bjc march meeting notes - 11 03 14

8/12/2019 BJC March Meeting Notes - 11 03 14

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Bristol Junior Chamber

March Monthly Meeting 11.03.14 18.00 for 18.30The Guildhall

Notes prepared by Alice Peacock, Honorary Secretary

Attendees Gemma Alaway, Lizzie Archer, Lucy Bartlett, Chris Birakos, David Bird, Amy Bracey,Karl Brown, Jack Callow, Charles Chami, Kate Cook, Lara Cron, Alexandra Cross, Claire Davies, ClareGammon, Rachel Gollin, Andy Grey, Mark Heath, Michael Holder, Melissa Houston, Darren Jones,Sarah Lancaster, Mark Langmead, Leon Musmann, Robert Nye, Carly O'Dwyer, Gemma-Jane Ogden, Alice Peacock, Lauren Preedy, Ben Proctor, Heather Rees, Zifa Sadriyeva, Tom Selway, ZoeSheppard, Kate Shipton, Scott Silbereis, Ben Silvey, Ben St Quintin, Kirsty Swan, Claire Tomlin, LynneTinsley, Jonathan Williams (41 members)

Plus Ian Grubb (Rolls Royce), Tom Gable (Hartnell Taylor Cook), Natalie Dodd (Grant Thornton),Lee Waterson (Grant Thornton), Paul Archer (Daredevil Projects Ltd), Emma Cladi (Davies andPartners), Henry Rock-Evans (Max Fordham LLP), Laulna Balina, Muhammad Hussim, Alice Altanyon, Elgan Jones (11 guests)

Total attendees 52 plus 3 speakers.

Apologies Received Gemma-Jane Ogden

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Welcome from BJC President Tom Selway Welcoming John Savage, James Durie and ZaheerShabeer and asking each speaker to give an introduction about themselves and their links withinBristol, along with any comments for BJC.

James Durie, Business West

The biggest and most important role we play is getting business to be well organised and have acredible voice, to make things happen. We have a long term sense of thinking about Bristol, it is aplace which attracts and draws people in it is our job to nurture that.

Zaheer Shabeer, Chairman of Building the Bridge

I was elected by my community as a representative, and my role has developed and changed enabling me to engage with the diverse communities of Bristol. This gives access to lots ofcommunity engagement in Bristol. We need to engage with the diversity that there is in Bristol, itis important that we get the whole of Bristol to work together. BJC is at the forefront ofdelivering services and engaging communities.

John Savage

Lets move this city into the realms of amazing achievement, we could be the first city to eradicatepoverty for all. Everyone should have the opportunity to have productive work, but who makesthis happen? There are still the same number of people who cant read at 16, the same number ofpeople who are technically unhoused. These are basic provisions. How do we change this? Wehave done a lot of great things in Bristol, but it is not enough. We need people like you todetermine how we play a part in this. The UK is one of the most civilised countries in the worldand we must work to make it more so.

Tom Selway One of my commitments for this year has been that BJC add value to the boards andthe groups organised already in Bristol, what can we do and how can we get involved?

James Durie We have to commit a bit of heart and a bit of head. The whole of the LEP agendafor the past three years has been a bit of a leap of faith, winning resources and achieving things.

But very few people have been directly paid for this, it is a sense of putting in time and effort thatpeoples collective skills will make a difference. This is beyond th e day job, and it good for yourday job it equips you with better skills and experiences (much like BJC).


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Zaheer Shabeer Sometimes we lose sight of where we are going. It would help yourselves tohave more understanding of the wider community.

John Savage The challenge is to understand the importance of growth. Places change, weneed to be looking forward and finding the place that we want to invest in and get something outof to allow our businesses to grow.

James Durie Bristol is going to grow, we attract inward migration and procreation the placeis growing in the terms of people. As the city grows we must try to not lose our sense of self people like Bristol for quality of life, ability to get elsewhere and whether you stay here or getdra wn back here we cant lose this.

Questions invited from guests;

Question One Cities are most successful when they hot house certain industries? Do youagree with this, and if so what is it that Bristol is all about and that we should be focused on?

o John Savage One of the largest armaments producing centres, and also moderntechnologies. The proximity of London for another city is unique. There is fantasticopportunities and good intentions.

o Zaheer Shabeer Growing doesnt necessarily mean in size, whichever sector we might want to improve on it is for us to take that challenge. Bristol is not investing enough inpeople, in 10 years time the skill set will be completely different.

o James Durie There is new growth, like the Engine Shed, we have interesting areas ofresearch and there really is an enterprising city developing around digital, production etc.The BBC is one of the really important anchors of the area.

