Thursday February 7th 2008, 6 - 9pm
Liverpool John Moores University
68 Hope Street
Liverpool

UPDATE is an information sharing opportunity for exhibitions, projects and events planned to take place during Liverpool Biennial 2008. Artists, curators, organisers and galleries will introduce their programme in brief pitches, followed by an informal drink and the opportunity to make new contacts and explore possibilities for collaboration.

If you have plans for Liverpool Biennial 2008 we would love to hear from you, and if you are interested in meeting artists and curators working in Liverpool, we would love to see you there. Since 2004 UPDATE events have offered an important opportunity for the visual art community to make connections in the city, and have provided a springboard for new projects and working relationships.

Even if your preparations are still in progress, your contribution and presence would be greatly valued.

For more information contact sean@biennial.com

January sees the launch of this year’s Merseyside Innovation Awards.

The Awards recognise, reward and encourage the use of innovation as a means of boosting growth and profitability on Merseyside.

2008 is the twelfth year of the Awards which are the brainchild of Brian McCann from Vanguard Corporate Finance and are supported by sponsors including Amatica, BBC Radio Merseyside, Brabners Chaffe Street, Business Link for Greater Merseyside, JAB Design, NatWest, Liverpool Chamber of Commerce & Industry, University of Liverpool, Liverpool Ventures, Insider, W P Thompson and L1 Marketing.

The Awards are open to individuals or companies with less than 50 employees and are based in the Merseyside region. They carry a first prize of £10,000 in cash and up to £4,000 in consultancy support.

Monthly winners will be recognised through January to April. The grand final will be in July, where three finalists will showcase their products before a panel of entrepreneurs and other leading figures in
the business community, when an overall winner will be selected and the major prize presented. Previous finalists have gone on to compete on BBC’s Dragons Den.

Peter Lunt, one of the sponsor group and Manager of Commercial Banking Technology Team at NatWest, Liverpool Office, said “The quality of applications we have had in recent years reflects the creative talent of Merseyside people. All of the sponsors are committed to working with our local innovators, as they strive to turn their great ideas into successful businesses”.

Visit the website and apply online at www.merseysideinnovationawards.co.uk or please contact Jean Hughes, at Vanguard Corporate Finance on 0151 705 3520.

Free help available!

If you’ve been trading for less than 3 years and need help to win those lucrative but elusive tenders, we have a limited number of FREE places on the ESF funded Promoting Tender Opportunities programme.

Our aim is to give you  the necessary entrepreneurial skills and business knowledge to successfully bid for a variety of tender opportunities.

All you have to do to apply is download and complete the form and we’ll reserve your place.

Please email completed forms to june.davies@liverpoolchamber.org.uk

Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis

For further information email June Davies at Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, june.davies@liverpoolchamber.org.uk or download this further info document.

Liverpool Chamber is calling on the UK Government to scrap its proposed increase in fuel tax.

Joining other UK chambers, road hauliers and other businesses, we have written to Chancellor Alistair Darling. We believe an increase will severely damage the UK’s haulage industry which is already trying to cope with record high oil prices and a duty rise last October.

Another 2p on fuel from April could cost hauliers an extra £170m.

Hauliers have calculated that April’s tax hike, which looks set to be followed by yet another in 2009, would add an extra £15,000 in costs per vehicle per 100,000 miles on the road.

Liverpool Chamber of Commerce chief executive Jack Stopforth said: “The message being sent from government to our logistics industry is particularly worrying.

“The ability for hauliers to compete with other European firms is looking increasingly threatened, especially considering the UK economy faces a slow down in 2008.”

He added: “The government must urgently reconsider this unnecessary rise in fuel tax to protect hauliers and businesses who use the roads on a daily basis.”

The letter to the Chancellor says: “The logistics industry is critical to the UK economy yet the tax system is making British hauliers uncompetitive. We are alarmed by the signals that the Government appears to be sending to such a crucial industry at a time when the economy appears to be stalling.

“The new rise will only compound the problems, with many smaller hauliers likely to be the worst hit as they will find it difficult to pass on the extra cost to customers.

“As an immediate measure we urge you to scrap the 2p increase scheduled for this April.”

