Alex Morris, Lambda Films, showed up ready to give the delegates a delightful insight into the world of video marketing. Alex opened by talking about the best way to get their videos out there: YouTube. He showed the delegates some of YouTube’s most famous videos and some of the best marketing videos it has to offer. He delved into the analytical side of YouTube and different ways of how to use the site so that delegates gained a full understanding. Alex felt his attendees gained a “greater understanding of the YouTube platform.” Alex also interacted greatly with his delegates, involving them by asking questions and getting them to share their video marketing stories. Alex also got the group to share the video editing software they use personally, and told them how simple it is to create a video, even on a Smartphone. If he could give the delegates on top tip, it would be to “get shooting!” Alex felt his highlight of the Session was “expanding people’s minds first thing in the morning!”
The latest infrastructure report from Norfolk County Council provides an update on the progress of the A11 improvements; the work being done to improve the A47 corridor; and the latest news on the Northern Distributor Road. It also outlines the rail improvements, the Better Bus Area Programme and the most recent news on the Better Broadband campaign. The full details are attached.
Read the latest information from the British Chambers of Commerce Energy Group in the attached document. This update will highlight the latest call to action to maximise North Sea Oil and Gas; a review of the business energy market; more proposed fracking sites for Lancashire; as well as the latest Carbon Capture and storage project to get funding.
The latest report for Norwich City Council has highlighted the business confidence continues to climb. The BDO LLP report highlighted that business optimism was at its highest level for 22 years in January, suggesting the economy will continue to grow rapidly over the coming six months. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted to maintain interest rates at 0.5 per cent this month, despite the lower than target inflation rate
The number of apprenticeship vacancies in the East of England posted online between August and October increased by 23% to 3,640, according to figures from the National Apprenticeship Service. Meanwhile online applications for apprenticeships rose by 33% to 39,600 in the region.
Construction has begun at Pointers Field on the first affordable homes that Norwich City Council has built in the city for more than 20 years. These new Norwich City Council 6 homes are of huge significance. Not only as the first council homes to be built for a considerable period of time, but also as the first milestone in the council’s commitment to building an additional 250 homes across the city over the next five years, as set out in the latest housing strategy.
During this Chamber Session Chand Chudasama, Price Bailey, shared with delegates his top tips for inspiring innovation within business. He spoke to delegates about structured plans within their offices to drive profitable growth for their businesses. If Chand could give one top tip to take away, it would be to “think long term” about building innovation within your business. Chand’s highlight from the Session was that the audience asked questions and really got involved, creating great interaction within the group.
The public sector is the UK’s single largest marketplace, spending over £238bn on goods and services each year. The Supply National SME Engagement Programme recognises the opportunity this holds for UK SMEs and provides them with all the tools and knowledge needed to successfully compete for public sector business.
There are three easy steps to winning your share of the Government’s £238bn annual spend:
1. Find the right opportunity Register with the Supply National SME Engagement Programme and gain instant access to FREE public sector contracts in the local area of your choice.
2. Learn how to win tenders The Supply National SME Engagement Programme gives you a competitive edge by keeping you constantly informed of the latest developments.
3. Prepare to grow Access our proven procurement training workshops and webinars and discover how to submit successful tender bids.
Why is now the right time for your business to work with Government?
Payment: Government has committed to ensuring that SMEs get paid faster
Simplicity: PQQs are to be abolished for contracts under a value of £100,000
Speed: Contracts are being awarded more quickly than ever before
Innovation: Procurement practice is now more SME-friendly
Business-focused: 25% of central government contracts for SMEs by 2015
Longstanding: Government is a great customer now and for the future
Engagement: Direct and indirect spend with SMEs is up by £5bn since 2010
There has never been a better time for SMEs to work with the public sector. The Supply National SME Engagement Programme is the clear choice for turning the ambition of growth into reality.
On Thursday 27 February over 70 Norfolk Chamber Members attended our sold-out business breakfast to learn about HP’s innovative ambition for Norfolk.
As our venue sponsor, Norwich Cathedral provided the stunning location for the breakfast, in the beautiful Weston Room. Our host for the morning was Norfolk Chamber President, Ian Hacon CEO of Blue Sky Leisure. After hearing from our sponsor, Ian started the breakfast with a Norfolk Chamber hallmark ice breaker activity, designed to get everyone talking, introducing themselves and exchanging business cards. The room was packed, buzzing with conversation, as delegates took part in ‘One Truth, One Lie’ whereby they had to say two facts about their business, one of which was false and the other true and delegates had to guess which ones was which.
