Chris Allen, general manager at Triumph Actuation Systems in Onchan, has been an active member of Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce since 2002, and became president of the organisation last September.

It’s been a very busy time for the organisation since then, and in this article he looks back at his first six months at the helm of the island’s biggest business network.

Q: What key objectives did you have when you became President?

Chris Allen (CA): There were five key objectives which I, and the Chamber Council, wanted to focus on. In order of priority we wanted to link-in with the Department for Enterprise’s (DfE) agency model, offer more value to our members, grow funding opportunities for Chamber, strengthen our role as the ’voice of business’; and do even more to support new and emerging businesses.

Q: Starting with the first objective, what’s the situation now regarding Chamber and the DfE agency model?

CA: DfE have now identified four new agencies - Finance, Digital, Visitor, Business - and Chamber have participated in meetings to support the formulation of the approach and the terms of reference for each one.

The Chairs of the relevant Chamber Committees have been consulted, and we have been invited to be represented on each new agency board.

It’s early days yet, but we are actively participating in the structure and formulation of those agencies with DfE.

Talking more broadly about Chamber’s relationship with Government, this continues to flourish and we are very grateful for significant Government representation at a number of Chamber meetings in recent months, including Bill Shimmins MHK, Ministers Chris Thomas, Laurence Skelly, Ray Harmer, and Graham Cregeen; DfE CEO Mark Lewin, and Adrian Moore, Head of Business Isle of Man at DfE.

Q: Moving on to the issue of offering more value to members and growing funding opportunities for Chamber, what progress has been made over the past six months?

CA: We have put a great deal of effort into organising more forums, seminars and workshops to benefit members from all sectors, and we have held 11 events over the past six months which have been attended by a total of 673 people.

In particular, our series of ’sector forums’, run in conjunction with our friends from Wirral Chamber of Commerce, have been very well received and provide a great opportunity for our members to share ideas and best practice with their counterparts from the north west of England.

Providing export documents is also a service which is valued by many of our members, and we have issued 166 since September last year.

Regarding the issue of funding, it is important to note that Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce is a not-for-profit organisation with only two part-time staff.

Growing the number of events we organise attracts more members, and we can then channel these sources of revenue into future events, so the growth in the number of forums, workshops and seminars - and income from export documents - all have a vital part to play in the future success of Chamber.

Q: What has been done to strengthen Chamber’s role as the ’voice for business’ on the Island?

CA: We have responded in detail to eight Government consultations in the past six months, and given a strong, collective voice for our members on a number of key issues - including work permits, GDPR, planning, and equality.

I think the best example of how we provide a voice for business would be the work permit reforms.

We campaigned for a suspension of work permits, and while the reforms introduced last year fell short of that goal, we welcomed the move to simplify the system because the changes went a long way towards addressing many of the concerns raised by our members.

Whether it is through lobbying or expressing the views of our members via the news media, Chamber provides a way for businesses to get their voice heard.

Q: Finally, turning to the last of the key objectives, there are some exciting plans in the pipeline which will see Chamber doing more to support new and emerging businesses.

CA: Yes, that’s correct. We have some important and exciting announcements coming soon which will smooth the process of attracting new and emerging businesses to the island.

There are still a few details to be confirmed before we can reveal these plans, but I can promise that it will be great news for Chamber, our members, and the island - and it will play an important role as Chamber continues to work towards all of our key objectives in the next six months, and into 2019.

www.iomchamber.org.im

Chris Allen pictured listening to Treasury minister Alfred Cannan

Chris Allen, centre, at the Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce gala dinner last September when he was officially appointed as Chamber president

Isle of Man Chamber’s series of ’sector forums’ - run in conjunction with Wirral Chamber of Commerce - are proving to be very popular. This is the scene from the first forum which focused on manufacturing and engineering