Chamber of Commerce AGM 2009: Report

Many thanks to VentnorBlog reader, Kelvin Currie, for sending through this report from the Chamber of Commerce AGM held on Friday last week. Ed

Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce, Tourism & Industry AGM 2009
Attending: Approx 45 people attended including committee

Following a networking lunch, a short formal meeting took place, during which, the changes to the main board officers were discussed, as well as the formal acceptance of the chamber’s accounts for the last year.

The main item was a report from Kevin Smith the Chief Executive. He ran through the last 12 months of activity in the chamber, pointing out that it had been a busy year and that the current recession had meant the chamber worked harder at supporting Island businesses through these difficult times.

Major points of his report were:

* The new chamber Website is now in the National British Chambers Of Commerce (BCC) brand style.

* There had been a new “start-up” for the IW Lottery

This had supported 800 new jobs
IW Lottery scratchcards will be introduced soon

* Chamber Tourism

Working with and supporting the IW Council
Produced Summer and Winter tourist Pocket Guides
New accommodation guide will be produced for 2010
New Tourism website GoWight has been launched to drive traffic to the Island’s tourism industry
– First in country to do video streaming for this purpose
– Web optimisation is now in progress

* Chamber Membership

In excess of 850 companies are members of the chamber
22% of Island businesses are members
82.6% retention rate for membership
IW Chamber is measured 6th in UK in terms of productivity and cost effectiveness
Chamber networking events
– 1311 people attended in the last 12 months
– Varied programme from climbing and walks to the Cowes week Ball

* Support for IW Businesses Tourism (as above)

Cowes Marine Cluster – Specialist maritime services
Retail sector to be tied in with Tourism to encourage visitors to shop while they are here
Construction Industry
Renewable Energy
– Development of “Eco-Island” is one of the chamber’s top 3 priorities.

* IW Chamber Health

Funded to carry out NHS Health checks at businesses across The Island
Usually only bigger companies can have this service
Over 2000 health checks carried out on IW since April 2004

* Young Chamber

Now All IW High Schools are involved
Originally an IW Chamber Idea, now going national
Young Chamber Interactive is being launched
– Includes “5th Matrix” a Facebook/twitter style interactive site for schools to encourage career aspirations amongst young people
– IW will be trialling this first

* IW Chamber Strategic Objectives