As part of its drive to promote and support responsible business, Liverpool Chamber has signed up to the Northwest Climate Change Charter.

This is a regional initiative designed to drive cuts in carbon emissions and assist both public and private sector organisations to tackle climate change.

Maresa Molloy, Liverpool Chamber’s Head of Policy & Information said: “Encouraging Responsible business practices is key to the Chamber’s work. We’re also keen to promote responsible business practice by taking the lead ourselves.”

Climate change will influence the environmental, social and economic conditions in the Northwest of England throughout the 21st Century.

Signatories to the Charter agree to tackle climate change by putting it at the core of internal decision-making, taking practical steps to limit CO2 emissions and setting up organisation-wide and effective CO2 measurement and monitoring arrangements.

Businesses such as AstraZeneca, Manchester Airport and Granada Television have already signed the Charter and are committed to taking action against Climate Change. If you would like further information or to sign the charter visit The North West Climate Change Charter website.

Find out more about climate change on the BBC website. 

Visit the Friends of the Earth climate change pages. 

Join the World Wildlife Fund and save a polar bear today. 

This year is Liverpool Chamber’s 10th year at the Aintree Grand National Festival. What started in 1997 with 60 guests has grown each year and is now the Chamber’s largest networking event and Merseyside’s largest corporate hospitality event.

This year Liverpool Chamber has reserved a number of places at the Thursday meeting of the Grand National Festival on 12 April. Guests will arrive from 11am onwards for morning coffee, study form and to take in the atmosphere of this great occasion. A four course lunch is served at 12 noon and the first race is at 2pm.

Chamber guests enjoy superb viewing from the Early Mist Boxes, a private suite at ground level close to the start of the course and offers a unique head on view of the finish as the horses battle their way up the long run-in.

The exclusive package offered by Liverpool Chamber includes FREE BAR, race card, free parking on request, tote facilities, hospitality hostesses, morning coffee, luncheon and afternoon tea, viewing of parade ring and winners enclosure on the 160th running of this great race meeting. This package is designed for the business community, their partners and guests. Its a chance to do serious business and dress up, enjoy the racing and increase your business opportunities .

Gentlemen must wear a jacket and tie and ladies are encouraged to dress up for the day. The event costs £175 per person and is guaranteed to sell out.

PLEASE NOTE: We only have a limited number of tickets left for this event. Please book early to avoid disappointment. Book you place here.

Do you want to improve the marketing focus of your business? Liverpool Chamber is holding a two day advanced course that will enable attendees to write a strategic marketing plan for their company followed by a review session a week later. The second session offers support and discussion on how delegates applied their marketing plan in their businesses.

The course covers the fundamentals of marketing from strategy and implementation to spending the budget wisely.

The course will look at effective targeting by focusing on market research and identifying customer groups.  Strategic planning is examined in detail with modules on putting your  strategy to work, what makes up the promotional mix, setting objectives and evaluation.

Most importantly, the course will help you to make the most effective use of the budget that you have by examining how to allocating marketing resources, getting more and includes tips on avoiding costly mistakes.

You’ll also get advice on those area where expert help can make the difference such as understanding the media, layout and design, copywriting and selling messages. Each delegate will receive an “Advanced Marketing” workshop manual which is an invaluable ‘marketing toolkit.’

Length:      2 Days

Time:         9:15am - 4:30pm

Venue:       Liverpool Chamber of Commerce & Industry
1 Old Hall Street
Liverpool
L3 9HG

Member Cost: £249+VAT    Non-Member Cost:£269+VAT

The next date of the course is 20th and 27th March 2007. This advanced  two day course is just £249 + VAT for members or £269 + VAT  for non- members. To book, just email bst@liverpoolchamber.org.uk or call 0151 227 1234.

Effective networking comes with practice. As long as you have done some preparation and learn to relax, you will find the more you do it, the easier it becomes. To make the most of your networking opportunities, always bear the following in mind:

• Don’t go with an agenda. Have a glass of wine, relax and enjoy yourself. You may be surprised at what happens when you’re not trying so hard.
• Wear your name badge on the right. It’s where your eye goes to when you shake hands.
• Listen to what other people do first and (everyone is interested if you’re interested in them) and listen for link words that connect with who you are and what you do.
• Prepare a ‘what do you do’ answer that’s short, snappy and memorable.
• You will create a better first impression if you deliberately copy the pace and volume of the person you are speaking to.
• Keep a great updated brochure, business card or other form of information about yourself on you at all times.
• Use ‘hosts’ & organisers to introduce you to people, they are generally well connected and secondly it’s in their interest to do so.
• Find the key nodes in the network. Don’t find a marketing person, find someone who knows lots of marketing people and then invite that person to lunch.
• Remember who you spoke to , it can often be useful to make notes about a person on the back of their business card. Stay in touch with people you like and who are interesting even if they can’t help you immediately. Follow up on any lead, no matter how minor.
• Call a friend. Its not just about meeting new people, it’s also about nourishing our existing relationships. Call someone you haven’t seen in a while and ask them to come along. It’s a good opportunity to reconnect.

Liverpool Chamber’s new e-newsletter service continues to grow. Over 1,100 people so far receive our monthly round up of business news from the Chamber and beyond. Sign up (via the above link) to up to get all the business news that matters as well as what’s happening at the Chamber.

Our newsletter is sponsored by Custom House. They are a leading global provider of foreign exchange services and payment solutions to businesses and individuals. Whether you’re making payments, receiving funds, or working to establishing a stable payment relationship with foreign businesses partners, they can provide custom solutions for your business needs.

Contact Ian Meyer on 07932 024 893 to find out more.

Read the Custom House weekly money market update by clicking on ‘more’.
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Liverpool Chamber has further developed its portfolio of services, with an online trading platform. LiverpoolABC enables companies to post their buying opportunities live on the web. These are matched up to registered businesses via an online alert or SMS text message.

Maresa Molloy, Liverpool Chamber’s Head of Policy & Information explained: “ABC stands for Active Business Community and is a new service designed to complement our LiverpoolTenders service by encouraging businesses to intertrade with each other. It has been designed as a way of matching up opportunities to businesses.”

Maresa continued: “This is an efficient way to get quotes and to trade with local suppliers. We made sure that companies who register with the service can filter the amount of information that they receive in a number of ways so that the replies received are the most up to date and relevant to their areas of interest.”

Log on to www.liverpooltenders.com