This past year the Chamber has been busier than ever, working to support members and other Cumbrian businesses through a range of events, training, services, support and research. The following details some of the Chamber’s highlights this year…
Events
2023 was a big year for events with 23 Business Bites networking events held in venues around the county, in addition to a number of site tours, dinners, talks and roundtable discussions. We also held larger events including our Annual Partners Dinner, Cumbria’s International Women’s Day, and the inaugural Conference Cumbria which featured keynote speaker Geoff Ramm. Members of the Directors Forum (sponsored by Muckle LLP) were treated to exclusive events including site tours, talks from leading entrepreneurs, team building activities, networking dinners and a boat party social.
Membership
With a view to helping business attract and retain staff in the face of recruitment challenges, the Chamber launched an expanded membership package with employee benefits built in for businesses with 99 or fewer employees. The revamped membership package also includes a free cyber security review and IT systems review, provided by David Allen IT. As part of the Chamber’s ongoing drive to improve the member experience, development work was carried out on the website to introduce an online portal where members can login, list in the directory and share their news, events and offers.
Made in Cumbria
Made in Cumbria was relaunched earlier this year with a brand new look and website showcasing some amazing products made in the county. The new website provides a strong foundation for the aim of this project which is to build a central hub listing all of the businesses and individuals who make and/or design products in Cumbria, making it easy for customers to browse and learn about the businesses which call here home. Check out the new website – https://madeincumbria.co.uk/
Cumbria Business Growth Hub
The Chamber’s business support arm, Cumbria Business Growth Hub, finished delivering its two European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) business support programmes this year. Since 2011, through delivering ERDF funded business support, the Growth Hub has delivered tremendous impact to individuals, young businesses and established businesses in Cumbria, having worked directly with more than 8,700 businesses, with around 3,000 benefitting from intensive assistance. This has created or safeguarded 6,600 jobs and generated an estimated £330m GVA.
Since the end of these programmes, Growth Hub staff have been preparing to deliver business support via the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, some of which is currently available including decarbonisation support and support for rural businesses in the Westmorland & Furness Council area.
New Growth Hub initiatives for 2024 include a pilot business mentoring programme (now sold out), as well as a programme of commercial training on a range of in-demand subjects including artificial intelligence, podcasting, productivity and digital marketing.
Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP)
2023 saw the Chamber further its involvement in the skills sector through the delivery of the Cumbria LSIP, an initiative funded by the Department for Education. After the research period at the start of the year, during which Chamber staff engaged with hundreds of employers throughout the county, the final LSIP report was published. The report sets out the key priorities needed to make technical education and skills provision more responsive to the changing needs of employers. The Chamber will be working with other stakeholders in 2024 to further implement activities recommended in the report.
Looking forward to 2024
The Chamber is looking forward to another busy year of supporting and working alongside members and other businesses throughout the county.
We’ll also have a range of new initiatives to get involved in including innovative events, cutting edge training, new business support projects soon to be announced and a new Chamber website set for launch in early 2024.
We’d like to say a huge thank you to all of our members, patrons and partners for their support throughout 2023!
