6 minute read
The BID launches a Covid-19
A BID for recovery
Manor Royal BID launches a Covid-19 recovery plan
ACovid-19 Manor Royal Business District Recovery Plan has been published by the Manor Royal BID (Business Improvement District) outlining support for the area's recovery.
The plan will be used to organise the actions and decisions of the Manor Royal BID allowing it to feed in to the work of the town wide Crawley Economic Recovery Taskforce set up by Crawley Borough Council, of which the BID is a part.
From the short-term shock and initial response (Phase 1) through to the restart phase (Phase 2) and eventually, in the longer term, a planned return to growth (Phase 3), the Recovery Plan covers a range of objectives and actions to help Manor Royal recover from the worst economic downturn in a generation.
Trevor Williams, Chair of the Manor
Royal BID, said; “With the devastating effect of Covid-19 on the economy, our plan responds to the challenges we are facing and how the BID can ensure that Manor Royal Business District continues to be a place where businesses want to operate and invest. Our long term aspirations include, investment in transport infrastructure, renewable energy generation, better facilities, improved parking management, development of small workshop and Industrial units, an Innovation Hub and much more.”
Councillor Peter Smith, Cabinet member for Economic Development
at CBC said: “I am delighted that Trevor Williams, Steve Sawyer and the Manor Royal BID have put a good recovery plan together so quickly and agreed to join our Town wide Crawley Economic Recovery Taskforce. Working together is the best way to help our residents and businesses to come out of the Covid-19 pandemic in a way that works for everyone and will deliver jobs and prosperity for our Town."
Councillor Bob Lanzer, Cabinet Member for Economy and Corporate Resources at West Sussex County
Council, said, "It is great to see the Manor Royal BID operating in such a forward-looking way by preparing a comprehensive recovery plan. This is an expression of confidence in the future, in our ability to work collectively to restore the Crawley economy and so benefit our residents and the wider West Sussex community".
www.manorroyal.org See the Manor Royal BID Recovery
Plan at: www.manorroyal.org/covid19
Manor Royal Business District provides the employment foundation for both Crawley and the wider Gatwick Diamond area. It is home to more than 500 businesses providing jobs for 30,000 people, 18,000 of whom commute to the area from outside the town. By itself, Manor Royal accounts for 40 per cent of Crawley's total employment and, according to the Ratings list, provides over 700 individual rateable business units.
Do you know where you are going?
As a professional networker and meeting convenor working in the travel and aviation sector, few people are more squarely in the Covid19 crosshairs than Jeremy Taylor.
Since 2018, Jeremy Taylor's business, The Company Connector has introduced dozens of large organisations to the people who matter most to them – stakeholders and potential partners.
Using London Gatwick airport as a hub, he has shaken more hands than he cares to remember and built countless networks, both for international trade delegations and for British exporters. But overnight the Covid crisis has halted all conferences, turned Gatwick into a ghost town and sent travel bookings tumbling.
Jeremy has therefore pivoted to create a new business – ViTex, the Virtual Trade Experience. With international conferences off the agenda for the foreseeable future, ViTex enables British exporters to connect virtually to trading partners overseas and helps foreign trade delegations make vital connections with UK businesses.
Utilising video communications and remote delivery, you will meet your prospective partners, clients, suppliers and collaborators to build the network you need to succeed in any market or any destination, promoting your products and services while establishing a commercial presence.
ViTex Sessions provide a place, online, for businesses to meet and to discuss trading opportunities as well as pro
mote a region. The ViTex Team have access to over 30 destinations and are building this network so you can reach the markets you need.
At the moment, there are positive discussions with Argentina, Bulgaria, the Middle East and a number of cities in the USA. But where do you want to go to? Let Jeremy know & he will delve into his contact book & set up the best connections for you.
Each ViTex Session is no more than 2 hours and is hosted and facilitated to ensure all participants are engaged and generate real commercial collaborations. How does it work?
The Event starts with a 10-minute overview of each destination, delivered by experts in trade from that destination. Each participant is then paired with a likely business from the destination in a Breakout Room for 15 minutes, and then allocated to another room and so on, taking part in up to 5 meetings. We then reconvene and you agree your next steps - full contact information of all participants will be distributed after the Event.
Fees - £30 / €35 / $40. Delivered by www.TheTradeConnector.com Call us on 0 (+44) 78 31 14 80 64 connect@TheTradeConnector.com
Martine Robins explains why it was time to upgrade her offices even in times of uncertainty
Having set up The HR Dept Woking & Guildford nearly four years ago, providing outsourced HR support primarily to local SME businesses, I took the decision to move into a new office at Tanshire Park, Elstead.
Having expanded my business last year, the plan was to find an office that could support our continued growth. We were really fortunate that Tanshire Park was recommended to us. It is an ideal location, with great amenities too.
We had enjoyed two weeks of being in our new office before the Government lockdown forced us to revert back to working from home. Despite this, we have been lucky to be able to work from home and still continue to support our clients during these challenging times.
However, we are really looking forward to getting back to our great office and getting to know the Tanshire Park community once again – socially distancing, of course.”
We see it as a step to getting back to some form of ‘normality’ in these challenging times. We also want to continue to support other local small businesses and find innovative ways of doing that to help them and the wider economy.”
The discussion has since turned to questioning the need for office space when it can be a huge expense for businesses and the COVID-19 pandemic has seen a need, where possible, for flexible working particularly working from home. I can appreciate that for some business owners this will be a burning question now but for us, it is more than just having an office.
We wanted to be part of a business community and have access to facilities that will enable us to hold seminars and undertake training in the same location.
While we have transitioned to more virtual options at this time and will continue to utilise them, we still want to be able to facilitate hosting events when it is safe to do so
“Luckily, we had managed to notify everyone that we had moved to a new office but ultimately, we look forward to welcoming clients and business partners to visit us again at our beautiful rural setting.”
