supported by Hyundai, Stagecoach Group and Ferrovial Services, which will all provide support to start-ups at the Accelerator.

Chosen because of their continued investment in innovation and market-led new products, Liftshare have big plans for the coming year and the new technology they are developing.

Liftshare CEO and founder, Ali Clabburn, said, “We’re very excited to be a part of the Intelligent Mobility accelerator programme and to be working with Wayra and Catapult Connected Places. Liftshare are incredibly proud to still be considered innovators, even after 20 years, as what we do is more relevant today than ever. We’re looking forward to learning as much as we can, both from the supporters and mentors, but also the other companies involved who are doing incredibly exciting things in the mobility sector.”

Alex Weedon, Connected Places Catapult’s SME director, said, “We are very excited to welcome such a diverse group of promising businesses to the IM Accelerator. We had a large number of quality applications which allowed our judges to choose a group that really represents the scope and ambition of the thriving SME and start-up community currently working in transport in the UK.”

Liftshare is the biggest carsharing network in the UK with over 600,000 members sharing 1 million trips every month. They help over 700 corporate clients to encourage staff to travel more sustainably using a suite of products. Having recently won their second Queen’s Award for Innovation for what judges called, “exceptional contributions to the environment,” Liftshare are on track to have saved over 1 billion miles from UK roads by 2020.

Notes to editors Queen’s Award for Innovation | BITC National Award for Environmental Excellence | Ashden Award for Sustainable Travel | Catalyst Award for Social Technology |  British Parking Awards Further information about Liftshare and its services for individuals and businesses can be found at https://business.liftshare.com

Contact For additional information and images, please contact simon@liftshare.com, tel. 01603 389 321.

Norwich Puppet Theatre is delighted to announce that we have secured £14,950 from Arts Council England Lottery Funding for a new Puppetry Project.

To celebrate our 40th anniversary, we will reimagine our 2014 in-house spectacular ‘Beauty & The Beast for national touring 2020. This is a really interesting twist on the story about young people and the pressures of self image they face…think “beauty” and “beastliness”!

I promise you it will be fantastically engaging and entertaining as well!

NPT is committed to ensuring everyone can access great Puppetry experiences – this project focuses on extending our reach into rural areas & engaging with disadvantaged communities by working closely with rural touring schemes. We will embedaccess & inclusion into our creative & production processes from the beginning, to grow ways audiences with hearing, visual and other impairments can interact with our work. And there is an exciting new relationship with University of East Anglia in a  a Writing for Puppetry strand.

We need to raise a further £4,000 from additional sources to unlock this ACE money so we are inviting Norfolk companies to grab a slice of the action, and sponsor our show.

There are great opportunities to demonstrate your brand and corporate social responsibility values to our audiences.

Various packages are available: just contact Ian Woods, General Manager on 01603 615564 or info@puppettheatre.co.uk.   Of course, we have full programme of fun for the family through the summer holidays with Workshop Wednesday and Family Fridays.  We have several shows programmed through the season. Why not take a look at https://www.puppettheatre.co.uk/whats-on Thank you Nic Hopkins, Chair of Trustees

Liftshare have been chosen to be part of the influential new cohort of Intelligent Mobility companies that will help shape future innovations in transport and mobility.

Based in Milton Keynes, the IM Accelerator is a partnership between Connected Places Catapult and Wayra UK, the world-leading scale-up accelerator that is part of Telefónica Open Future. The program is also supported by Hyundai, Stagecoach Group and Ferrovial Services, which will all provide support to start-ups at the Accelerator.

Chosen because of their continued investment in innovation and market-led new products, Liftshare have big plans for the coming year and the new technology they are developing.

Liftshare CEO and founder, Ali Clabburn, said, “We’re very excited to be a part of the Intelligent Mobility accelerator programme and to be working with Wayra and Catapult Connected Places. Liftshare are incredibly proud to still be considered innovators, even after 20 years, as what we do is more relevant today than ever. We’re looking forward to learning as much as we can, both from the supporters and mentors, but also the other companies involved who are doing incredibly exciting things in the mobility sector.”

Alex Weedon, Connected Places Catapult’s SME director, said, “We are very excited to welcome such a diverse group of promising businesses to the IM Accelerator. We had a large number of quality applications which allowed our judges to choose a group that really represents the scope and ambition of the thriving SME and start-up community currently working in transport in the UK.”

Liftshare is the biggest carsharing network in the UK with over 600,000 members sharing 1 million trips every month. They help over 700 corporate clients to encourage staff to travel more sustainably using a suite of products. Having recently won their second Queen’s Award for Innovation for what judges called, “exceptional contributions to the environment,” Liftshare are on track to have saved over 1 billion miles from UK roads by 2020.

Notes to editors Queen’s Award for Innovation | BITC National Award for Environmental Excellence | Ashden Award for Sustainable Travel | Catalyst Award for Social Technology |  British Parking Awards Further information about Liftshare and its services for individuals and businesses can be found at https://business.liftshare.com

Contact For additional information and images, please contact simon@liftshare.com, tel. 01603 389 321.

