Insider Magazine are looking to speak to companies who have experience of working with venture capitalists or who have stories to tell about difficulty in raising funding with banks and venture capitalists, especially those who are seeking funding of £5m and under.

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Insider Magazine is the North West’s premier business publication, working with them will provide free publicity for your business and help to outline some of the finance issues facing businesses at the moment.

If you’d like to contribute, please email Liverpool Chamber’s press officer Pam Holstein or call her on 0151 227 1234 by 14  February.

One of Liverpool’s flagship international events and awards - ChinaLink Business Awards Dinner - has had its reputation further enhanced by one of its award recipients this year.

The award panel this year has unanimously nominated Mr. Xu Kuangdi, one of the prominent national leaders and the ex-Mayor of Shanghai, as the recipient of the ChinaLink Outstanding Achievement Award. David Tinsley, Chair of the Award Panel, said the award to Mr. Xu was “in acknowledgement of his personal effort in the development and establishment of the Liverpool-Shanghai sister city relationship and contribution to UK- China business co-operation.”

The sister city relationship was formally established when Mr. Xu  and Mr. Mike Storey CBE, ex-Leader of the Liverpool City Council, signed the MOU in Shanghai on 18 October 1999. Dr. Kegang Wu, Director of ChinaLink and Liverpool Chamber’s International Business Division, who was instrumental in facilitating the successful twinning in 1999 and has been a driving force for many initiatives between the two cities in the last 8 years, said “Since 1999 the co-operation between Liverpool and Shanghai has spanned a wide range of areas such as civic, sport, culture, trade & investment and education. Much was achieved when Shanghai was under Mr. Xu’s leadership, who held the post of Mayor of Shanghai for six years. Although he moved on to a new central government position, the Liverpool-Shanghai relationship has developed from strength to strength.”

Professor Xu is currently the Vice Chairman of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

In his acceptance letter to ChinaLink, Professor Xu said “Indeed, it is a great honour for me to receive the award”. Although I have left Shanghai and taken up new posts, my keen interest for the better and stronger relations between Liverpool and Shanghai remains unchanged. I will, as I have always had, still try my very best to promote this good relationship and see it grow from strength to strength”.

The ChinaLink Outstanding Achievement Award is designed to be awarded to an individual or organisation with inspirational achievement, who has made remarkable contribution to the development of business, civic, cultural and other international projects between UK and China.

The award event will be held next Thursday in Liverpool, which will be attended by 200 British businesses actively working between UK and China. Speakers at the event include Ian McCartney MP, Minister of Trade, Investment & Foreign Affairs and Mr. Jianzhong Gong, Chinese Consulate General.

Find out more about the event here. To book a table or seats please contact 0151 224 1876 or email the Chinalink team.

Ryanair used Liverpool Chamber’s Board Room to announce a further commitment to their operation at Liverpool John Lennon Airport with two new destinations to their growing network from Liverpool. This expansion brings Ryanair’s total number of routes served from JLA to 35.

From March and April this year, Ryanair is adding Palma, the capital of Majorca and Alicante, on mainland Spain, to their extensive route network from JLA. This increases the number of Spanish routes which Ryanair operates out of Liverpool to nine.

Flights to Palma will commence on Tuesday 27 March, whilst the Alicante service will begin on Thursday 19 April. Both routes will operate every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

During the announcement, Caroline Baldwin, Ryanair’s Sales & Marketing Manager for the UK, said: “These two fabulous new routes increase the choice of destinations for Merseyside consumers. Ryanair now operates 35 routes to 12 European countries from JLA and these new routes are available for immediate booking on www.ryanair.com. To celebrate we are offering 5 million FREE seats, so passengers should get online immediately, before they are all snapped up.”

Liverpool Chamber’s Transport Expert, Steve Pearse, commented: “We are delighted to see a further expansion of Ryanair’s operations at JLA, over 60% of the airport’s customers now originate from outside Merseyside and this will improve the airport’s offer further. We know that for every 1000 passengers through the airport one job is created or safeguarded and growth is therefore important to the local economy. Liverpool Chamber is keen to see the continued development of routes serving Liverpool particularly to cater for inbound tourism and business requirements.”

