As we say goodbye to, what has to be, in anyone’s book, a particularly challenging year, you have to marvel at what the Norfolk business community have achieved. Despite the pandemic, lockdowns, partial lockdowns, reduced staffing levels due to illness and tough financial positions, we are in awe of the resilience and fortitude of the businesses and their teams across Norfolk. It’s very easy to forget that at the heart of any business, whether you are an engineering company, or a digital marketing agency, it’s all about the people. The people, their skills and their attitude will make the difference between a successful business and not. The Chambers remit is to connect, support and give voice to every business – our team engages daily with lots and lots of enthusiastic and knowledgeable people, who are central to everything we do. It is your expertise, thought leadership and brilliance that we are broadcasting, using our website, social media and digital media platforms, such as our podcast, Norfolk’s Voice and The Norfolk Knowledge Hub. Our biggest asset is our ability to collaborate with businesses and this is visible at our flagship events like Talking Tech and B2B. As a result of the pandemic, Talking Tech 2021 was the Chambers’ first large scale face to face conference in nearly 19 months. We were so pleased to welcome so many different businesses and real, live, actual people, despite having to scale back to be covid secure. The expertise and knowledge from our speakers was amazing – as was the enthusiasm and engagement of all those who attended. We also used Talking Tech 2021 to help Norfolk County Council launch their Digital Strategy – which aims to make Norfolk the best-connected rural county in the UK. By far our biggest and most collaborative event was B2B 2021. This exhibition is a huge undertaking, made even more challenging, when trying to deliver it during a pandemic. It usually takes 6 – 9 months to plan and execute. In July 2021, the government announced that large scale events could take place – that gave us just 3 months to deliver B2B, but we were determined! With a huge amount of effort from our superb Chambers team; a collaboration with Huxley Events, to support the actual delivery; and critically, the enthusiasm, dedication and ‘can do’ attitude of every single one of our 120 exhibitors – the event was totally and utterly brilliant. It demonstrated community spirit and the wide-spread support of the Norfolk business community, but most of all, it was about people supporting and engaging people. ‘What You Need is What We Do’ and our brilliant Chambers team will continue to deliver the engagement, support and connections you need in 2022. We have The Big Debate coming up in early February. In the last few weeks we have been asking you what are the 4 topics you want to debate? So far, the front runners include: People & Skills, Transport & Infrastructure and Climate Change. You still can influence this, as the survey is open until Christmas Eve. We very much look forward to bringing you some amazing and thought-provoking speakers and panellists. What else is coming in 2022? Our new website; more technology innovation to support our members; lots more thought leadership from across the business community; greater engagement and lots of networking throughout the whole of Norfolk; and most of all we will be listening and engaging with you, our customers. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a safe, prosperous and Happy New Year. Nova