UK Chambers of Commerce and their business members would welcome the opportunity of working with government in developing “an alternative pricing system which separates the way fuel tax is levied for cars as opposed to commercial vehicles.”

Do you think the tax rise should be scrapped? Let us know by leaving a comment here.

Read the full text of the letter…

Read the rest of this entry »

Wednesday 30 January 2008

As businesses grow and have operations across their domestic markets as well as international operations, there are new barriers to communication for the traditional meeting.

At the next Merit event, Colin Birchall of Rapid Technologies, will explore how the Rapid Green Room embraces video conferencing and meeting room technologies to enable organisations to conduct meetings with clients in real time without the time or financial costs of office disruption.

Following this FREE session you will come away with:

• The knowledge of what interactive meeting room technologies entail.
• The comprehension to implement and run an interactive meeting room and compete effectively with your competition utilising the latest interactive technologies.
• Understand practical and efficient ways in which you can reduce your carbon footprint and save your business thousands of pounds.
• Benefit from an extra working week of productivity added to your annual calendar.
• Protect yourself against corporate liability issues and achieving work life balance.

Competing in fast moving environments amidst strategies of globalization and an increasing emphasis on your organisations corporate social responsibility, can you afford to fall behind in the race to the meeting room?

To book on this FREE event visit www.merit.org.uk

Running a business, you’ll know how important mail is as one of the most effective ways of keeping in touch with your customers. Royal Mail has all the mailing solutions you need, whether you want to arrange for your post to be collected from your premises or you need to send something valuable overseas. Whatever it is you require,we can deliver it in a way that will save your
business time, money and hassle.

At Royal Mail we are committed to helping small businesses handle their incoming and outgoing mail, whatever the volume or destination.

We have built a wealth of resources designed to offer small businesses practical help as well as useful advice and consultancy services. We can help you save money on your mailings,manage your customer database or create an effective marketing campaign.

More information about these and other products and services can be found by visiting us online at www.royalmail .com/smallbusiness, calling us on 08457 950 950 or going to your local Post Office branch.

Alternatively, download this leaflet [PDF] have all the information and contact details you need.

For a free consultation on how Royal Mail can deliver marketing and goods fulfillment services suitable for your business then contact New Business Manager Peter Tyrer on 07834 259 375.

All new courses starting Feb 2008

Enhance your professional development with one of these short courses in the following technologies: Microsoft.NET; Java.

Registration event: Wed 30th January 2008, 5pm - 7pm,
Room 705 James Parsons Building
Byrom St
Liverpool
L3 3AF

Courses begin: Week commencing 4th February 2008 (10 weeks)
Location: Byrom St Campus
Fee: £230.40* per 12 credit module (* fee for UK/EU residents only)

Each course runs one evening per week 6pm-9pm, the following courses are available:

• Programming in Visual Basic.NET (Monday)
• Introductory Programming in C#.NET (Tuesday)
• Web/E-Commerce in ASP/ADO.NET  (Wednesday)
• Database Development using SQL Server (Thursday)

Registered students on CPD courses have home access to all MSDN Academic Alliance software packages which means FREE access to software such as Visual Studio, Windows Server 2003, SQL Server and many more development tools!

To register please bring with you proof of identity (passport, driving licence, birth certificate), a passport size photograph and payment for the module.  Please note places are allocated on a first come first served basis.

Further details about all of our Professional Development courses can be found at: http://www.cms.livjm.ac.uk/courses/cpd/index.htm

General enquiries:

Lucy Wilson/Debbie Parker
Admissions and Information Officer
School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences
Liverpool John Moores University
James Parsons Building
Byrom St, Liverpool L3 3AF
Tel: 0151 231 2267
Fax: 0151 207 4594
Email: cms-admissions@ljmu.ac.uk

We also offer a portfolio of training courses tailored to suit the needs of individuals and/or organisations that require flexible on demand delivery.  Training courses are delivered in short blocks between one and five days.  For more information regarding these courses visit:
http://www.cms.livjm.ac.uk/enterprise/training.html or email cms-enterprise@livjmu.ac.uk
(Please note that these courses are not subject to the registration event advertised above)