chamber life

As summer swings into life, it’s a great time to look back at what’s gone on at the Chamber over the past few months, with a busy schedule of events, webinars, political engagements, and much more!

Since our last edition, we’ve had local council elections, presidential visits, the return of major local events, and an influx of local and global visitors to our region as the summer period has kicked off in earnest.

Our busy stretch kicked off with a meeting with Minister of State for Northern Ireland Steve Baker MP on 7 March. A Chamber delegation met with Minister Baker and impressed on him the impact that the ongoing absence of the Executive at Stormont continues to have on businesses and communities across Northern Ireland.

On 21 March, we held another popular Meet the Chamber networking event at the Walled City Brewery, kindly sponsored by City of Derry Airport. Always very well attended, these events are an excellent opportunity to make new connections, create partnerships or business leads, and get to know the Chamber team a bit better.

A couple of days later, we held another instalment in our

‘Back to Basics’ workshop series, focused on how to safeguard the family business. Family businesses are crucial to the success of the Northern Ireland economy; however, they can also bring their own challenges. Led by the advisory and tax experts at CavanaghKelly, this workshop took attendees through key areas including characteristics of family businesses, the benefits, challenges, and conflicts to be aware of, tax considerations, protecting wealth, succession planning, and vital legal considerations.

After Easter, we had a busy run of events right through to the summer. In conjunction with David from Derrie Danders, we held a Step Into Networking event which involved a guided tour of the city centre and a networking opportunity for members, as well as a cuppa afterwards in the Sandwich Co.

We also hosted a really useful event with the social media experts from Grofuse on Making LinkedIn work for your business growth strategy. Part of our ‘Entrepreneur in Action’ workshop series, this event was kindly sponsored by Moore NI and took attendees through the benefits of having a professional LinkedIn company page, how to use the platform as part of your sales strategy, and how to source and secure leads.

Into May, we held a major half-day conference with our partners in Business in the Community NI and Women in Enterprise NI. Women in Leadership: Diversity and Inclusivity was an opportunity to bring together and recognise some of the fantastic, innovative, and talented female leaders we have here in the North West. Held at Invista House, this was an inspiring event which explored topics and issues including learning and growth, resilience and success, and common skills and qualities to ensure business and leadership success. We were lucky to have a stellar list of speakers sharing their insights and experiences including Cathy Moran from Women in Enterprise NI, Sumeeta Gupta, Dervla McKay from Aircoach, Nuala Murphy from Diversity Mark NI, Cllr Lilian Seenoi-Barr, and many others.

A week later, we were down at the Inishowen Gateway Hotel on 18 May for a breakfast briefing on cross-border tax with our colleagues in the Letterkenny Chamber and the Cross Border Partnership Employment Services (CBPES). Always a very useful event for employers and workers in the cross-border region, this session focused on issues including social security, redundancy payments, and tax relief on pension contributions.

On 23 May, we were in North West Regional College for a special session on ‘Innovative Technologies – Rapid Change and How it Affects SMEs’. It was wonderful to hear from Travis May, a US-based expert in technology trends and their impact on businesses and SMEs, particularly timely when the world is debating the impact and effects of new technologies like AI and augmented reality on the workplace and wider society. Travis was previously a director at Mastercard and has over two decades of experience creating, building, and leading global programmes in intelligence, security, learning and development, training, and workforce innovation.

We saw out May with another ‘Back to Basics’ workshop on how to retain your top talent and remain attractive and competitive with your employers. Julie Pollock, owner of Consult HR and expert in all things HR and employment, explored the importance of retention to a business and outlined to attendees how good retention of talented and fully trained staff members is always preferable, more cost effective, and more productive than having to recruit.

On 1 June, we kicked off a busy summer period by taking part in Ulster University’s inaugural Tourism Summit. Organised by the university in partnership with the Londonderry and Causeway Chambers, the summit brought together leading tourism, food and drink, and sporting experts to celebrate the dividends that peace has brought in terms of hospitality and tourism for the Causeway Coast and North West region but also to lay down a challenge for what can and needs to be achieved over the next two decades.

Speaking after the summit, President of the Londonderry Chamber, Selina Horshi, said, “The Londonderry Chamber is delighted to be supporting Ulster University’s Tourism Summit. Tourism and hospitality are industries which are vital to the economic success of the North West, generate millions of pounds for our regional economy, and sustain jobs and households.”

A week later, we helped celebrate some of the leading businesses in the region at this year’s North West Business Awards. The awards, sponsored by Loganair, recognised the most innovative and talented local companies and entrepreneurs across 17 unique categories and were a fantastic chance to get together and celebrate the successes of our local business community. Check out pages 26 and 27 for full coverage and photos of the event.

On 13 June, we helped facilitate an informative workshop on how to make an application for The King’s Awards for Enterprise. Led by Will Arndt, Deputy Head of the King’s Awards Office from the Department of Business and Trade, this session went through what the awards are, their significance, how to successfully navigate the application process, and how to showcase your enterprise’s unique strengths and achievements.

Two days later, in conjunction with the tech experts at LoughTec and kindly sponsored by Seagate, we hosted a really useful workshop on how to secure your business in the digital world. Focused on all things cyber security, we covered a wide range of topics including phishing attacks, ransomware, the financial and reputational impacts of cyber-attacks, and how to ensure your staff are fully trained to spot potential attacks and mitigate when things go wrong.

29 June was an exceptionally busy day from beginning to end for the Chamber team with not one, not two, but three events in one day! We kicked off the marathon day of events with our

Sustainability workshop in collaboration with Business in the Community NI. Bringing together experts from organisations like Danske Bank, Derry City and Strabane District Council, and Frylite, attendees delved into how prioritising sustainability in the workplace can give you a competitive edge in the market and how you can create real environmental and social impact in your community.

Later in the day, we moved to the Beech Hill Country Hotel to hold the first of two networking sessions. First up was our ‘How to work a room – No fail networking tips’ session, where we put our attendees through their paces and explored how to master the art of networking, boost your confidence to make new connections and forge new relationships, and learn effective post-event follow-up strategies.

Our third and final event of the day, sponsored by AIB Merchant Services, was another useful opportunity to meet fellow Chamber members and get to know the Chamber staff a bit better as well.

As we moved into July, and before everyone went off on their holidays, we held our first Chamber golf day in more than ten years, ‘Fore The Win’. Held at Foyle Golf Centre, we were delighted to have over 80 people sign up in teams for a chance to be crowned champion of the North West business community! This was an excellent day full of fun, spot prizes, and a chance to get out on the links and away from the office. Read all about it and check out the pics from the day on pages 29 and 30.

Look Forward:

CBPES Employers Incentives Lunch 14 September

Networking Power Hour 19 September

President’s Annual Dinner 6 October

Annual Energy Conference and Exhibition 17 November