In every neighbourhood across Norfolk small charities and voluntary groups are working tirelessly to support their communities. Supporting mental health services, alleviating loneliness, preventing youth crime, helping vulnerable families – these are some of the key issues that need to be tackled. These diverse organisations, set up by people who care, are the backbone of local communities. They work hard to respond to need as it emerges, providing a safe place and a lifeline to some of the most vulnerable in Norfolk. People are being encouraged to use Norfolk Day on 27th July to give something back to support these people and organisations making Norfolk great. By becoming a Friend of Norfolk and committing to a regular contribution that suits their circumstances, they will ensure that these small local charities continue to thrive and help more people, changing the world on their doorstep. Friends of Norfolk will be regularly updated about the ways they are making a difference, and will be invited to events to hear about the amazing work they are helping bring about to transform local lives. Become a Friend of Norfolk to celebrate this Norfolk Day by contacting Norfolk Community Foundation on 01603 623958 or info@norfolkfoundation.com Norfolk Community Foundation is a registered charity dedicated to building stronger communities and improving the lives of people in Norfolk. The charity connects people who care with local causes that matter, helping ordinary people do extraordinary things that make local communities thrive and improve the lives of people who live there. Further information about becoming a Friend of Norfolk is available from Norfolk Community Foundation’s website at https://www.norfolkfoundation.com/giving-philanthropy/collective-giving-networks/friends-of-norfolk/

Budding businesses and entrepreneurial individuals in West Norfolk this week celebrated the launch of a new centre which will help protect, research and commercialise their ideas.

The new Business and Intellectual Property (IP) Centre at King’s Lynn Library launched on Wednesday 17 July and joins a network of thirteen centres across the UK, following Norfolk’s first centre at the Millennium Library in Norwich, which launched in October 2017.

The new centre will be one of three hubs connected to the main centre in Norwich. The other two are planned for Thetford and Great Yarmouth by the end of January 2020.

Councillor Graham Plant, Deputy Leader and Cabinet member for Growing the Economy, said at the launch: “Encouraging entrepreneurship and business growth is key to sustaining a strong economy and driving economic growth in the county.

“Our libraries are ideally placed to help new and growing businesses to flourish, with expert staff that can help support businesses to carry out market research and business planning.”

Local entrepreneur Evie-May Ellis spoke about setting up her vegan food pop-up Heart Street, and there were expert business advisors from Menta, the Norfolk and Waveney Enterprise Services (NWES), and other partners on hand, offering advice and support to guests.

The Centre holds a comprehensive collection of online databases and publications, printed resources, and will host practical workshops and inspiring talks, and be a space for entrepreneurs to come together to network.

Hazel Russell, co-founder of the of The Wood Life Project, is just one of the many people and businesses who have gained valuable guidance.

Her company designs and sells eco-friendly wooden products as alternatives to plastic. Hazel first heard about Business & IP Centres via a podcast, and decided to go along to her nearest one at the Forum in Norwich.

She said: “The centre is supportive and informative, and helped us move our business forward in a sustainable way.” 

Through 1-to-1 sessions with advisors she learnt about trademark and patent options and how to register designs. She started registering her designs, and the Centre helped and encouraged her to move forward with the business. She has since been back to learn more about finance, strategy, and raising funds, and feels that the support really helped build her confidence and get her business off the ground.

Carl Whitehead has opened his third TaxAssist Accountants shop joining his established premises in Long Eaton, Nottingham and Shepshed, Leicestershire.

Since joining TaxAssist Accountants as a member of staff, and subsequently becoming a director in partnership with former franchisee Phil Marriott in 2011, Carl Whitehead has seen his business continue to boom, hence his decision to open a third shop on Ashby Road in Loughborough.

“Working for Phil proved a fantastic way to build up my knowledge base and confidence in running a practice and to build a rapport with clients” explained Carl, who was 27 at the time, having worked his way up from accounts manager to training manger to practice manager before becoming a shareholder, director and franchisee.

“Since taking over as sole director in August 2017, with a well-established and highly experienced work force and a steady stream of new business, it was always my intention to open a third shop to compliment the two existing practices.

“When the ideal shop unit became available, I jumped at the chance. It is a very prominent shop with a large and eye-catching mural on the wall above our signage, so it’s difficult to miss! I would like to thank the TaxAssist Accountants Support Centre in Norwich for their help and assistance in setting up the shop, which looks great. I would encourage any clients interested in finding out more about our services to pop in for a free initial consultation.”

In addition to the new shop, Carl operates from Field Street in Shepshed and Derby Road in Long Eaton, where he looks after more than 400 clients.

If you are interested in finding out more about joining the TaxAssist Accountants network, call Nikki Haythorne on 0800 0188297.

Here’s the Maids Head Hotel’s 2019 entry for Break’s Grand Norwich Duck Race, which takes place on Sunday 25 August on the River Wensum between St George’s Bridge and Fye Bridge.

‘Quackerine of Aragon’ celebrates the visit to the Maids Head in 1520 of Catherine of Aaragon, Henry VIII first wife. The duck was designed and painted by talented staff members, Susan and Victoria.

Race timings

2.00pm Individual Mini Duck Race: 3,000 little ducks will head to the finish line.

2.30pm Large Painted Duck Race: Large decorated ducks, including ‘Quakerine of Aragon’ take to the water to compete to win the Grand Norwich Duck Race Trophy.

After the race, the Maids Head will host the auction of the large painted ducks on the evening of Thursday 5 September.

Break is the Maids Head Hotel’s charity of the year 2019. Break makes life better for vulnerable young people in East Anglia. The charity believes that every child and young person needs a home where they feel safe and loved, so they can grow in confidence and look to the future with hope. Break’s vision is to ensure children, young people and families reach their full potential and shape their own future in a safe and creative environment.