Robin Tudor, General Manager, Corporate and Community Affairs for John Lennon Airport, commented: “These two destinations are always popular with leisure travellers from Merseyside and Ryanair’s news will give more of the region’s passengers the convenience of being able to fly from Liverpool. Currently 2 million passengers a year from the North West travel on flights to these destinations, however the lack of capacity from Liverpool on existing services, means that almost half a million passengers from our natural catchment area fly from elsewhere.”

Above - (Left to right) Robin Tudor, JLA’s General Manager Corporate and Community Affairs, La Tasca Head Chef Javier and Caroline Baldwin, Ryanair’s Sales & Marketing Manager for the UK sample the traditional Spanish dish Paella and a glass of sangria, kindly provided by local restaurant, La Tasca.

However, in the same week, business carrier VLM announced that it was scaling down its service from LJLA to London City Airport from three to two flights a day. Steve Pearse appealed to business to use the service whenever possible and ensure awareness is heightened with all their contacts. It is important that passenger carryings increase in order to ensure this valuable link with the capital is maintained and hopefully restored to its former level.

BT’s Director of People and Policy will be the headline guest speaker at a Flexible Work Symposium being put on by the Northwest Development Agency at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall on Tuesday 27 March 2007.

Caroline Waters, whose responsibilities include developing policies for BT’s flexible workforce of 70,000 people, will be delivering a presentation on how BT successfully operates its flexible work programme and the significant benefits it generates.

Since implementing flexible working more than 20 years ago, BT has recorded higher rates of employee productivity, lower absenteeism and reduced overheads. BT homeworkers are 7% happier than their site-based colleagues and 99% of women return to BT after maternity leave, saving the company around £5m per year in recruitment and induction costs.

Over a 12 month period, flexible working has saved BT people the equivalent of 1,800 years commuting with reduced travel costs over the same period amounted to £9.7 million. Add to this the fact that the annual cost to support an office-based desk worker in London is £18,000 a year, compared with the £3,000 price tag of supporting a home worker and the flexible working sums clearly add up.

The event is being organised by the Northwest Development Agency and is supported by the Northwest Flexible Working Group and is free to attend. It is open to HR, IT and Finance executives who are running or considering implementing a flexible working policy.

Peter Connor, regional manager for BT and Chair of the Northwest Flexible Working Group said “We are delighted to be welcoming Caroline to the region. This will be the first time such a detailed presentation on BT’s Flexible Working programme has been delivered outside of London and it’s only right that it should be here in the Northwest as we have a vision to develop the region as the lead location in encouraging and supporting this modern way of working.”

Andrew Halliwell, acting Head of Regional ICT Policy at the Northwest Regional Development Agency and fellow Flexible Working Group member, said “The Northwest Regional Development Agency is supporting this Symposium as we recognise that an increase in flexible working delivers benefit to the region’s economy and environment. We know that the Northwest is already home to thousands of at-home entrepreneurs and employees who are making use of one of the UK’s leading IT infrastructures with over 99.99% broadband coverage across the region and this event will encourage this activity to flourish yet further.”

With presentations from four providers of flexible working products and services, plus an Exhibition, the afternoon event is expected to be a sell-out. There are only 60 places available; for registration details, please visit the England’s North West website to find programme details and a registration form.

Despite the snow falling on the city this Thursday morning, it seems Liverpool has not suffered the ’six inches of snow’ threatened by weather pundits yesterday. This is undoubtedly good news for the region’s economy - minimal disruption to transport and staffing levels, resulting in less lost business.

However, surely the 10-year old in us all was a bit disappointed when pulling back the morning curtains to see just a light dusting on the ground. We’ll have to wait for another day to enjoy some Calvin & Hobbes style snowman fun…

See the BBC for local weather predictions (more snow!)