Over breakfast the networking continued, and was followed by delegates taking part in a Safari move that enabled them to meet with a whole new table of contacts. We heard from Russell Ede, Employment Coach at our event featured charity, the Shaw Trust who took a few minutes to talk about to work they are doing locally.
It was then time to hear from our two keynote speakers, Patrick Stephenson, Account Executive at Hewlett Packard and Tom Baker, Chief Information Officer at Norfolk County Council about the Digital Ambition Project.
Patrick explained how HP want to work with innovative local suppliers and small businesses to collaborate with Norfolk County Council on the digital ambition project. The project aims to create a new digital infrastructure for Norfolk with aims of becoming a ‘connected city’. HP intend to help businesses maximise social and economic benefit to the county by working with as many innovative SME’s as possible.
A Q&A session took place with various questions form delegates relating to aspects of the project, including a request to get companies together to innovate and bounce ideas of each other which HP are currently achieving through HP ‘Hot Houses’.
Delegates had a lot of positive things to talk about on twitter;
Ermine Sandler of Sandler Training tweeted“@Nrw_Cathedral beautiful breakfast in Weston room #chambernetworking @norfolkchamber #DigitalNorfolk”
Eastworkstweeted“Off to Launching Digital Norfolk @norfolkchamber this morning. Businesses looking to progress future for the region. #chambernetworking”
Norwich Cathedral tweeted“Fantastic @norfolkchamber Business Breakfast at the Cathedral this morning.”
To view photos of the event, visit ourFacebookpage orGoogle+page
The Department for Business Innovation and Skills and HMRC are organising a series of workshops for high-tech SME’s who are looking to invest in R & D and innovation with the aim of growing and becoming more competitive.
The workshops will cover support provided by HMRC, the Technology Strategy Board, EU programmes, Intellectual Property Office (formerly the Patent Office) and the Design Council, and build on the popular programme of events launched last year.
This workshop will consist of a selection of 20 minute presentations followed by 10 minutes of questions on the following topics
HMRC – R&D tax credits, Patent Box
Technology Strategy Board – grants, knowledge transfer, networking, procurement opportunities and more
EU – funding for business research and development and innovation – find out about the substantial opportunities under the H2020 programme launched this January
Intellectual Property Office – patents, how to optimise the value of your intellectual property
Design Council – help to strengthen the potential of your innovation, identify opportunities to commercialise your technology and then realise those opportunities through design projects
Registration will be from from 8am and a light breakfast will be provided, with presenting organisations providing short introductions from 8:30am. Delegates will then choose which of the individual presentations they would most like to attend. There will be a maximum of 30 delegates per presentation.
The British Chambers of Commerce has today (Sunday) called on George Osborne to use his Budget speech on 19th March to focus on youth employment, training and enterprise – which are crucial to securing future growth and avoiding a ‘lost generation’ as the UK economy continues to recover.
Overview
In its submission to the 2014 Budget, the business organisation responds to employers’ concerns about the work readiness of young people. We are currently faced with a deficient education, training and skills system, which has resulted in a troubled labour market, high social costs and increased youth unemployment.
This week’s data from the Office for National Statistics showed a fall in youth unemployment by 48,000, and although this is encouraging, the jobless rate among young people still stands at 917,000 which is far too high. In fact, this means that young people are nearly three times as likely to be unemployed compared with the rest of the UK population.1
As a result, the BCC is proposing concrete measures to promote business investment in young people aged 16-24. Our submission also calls on the Chancellor to enhance tax incentives for those investing in companies run by young entrepreneurs, who often say they can’t get growth funding from banks or other sources. BCC Director General John Longworth is urging the Chancellor to play his part in making 16-24 year olds more attractive to businesses, who in return can help the Britain avoid a lost generation.
The BCC submission proposes:
A new £100m Future Workforce Grant scheme – a £1,000 payment to businesses who hire long-term unemployed young people or a new apprentice, to create 100,000 new jobs in 2014. This will help to bridge the gap before the national insurance exemption for under 21s is introduced in 2015.
A two-year extension to the successful Apprenticeships Grant for Employers (AGE) scheme to help create 80,000 additional apprenticeships. Demand from candidates has outstripped supply of apprenticeship vacancies by as much as 12 to one.2
Increased tax relief to encourage investment in young entrepreneurs. Increasing the tax relief available through the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) from 30% to 50% for investors in businesses run by under-24s will help more young people set up and grow their own business.
