This is the first part of the latest Topical Talks business roundtable.

A wide range of subjects was covered by the panel for our third Topical Talks roundtable.

Around the table:

Gary Lamb, chief executive, ManxTelecom

Geoff Kermeen, director, Keystone Law

Basil Bielich, director, Browne Craine

Carol Glover, Isle of

Man Enterprises

John Coleman, chief executive, Microgaming

Mike Foy, chief executive, Utmost Wealth Solutions

Richard Butt, editor, Isle of Man Newspapers

The event held in the boardroom at Isle of Man Newspapers was sponsored by Manx Telecom.

And the business leaders were keen to push the principles and ideals of ‘Isle of Man plc’.

The panel touched upon a wide range of topics that included the future of the island’s legal and professional services.

There was also a debate about the tax cap and this provoked a vigorous discussion that led on to other matters.

And it was also suggested the island should look forwards by emulating what is going on in ‘cool’ Iceland.

The roundtable kicked off with a discussion about flexible working practices including the pros and cons of working from home or the office.

Geoff Kermeen said companies such as Tesla were ‘harnessing the power of network’.

He said people gave up their own time to work on developments because they believed in electric cars and Tesla being successful.

Mr Kermeen extolled the virtues of an American company called WeWork, which he described as a ‘a massive phenomenon’.

It provides shared workspaces for technology startup subculture communities, and services for entrepreneurs, freelancers, startups, small businesses and large enterprises. Founded in 2010, it is headquartered in New York City. [It is understood to be huge in Europe too].

Mr Kermeen said that it was the sort of thing that it would be nice to get in the island.

He said: ‘People are discovering building their own business networks through being a member of something like WeWork. Although we do have places such as the Eagle Lab here, which is great, actually part of the strength of WeWork is that it is all over the world. People are able to build a business through networks.’

Mr Kermeen said that, from a business perspective, this was part of a ‘massive sea change.

People are working on a much more networked basis.

‘It all started with the internet but we are starting to see where that is going to take us.’

Carol Glover referred to a speech she had made at the Chamber of Commerce festive lunch.

She hopes the island will become the most mobile working friendly place in the world.

She suggested ships be adapted as ‘co-worker ships’ so that travel becomes part of ordinary working life.

‘I think we could be targeting the remote worker as the number one target because we disrupt the people model and not the business model.

‘We have some great remote workers in the Isle of Man but to do that we are going to need a much better infrastructure for the best of the best to work independently.’

She told how she mentors and coaches people.

And she talked of ‘flashes of brilliance around the island in young people’.

She said she is very motivated by and learns from helping young people who were entrepreneurs.

Basil Bielich, director of Browne Craine, said the message he gives out at conferences was the accessibility of the Isle of Man and how easy it is to pick up the phone to speak to people in government.

He said: ‘That’s quite critical. If we are going to bring them here we have got to tell people that it is easier to bring a business to the Isle of Man than anywhere else.’

Mrs Glover told the gathering that there were approximately 3,500 businesses in the island employing people.

Only 19 of them employed more than 200 people.

‘So we are 99.5 per cent SME economy. [small to medium sized enterprises].

‘Some 3,200 of our businesses employ less than nine people.

‘So we have this massively entrepreneurial business sector that nobody really knows about because they are so busy running their own businesses.’

She said young people who want to set up a business here have to be so ‘resilient and determined’.

Dr Alex Allinson MHK said government was realising that if people are going to work from home remotely there has to be fast and reliable internet available for all.

He said: ‘It has to be a national infrastructure project.’

He talked of the importance of wi-fi at places such as the airport and on the Steam Packet.

He said: ‘If we can tie all those things together with the right financial resources then certainly the Isle of Man is a great place to come and live. It is safe and it is beautiful.

John Coleman of Microgaming said that in theory everybody could be working remotely from home every single day.

But he said it is not like London where workers often face two to three hour commutes to work ‘where the quality of life for somebody doing the London commute is unsustainable’.

Here in the island the ‘worst case’ commute was around 20 minutes and in most cases round about Douglas it was a nine-minute commute, he said.

Mr Coleman added: ‘So the reasons for working away from the office are very different here. I don’t subscribe to the theory that working from home makes life any easier, particularly in the Isle of Man.

‘So you still lose that benefit of close collaboration and teamwork.

‘Every meeting room in our building in Circular Road is fully equipped for video conferencing. We can speak to everybody and everybody round the world is desk to desk.

‘You still cannot beat a face-to-face in certain tasks.’

Mrs Glover clarified what she meant by what she calls the ‘remote working opportunity’ in the island.

She said it is people living here and selling their personal and professional services all over the world.

She currently works with people on three continents in her own coaching business.

She added it is about a business model that people live here, sell all over the world and the island gets the revenue.

A by-product is that the island gets the benefit of the brainpower and contacts of these people to aid further growth.

Carol Glover said the Chamber of Commerce is ‘changing dramatically’.

She said president Chris Allen is working hard to make changes and for the organisation to reflect the economy and ensure it represents all businesses regardless of size.

She personally felt it may have been too professional and big business orientated in the past and was now working hard to address this.

expertise

Geoff Kermeen of Keystone Law said the island needs expertise.

He said: ‘The island needs to develop networks outside the Isle of Man in order to bring in that expertise.’

He said businesses here can use expertise that is not actually in the island in a more collaborative basis than they can at the moment.

‘There are unfortunately businesses that are still operating in industrial revolution style.’

He referred to Keystone Law, the business of which he is a director, and he said there were some people who thought it was not a proper law firm because the way it is structured is different from anybody else.

‘The reality is that we work with other lawyers within our organisation on a team basis better than most law firms would.

‘In our organisation everybody is self-motivated and if you are going to work with somebody else then it is better to be doing that.’

He added: ‘If the island can tap into expertise from elsewhere, whether they are in Hong Kong or wherever, there are the platforms and possibilities to do that.’

Carol Glover believed remote working would make us more enlightened.