The Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce teamed up with the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP)for a two day event designed to bring the island’s business community closer to that of our nearest neighbours.

Northern Powerhouse Partnership chief executive Henri Murison was guest of honour at the event, which was sponsored by The Peel Group, and the Examiner caught up with some of the key players.

The two days kicked off on Thursday evening with an informal drinks reception and networking opportunity hosted by Chamber at the Manx Museum. The following morning at the Comis Hotel there was a workshop followed by lunch.

Attendees then had the chance to engage in roundtable discussions with businesses and industry leaders from the north west, and take part in sector specific workshops. Among the businesses represented were Orsted, the Denmark-based renewable energy company which has recently announced that it is opening an office in the Isle of Man as part of its commitment to developing the island’s first ever offshore wind farm.

The vision of a greener future was one of the items very much on the agenda, as well as plans for closer links for tourism and transport, and opportunities for investment, as the chief minister explained after the event.

Alfred Cannan said: ‘There are three elements: first of all there’s the clear and obvious development of tangible business links in terms of the tourist links, in terms of people travelling through the north west and coming to the Isle of Man and, vice versa, going back the other way. There are the manufacturing links that are already in existence, and understanding more about how the Isle of Man’s expertise in financial services could support regeneration and redevelopment.

‘So those are the tangibles and I think those can be developed out: they’re meaningful and you can potentially see results from that in terms of the feed into the economy, job creation and business growth.

‘The second element is in terms of sharing and learning: how different regions or groups are approaching the challenges of today, whether that be around technology, whether that be around energy, whether we can take those learnings away and implement them locally here, and whether there’s anything they wish to take away from the Isle of Man.

‘And thirdly there’s this element of future visions. We were lucky to have Sir Tim Smit from Eden Project North, talking about this future vision that we should be aspiring to, given all the environmental challenges, the climate change challenges, the energy challenges that we are facing at the moment, and actually translating that into something meaningful, not only just creating a better place but creating a better economy.’

David Morris, Conservative MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, is one of those who have been instrumental in fulfilling the vision of building Eden Project North. He secured £50 million of government funding to allow it to get off the ground and building work officially began on March 14. He has visited the island many times and describes it as ‘magical’ and he says he can envisage people visiting Eden Project North adding a few days on the Isle of Man to their itineraries, especially if facilities at Heysham were improved.

He said: We can do something more about the terminal and I think the consensus is even among the operators that there should be something more there and that’s what I want to see so I’m going to be going back and applying for a debate about how we can strengthen links with the Isle of Man.

‘I think the “Isle of Man terminal”, as I’d like to call it, can be achievable because there is money available for these kind of projects, it’s just tapping into it and explaining when the next round is to come through.’

The Northern Powerhouse Partnership was set up to increase productivity and opportunity in the north of England and Henri Murison explained how the work his organisation is doing to improve transport links between the northern cities could also benefit the Isle of Man.

He said: ‘We need to take every economic opportunity available to us and we see opportunities to collaborate with the Isle of Man as being part of the toolkit that we need to follow. Because the economic connections are there but they could be stronger, so we’re trying to better link together in transport terms, but also economically, the cities of the north, to produce that more globally significant and more productive economy.

‘Clearly at the moment, for people from the Isle of Man who arrive by ferry or by plane, it’s quite a long way to Leeds or Newcastle. In the future Manchester Airport will be on Northern Powerhouse Rail, which is part of the same project as HS2, and that will massively increase capacity and enable people to more easily get from Manchester Airport, in particular, across the Pennines. We see that vision about joining the north together in the future so all the five northern cities will be accessible and easy for people from the Isle of Man to reach.

‘And, as we attract more direct long haul flights to Manchester that should benefit the Isle of Man too, giving more opportunities for attracting tourists here.

And he went on: ‘We also believe that the Isle of Man has some particular assets that it can bring and that together, if we can in the relevant areas collaborate, we can strengthen what the north can deliver but we can also bring real benefits here to the Isle of Man as well.

‘What we’ve done is increase foreign direct investment into the north of England. We have now surpassed London’s foreign direct investment levels.

‘This is critical, particularly in the green space, and some of the businesses that are here today, like Orsted who’ve invested massively in the north of England, are also obviously investing now in the Isle of Man. So that’s a really credible example of the opportunities for that mutual benefit where some of the things that we’ve achieved in the north of England would really benefit the Isle of Man and we really need to work together to promote opportunities like Orsted and others as well that may come along.’

Chamber president Kristan McDonald said: ‘It was a great honour to welcome so many high-profile guests. This was a very useful and valuable opportunity for Chamber members to learn more about the huge advantages the island could gain by increasing collaboration via the Northern Powerhouse Partnership. Even before the event we had identified many synergies within NPP’s mission and the Isle of Man’s potential for future growth.

‘The success of this event can only strengthen collaboration based on the many shared business interests which exist between the Isle of Man and the north of England.’