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Top story
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Designers flock to Liverpool event
The inaugural Liverpool Design Symposium has been hailed a success by its organisers with every seminar and event oversubscribed and Liverpool’s standing in the design industry boosted. The symposium, a collaboration between national industry bodies D&AD and DBA alongside the city’s own creative industry agencies Design Initiative and Merseyside ACME, was launched yesterday at St George’s Hall. Hundreds of creative professionals and students of advertising and design flocked to the event from across the country to hear presentations on subjects such as surviving the credit crunch and how to break into the industry. Kevin McManus of Merseyside ACME said: “Industry has been telling us an event like this should happen in Liverpool – we’re delighted that partners have been able to pull together to make this ambition real. The local design sector’s profile is finally starting to gain the recognition it deserves.”
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Today's news
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Insider wins again
Insider added to its packed trophy cabinet again yesterday as
assistant editor Neil Tague secured the award for best article in a
regional business magazine at the IBP Regional Journalist Awards. This is
the second year running that Tague has clinched the award, which this
year was made for an article in the April issue of Insider that
examined the director disqualifications at property developer Baysouth.
You can still read the first of his new series of online columns, Tague on Tour,
on our website, in which he outlines the battle for hearts and minds in
the TIF debate.
Stopforth eyes Indian links for Liverpool
Liverpool Chamber of Commerce has set its sights on India as a potential trading partner after a visit yesterday from the Indian high commissioner. Shiv Shankar Mukherjee met with representatives of Merseyside companies as part of a two-day tour designed to encourage trade between Merseyside and India and build on existing relationships between the country and blue-chips with local bases, such as Typhoo and Jaguar. Chamber chief executive Jack Stopforth said: “Mr Mukherjee was keen to emphasise the importance of SMEs in the economic mix of both UK and India, and the importance of UK SMEs in getting involved in import and export.”
Client wins boost Panmure’s Liverpool office
Investment banking group Panmure Gordon, which has its northern office in Liverpool, has attracted two new corporate clients in the north - Lancastrian interactive gaming company Netplay TV and Newcastle-based Vertu Motors - to sit alongside last month’s client win of Manchester-based personal care products giant PZ Cussons. Mark Hughes, managing director of Panmure Gordon’s Liverpool office, said: “The fact that such high-quality northern companies are choosing Panmure Gordon as their adviser reinforces the wisdom of our decision to open a northern office.” The Liverpool office was opened in 2007.
Further funding for TMP as Holmes takes charge
Tourism and inward investment body The Mersey Partnership (TMP) has reached an agreement in principle with local councils to receive another six-figure financial bail-out. Last year the Northwest Regional Development Agency had to step in to save the organisation after a £750,000 shortfall in funding emerged. Chairman Rod Holmes, former project director for Liverpool One, who took charge at TMP on 1 October, is confident that the organisation now has the robust systems in place to put it on a sound financial footing for the future.
Small businesses to pay as economy stumbles
The shrinking of the UK’s GDP by 0.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2008, the first quarter of negative growth in 16 years, will further dent confidence in North West business, according to experts. Charles Lucas, consultant at North West accountancy firm Beever and Struthers, said: “Current conditions are much worse than in previous recessions. Big business may have been bailed out by the government but it's the small and medium-sized enterprises, the engine of the British economy, that are directly in the firing line now.”
Fallow the leader
London-based Fallow International Freight has chosen Prospect GB’s Ascot House on Trident Business Park in Birchwood as the location for its first regional office. Fallow has moved into the 1,681 sq ft first floor of the building, which is also home to Prospect, the development subsidiary of Riverside housing group.
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Something for the weekend
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Deal of the week
Southport-based Flasma, which manufactures floor-based advertising screens, has scored a £350,000 investment from Alliance Fund Managers’ Liverpool Seed Fund. Screens are already, errr, down and running in pavements and shopping mall floors in London, Sheffield and Italy. Managing director Richard Lee said: “Because the system is floor-based it capitalises on the natural instinct to look at the floor when walking.” Which sounds fair enough.
Succinct quote of the week
“We’re not a bank are we?” Steven Broomhead, chief executive of the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), on how tough a decision it had been to write off £229,000 granted to The Mersey Partnership. We’ve given the NWDA some stick over the years, but we’ve never said that.
Make hay while the sun doesn’t shine
Where there are losers there are winners, and bargain retailers are rubbing their hands at the moment – Aldi and Travelodge this week announced plans to develop sites jointly, while Merseyside retailer TJ Morris is to open six new Home Bargains stores in Scotland. Operations director Joe Morris told Insider: “Growth is probably as good as we’ve ever had. People want value so this is a good time to expand.”
Scouser in a suit?
Shock horror. The 20 postcodes with the highest incidence of theft and burglarly, according to figures released today by Moneysupermarket.com, doesn’t contain Liverpool, although it does include districts of celebrated trendy cities like Bristol and Edinburgh. Not too surprising of course, but is this likely to see TV comedians and assorted wits up and down the country give the ‘thieving Scousers’ stuff a rest? Unlikely.
Something for next week
Alliance Fund Managers is next week hosting an event aimed at bringing together businesses working in the North West’s life sciences industry. The event takes place on Tuesday evening at the Hard Days Night Hotel in Liverpool. Special guest speaker is John McQuillian, director of the food and life sciences division of international laboratory services company LGC.
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