eshot - 07 June 2010 - Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce and Industry, UK

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eshot - 07 June 2010

eshot - 07 June 2010

Lincoln Business School at the University of Lincoln

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Corporate and Professional Programmes

* Chamber Members' Microsite * Tax Survey * Event Date Amendment * Lincolnshire Businesses for Breakfast Event * Google Analytics * Meet the Buyer * LEAN Workshop * How to Write a Press Release * Land Value Tax Symposium * Language & Culture Training for Businesses * Cope Safety Open Courses * Annual Magna Carta Lecture * EuroExpo 2010 Fair - Update * World Cup 2010 *

Lincolnshire Chamber Website - Members' Microsite

Have you uploaded your details to our online Member Directory? As part of your membership, you receive a free microsite on our website for you to promote your business. If you need your username and password in order to do this, please telephone the Chamber on 01522 523333.

Tax Survey

The Chancellor of the Exchequer will publish his Emergency Budget on 22nd June – and significant changes to the tax system are expected.

In order to ensure that the views of business are strongly and clearly represented, the British Chambers of Commerce would like your views in order to contribute to the British Chambers of Commerce’s Budget submission to the Chancellor next week. The Budget will announce changes to National Insurance Contributions, Capital Gains Tax, Corporation Tax and possibly VAT – all of which could have an impact on business’s ability to drive the UK’s economic recovery.

Please could you respond to this quick tax survey? It will take no longer than 3-5 minutes and will help Lincolnshire Chamber and the British Chambers of Commerce Network to represent your interests. Responses must be received no later than Tuesday 8th June, so please could you complete this as soon as you can? Please click here for the link.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Event Date Amendment

Please note that the Networking Breakfast at the Healthy Hub, sponsored by Working Gardens, has been postponed from the 30th of June to the 7th of July. For more information on this, or to book your place, please This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to email Rachel Mooney or call 01522 523333.

Lincolnshire Businesses for Breakfast Event

9th June 2010, 7.30am - 9.00am
White Wood Lane School, Gainsborough

The Lincolnshire Businesses for Breakfast charity aims to offer primary and junior schools funding to help them set up or sustain an out of school hours Breakfast Club. This rewarding initiative has been led by local companies including the Lincolnshire Co-operative, with the support of Business in the Community and Lincolnshire County Council, and now aims to be able to offer assistance to school breakfast clubs in Gainsborough.

We invite you to attend this event to discover more about the work of this charity in providing a sustainable breakfast club for many children to attend.

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to email Rachel Mooney for more information, and to book your place, or call 01522 523333.

Google Analytics
9th June 2010, 9.00am - 4.00pm

Commerce House, Lincoln
Free to attend, lunch provided

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to book your place, or call 0845 603 8370

Meet the Buyer
10th June 2010, 2.00pm - 6.00pm

Riseholme Campus, Lincoln

The public sector in Lincolnshire buys an amazing variety of services from local businesses, from grass cutting to school meals, plumbing to laundry or property services to IT, but the process of procurement (selling to the public sector) can seem daunting or shrouded in mystery. Events like this are designed to break down barriers and give businesses the ammunition they need to tender successfully for public sector contracts.

Buyers include:

MOD
University of Lincoln
Lincolnshire NHS Trust
Fire and Rescue
Select Lincolnshire
FSB
Lincolnshire Chamber
PANNEL
Procurement Lincolnshire
ESPO
Job Centre Plus
LCC Children’s Service
Transport Services
Economic Development
Business Link
Lincolnshire Police

To book your free place, please This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to email Charlotte Robson, or call 01522 846923.

LEAN Workshop

15th June 2010, 9.30am - 1.00pm

Commerce House, Lincoln

£35.00 +VAT (Members) £50.00 +VAT (Non-Members)

Lunch included

LEAN is a proven strategy for enhancing customer value, eliminating all forms of waste, reducing costs and improving quality of products and/or services in your business. LEAN principles and practices can be applied in any workplace and in any business type. This half day day workshop will benefit anyone seeking to know more about LEAN thinking. It provides an introduction to the LEAN tool box through interactive training material and a live “process improvement” simulation. This will be delivered by LEAN specialists from Nurture 4 Growth who in the last year alone worked with over 450 people and supported companies to save in excess of £11.5m.

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to email Neil Brown for more information and to book your place, or call 01522 846925.

How to Write a Press Release

In association with Precursor PR and Creative

22nd June 2010, 9.30am - 1.00pm

Commerce House, Lincoln

£35.00 +VAT (Members) £50.00 +VAT (Non-Members)

Your business could be missing out on valuable publicity. If you’re tired of seeing everyone else making the news, then perhaps you need to issue press releases; raise your profile to attract new customers, communicate with your audience and enhance a positive image. You’ll leave this practical workshop knowing how and when to write press releases. You’ll understand proactive PR and leave with a useful workbook to refer to.

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to email Neil Brown for more information and to book your place, or call 01522 846925.

Land Value Tax Symposium
28th June 2010, 10.30am - 3.30pm

The University of Lincoln invites you to a free day of talks and debate about the policy of land taxation and what it could contribute to tackling the Budget deficit and crisis in the housing market. The event will be of interest to those in housing, construction, real estate and local government, landowners and farmers, pressure groups and think tanks, and anyone concerned with taxation policy.