Question Two What can we do in making change, short of lobbying David Cameron?

o John Savage Of course we have to contribute to the whole, but competition createseffort and if we dont create effort what will happen to this city? You have to moan, and

keep at it. We just need to be enabled to do things. Lots of work went into creating a mapfor where we would put people/build, local authorities hate this, houses are being built where we said they should be on the map but under the authority of working together,applying for support with building roads and transport, we could have made enormousprogress in connectivity. Doing things separately does not help anyone. Bradley Stokedevelopment was, for years, a desert a lack of local authority planning and developmentof shops, pubs etc.

o Zaheer Shabeer Do we need to get other chambers, other organisations on board?Lobbying local MPs does make a difference, a positive impact can be had. We have justgot to be persistent.

o James Durie The city thought long and hard about having an elected mayor, and we

went for it. We, as a city, have elected a mayor different to all other cities in the UK. We are making sure we are heard and have influence. We have to pick our moments. Anyresponsibility that we have is good, but the big elephant in the room is the housing issue peopl e politely talk around it. We are not there with housing, this has a huge impact onthe prosperity of a place.

Question Three How do we get decisions made? The frustrations build with delays.

o James Durie The closer you get to a general election, the more unfocused things get.The experience of dealing with government is that they expect you to have everythinglined up and evidence based but then they do not reciprocate.

o John Savage I had to learn as a business man how local government was funded, oneof the things that struck me that for every 1 allocated to Bristol Coventry got 2.80,Belfast got 38 back in the 1980s. If people understood this, there would be a riot. The


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computer works it out based on people, number of roads/toilets etc., and if it doe snt get itright we feed the information in again.

Question Four From a micro perspective, BJC and our businesses, what should we be doing?On a smaller basis, what works hiring practice, business focus etc.?

o Zaheer Shabeer

Sometimes particular businesses are more appealing to certaincommunities. What I would like to see is more cross-over and more relationship building.

o James Durie Get involved in BJC and get involved in CofM. The education side ofthings that BJC does is very strong. It depends what is important to you and your business, and your skills but getting involved in education is an amazing way to besuccessful and making a difference.

o John Savage Get your organisations to get young people involved in work experience.Open your minds to people, and get your organisation to welcome people in.

Thank you our three speakers.

Move to the General Meeting chaired by Tom Selway.

Mark Langmead Events and Social Midday tomorrow is the final call, 9 peoplefor the Annual Dinner to beat 2013s numbers.

Karl Brown Vice-President AGM will be the launch of my upcoming year and what I intend to do. Hannover visit 23 rd -26 th May.

Michael Holder Business & Enterprise Networking Breakfast on Thursdaymorning, 11 people signed up so far Goldbrick House from 7.45am with full English for10.

Georgina Baxter - Education & Skills (Kate Shipton in lieu of Georgina Baxter) Tuesday evening for School interviews at BGS, if you have time please let me know.

Gareth Mason - Heritage & Culture Forthcoming activities coming up.

Darren Jones Policy & Influence Trip to Parliament Monday 7 th April with lunchand tour of the Commons and speakers. There are 2 places left. 50 including transportto/from. Presidents Dinner went well this year and this will be carried through for2014/2015 watch out for further detail.

Rob Nye - Treasurer This seems like an appropriate venue for encouraging people tomake payments, we are coming to the year end. If you need any information or updatesplease let me know. On the annual dinner we are very focused on people paying.

Gemma-Jane Ogden - Marketing (Alice Peacock in lieu of Gemma-Jane Ogden)

Bugle is finished and due for the Annual Dinner and to be circulated upcoming. Alice Peacock Honorary Secretary Please let me know of any details that need to

be updated before the end of the year (new emails, new addresses etc.)

Oliver Brown - Investment Forum x

Rob Barnes Membership x

Tom Selway Please stand for a position, please speak to any of the CofM.

AOB Round of applause to Tom Selway (Darren Jones).

-Meeting adjourned 19.50-

bjc march meeting notes - 11 03 14

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