Supporting economic growth will be the theme of an Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce dinner later this month.

The business lobby group says it will be a chance to look ahead at the organisation’s aims and plans for initiatives to support the economy, and to reflect on what it believes are the successes achieved by it over the past 12 months.

Guest of honour and presenter will be Manx-born after-dinner speaker Graham Davies, who bills himself as ’The Presentation Coach’.

The former barrister was born at the Jane Crookall Maternity Home in Douglas and educated at King William’s College before going on to become president of The Cambridge Union.

He is now advertised as a go-to expert in the British Isles for senior executives, celebrities and politicians who need to present better under pressure.

On his website, Mr Davies lists a number of people who comment about him. One is Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

He is reputed to have said: ’Graham Davies is a talented gagmeister who shows that the best way of exposing a bad argument is with a good joke.’

A Chamber of Commerce spokesman said its successes include the launch of the Business Connex service (a joint initiative between Chamber and the government’s Department for Enterprise); a range of initiatives to make Chamber ’even more open and accessible’ including the introduction of open forums; the launch of the Knowledge Connex mentoring and knowledge sharing platform; and increasing Chamber membership and representation of new businesses by offering free membership for start-ups.

The gala dinner will be at the Villa Marina on Friday, September 20.

It will take place two days after Chamber’s annual meeting, which will see Caren Pegg officially appointed as the Chamber’s president.

She was appointed as acting president in April this year following the decision by the then president Chris Allen to step down a few months before the end of his two-year term in office because of work commitments.

Mrs Pegg, a partner in the dispute resolution department at Appleby Isle of Man, became Chamber’s vice-president in September 2017 and immediately prior to that was chairman of the organisation’s employment and skills committee.

Tickets for the dinner are £90 each.