Land value taxation has ancient roots and played an important part in Liberal Party policy in the early twentieth century. There was also strong support for land value taxation within the Labour Party from its early years until just after the Second World War.

The event at the University of Lincoln will examine how previous attempts to introduce land taxation could inform policy-making today as the new government grapples with tax reform, economic recovery and wealth creation, and the lack of affordable housing. It will feature speakers from Oxford, Reading, Sheffield Hallam and Lincoln universities, the London School of Economics and the Labour Land Campaign.

For further details and to register please click here.

Language & Culture Training for Businesses

June 2010 to March 2011

Various venues in Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire

Communicate better with your overseas customers

Click here for more information

Cope Safety Management Open Courses

Cope Safety Management are to hold the following open courses at Franklin Hall, Spilsby in June.

Manual Handling (half day) 25th June 2010
Whether moving a chair, lifting a piece of equipment or carrying a box, whether in the office, factory floor or building site, all these count as manual handling operations. Their half day course is suitable for workers in all sectors of industry.

Slinging (half day) 30th June 2010
The course is suitable for workers in all sectors of industry, however primarily aimed at the construction sector.

If you would like to send any delegates on any of the above courses, please click on the titles to complete and fax back the booking form to 01790 754741.

Annual Magna Carta Lecture
In the nave of Lincoln Cathedral

Friday 18th June 2010, at 7.00pm

with Terry Waite, CBE, on the Denial of Liberty

Terry Waite will speak from his own experiences on the denial of liberty, with special reference to the taking of hostages. This subject is especially relevant with the recent release of Lincoln’s Peter Moore, for whom a candle was burning in the Cathedral throughout his captivity. This is a free event. For further information please contact Lincoln Minster Shop on 01522 561644.

EuroExpo 2010 Fair - Update

As you may know, a volcano in Guatemala erupted on the 27th of May and the ashes affected the surrounding towns, forcing to close the international airport for several days. Added to this almost simultaneously, storm Agatha hit the Pacific coast of Guatemala, flooding large areas, collapsing bridges and sadly with loss of lives.

For the reasons abovementioned, the EuroExpo 2010 Fair had to be postponed. No new dates are available yet, but as soon as we hear about it, we will inform you.

Optima Makes DesignWeek Top 100

Lincolnshire Chamber sends our congratulations to Lincoln-based Optima as they are celebrating after being the only ever Lincolnshire graphic design consultancy to gain a place in DesignWeek’s list of top 100 agencies in the UK. Optima Graphic Design Consultants came in at number 85, jumping a massive 22 places, and beating its previous best positions.

Simon Shaw, Optima’s co-owner and MD, said, “We delighted to do have so well. Our huge leap from position 106 to 85 is evidence of Optima’s continued growth during the downturn which has come from retaining the excellent client based we have, while also bringing in several new heavyweight clients. Optima is the only pure design agency from the East Midlands in the top 100 list. There were more agencies from outside London on the list this year which is brilliant news for us and the East Midlands.”

There was more good news for Optima when they also won a silver at the Heist Awards for Best Higher Education Prospectus.

World Cup 2010 – Avoiding Own Goals at Work

Whether you are anticipating the World Cup kick off on the 11th of June with excitement or dread, there is little doubt that the performance of the national team can affect the workplace. The biggest worry for employers is absenteeism, either during games or the ‘morning after’.

Legally, employers are under no obligations at all to cater for football supporters within their workforce. However most managers don’t want to be called spoilsports, or to damage workplace morale. Employers wishing to accommodate the World Cup may wish to consider the following options:

Flexible Working

Providing core hours are covered and performance doesn’t suffer, workers might be allowed to start or finish at times to fit in with matches and be allowed to make up any hours at a later date.

Shift Swaps

Allowing staff to re-arrange their shifts with ‘non-supporters’, to ensure that appropriate cover is provided. This could give non-supporters the chance to avoid unpopular shifts.

Workplace Screenings

Provide a television in rest areas, or radio commentary in the workplace if possible. These approaches may cause the least disruption, as they only affect two hours of the working day. As long as safety isn’t compromised through loud radio broadcasts, or production output doesn’t suffer, these options could also have the spin off effect of creating a sense of camaraderie within the workplace.

There are issues which managers need to watch out for, such as:

Discrimination

Employers who employ a large number of overseas workers may need to provide the same facilities to these national groups.

Alcohol

Employees attending work after a big match and who may have drunk a lot of alcohol need to be made aware that the effects can encroach on the following day, and that attending work under the influence is potential Gross Misconduct.

Consistency

Believe it or not, not all employees are football fans. Non-football fans may feel left out when they see their employer going to lengths to accommodate the football fans. Therefore some consideration towards non-supporters would go a long way.

Unreasonable Absenteeism

If employee’s attendance does suffer during the World Cup and the employer has reasonable grounds to believe that absence is not related to health, but to football, Disciplinary action may be justified. Alternatively, these employees can be offered the option of having the time off as unpaid leave.

For more information on this, please This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to contact Christopher Moses,Managing Director of Personnel Advice & Solutions Ltd.