At just under £400m, the estimated cost of these interventions is less than 0.02% of government current spending for the next three years, and is just a fraction of the projected departmental underspend for 2013-2014 (£7bn).3
The BCC’s letter also encourages the Chancellor to extend the enhanced Annual Investment Allowance for businesses to 2015/16, and consider opening it to premises as well as plant and machinery. Beyond the Budget, the business group plans to make wider proposals for economic reform in the autumn.
Commenting, BCC Director General John Longworth said:
“We all know that politicians are already looking to manifestos and the 2015 General Election. But the crisis of confidence separating Britain’s employers and young people can’t wait for political posturing or the electoral cycle. Businesses across Britain tell me they want to hire young people. Yet many cannot afford to take the risk, especially at a time when other, more qualified applicants are coming forward for the job vacancies on offer.
“If the Chancellor wants to avoid a lost generation among today’s 16-to-24 year-olds, he must use the spring Budget to help businesses take on and train up young people, whether they are going straight into jobs or into apprenticeships. He should also extend tax incentives for individuals with deep pockets who invest in businesses started up by school and college leavers and graduates.
“The Chancellor rightly wants to boost business investment in this year’s Budget and we support measures to do this, but not just for plant and machinery. We know there are many serious structural issues that need to be addressed to create a truly great UK economy, but not all of them can be resolved at this point in the political and economic cycle.
“Getting young people into employment is vital, pressing, and easily affordable right now. Helping British youth in the way we propose would cost less than 7% of what the government spent on overseas aid last year, for example. If government helps businesses overcome the real risks they are facing today, the private sector will invest in a skilled workforce for the future.”
Caroline Williams CEO Norfolk Chamber of Commerce said:
“Ensuring that Norfolk’s young people get the best possible start in the job market is a key priority for Norfolk Chamber members. This relates to the work our members do in schools as well as offering work placements, internships and apprenticeships. Young people bring a positive dimension to any organisation and we totally support the BCC’s call to the Chancellor to make support to business to enable them to employ more young people a priority in his budget.”
The British Chambers of Commerce Quarterly Economic Survey (QES) is used by the Bank of England and the Chancellor to plan the future of the UK economy and over 7,000 businesses across the UK take part.
Q4 2013 showed a fantastic start to 2014 with a very positive quarterly survey. Business confidence was high and Chamber members were resolute in their determination to take the recovery from being good to being truly great.
Firms from all sectors across Norfolk believe they can create jobs, invest, and export. It was especially pleasing that the spurt in the manufacturing was proven not to be a fluke, which demonstrated the dynamism of our small, high value, manufacturing sector.
The last QES results showed that Norfolk businesses are ready to push on. Exports continue to increase and the domestic balances were also strengthening. Are you more confident about your business? Have you employed more staff or are looking to invest in plant, machinery and training? Let us know by taking part in this important economic survey.
The survey takes less than 3 minutes to complete, so please take the time to input into this survey to ensure Norfolk has a voice. The survey needs to be completed online by Monday 17 March 2014.
Commenting on George Osborne’s speech to business leaders in Hong Kong, John Longworth, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said:
“George Osborne hit the nail on the head in Hong Kong when he said that Britain is not investing enough and not exporting enough. Unless our economic recovery broadens out, and companies feel confident enough to implement their growth plans both at home and overseas, it will be merely good rather than truly great.
“On export, one of his top priorities must be to properly resource Britain’s global business network, much as our key competitors do. This would ensure that UK companies have strong support and advice when they land in growing markets overseas. It is gratifying that he chose to make his speech to the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong – one of 41 business groups we are working with across the globe to ensure that British companies can get practical support when they seek to do more business in dynamic, fast-growing markets.”
Commenting on the opportunities to grow through trading internationally Caroline Williams CEO Norfolk Chamber said:
“Norfolk Chamber’s all time high level of documentation shows just how successful our Norfolk businesses are being in expanding their businesses through exporting. Working with the BCC and UKTI we have new resources available in Norfolk for businesses who feel it is time to review whether trading internationally is right for them. It is not for all businesses but you may be surprised just what opportunities are out there and well worth investigating. There is significant free resource to help Norfolk businesses take that first step, so we could encourage any forward thinking MD to at least check out what they may be missing through an email to our International Trade Director: Tracey.Howard@norfolkchamber.co.uk“
In this Chamber Session Rachael Shakespeare, Jungle PR, taught the delegates her top tips for developing their PR skills. Rachael’s colourful and fun presentation reflected her enthusiastic and clear presentation skills.
Rachael’s top tip to take-away would be to “look at PR as a strategic, long-term method of managing the reputation of your business”. Rachael thought her Session went well and her highlights were “meeting people and discussing ways to help on the PR front”.