CHAMBER NEWS
Focus on public affairs and sustainability Ashley Amato has been appointed to the role of Public Affairs and Sustainability Executive. Ashley has been with the team for the last year as maternity cover, and previously undertook research for Cork Chamber as part of her Masters programme on “Anaerobic Digestion: A Circular Solution for Energy Resilience”. She holds a BBus in Tourism and Hospitality Management from MTU and a MSc in Co-operatives, Agri-
food and Sustainable Development from UCC. Ashley is an experienced researcher with sustainability expertise in key areas that concern our membership including energy, agrifood and transport. She will continue to utilise and expand her expertise to evolve the Sustainable Cork Programme and further embed sustainability in the Chamber’s public affairs work to drive real change across business and government.
Mix your Mode Award-winning Economic Trends seminar The Transport and Mobility Forum (TMF) celebrated its 10 year anniversary with their annual Mix your Mode seminar on April 21st at Cork City Millennium Hall. The seminar reflected on the evolution of public and active travel over the last 10 years and looked forward to the future vision for how Corkonians will travel in the future and the challenges and opportunities we will face along the journey. The event heard from Bernie Connolly, Cork Environmental Forum; Clare Deasy; Damien O’Tuama, An Taisce; Stephen Hackett and Emma Love, Irish Rail; and Stephan Koch, UCC. The TMF is a representative group of organisations with a common interest in sustainable and active travel and Cork Chamber supports the forum. The forum takes a non-sectoral approach to influence infrastructure and policy, and promotes and supports sustainable and active travel in and around Cork. Originally established as a once off steering group for a promotional event, the TMF is now a best-practice example of cross sectoral collaboration between local stakeholders in the private and public sector who wish to make a real difference in promoting sustainable travel.
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Pictured are Fiona Candon, President Chambers Ireland; Joe Creegan, Head of Corporate Life & Pensions, Zurich Life Assurance (sponsors of the award); Bo Browne, Marketing & Communications Manager Cork Chamber and Ian Talbot CEO, Chambers Ireland.
Chambers Ireland held the Annual Chamber Awards, sponsored by Zurich Insurance, recently at the Killashee Hotel. These awards are a wonderful celebration and recognition of all the efforts of Chambers throughout the country. Cork Chamber was shortlisted in four categories: •
Event of the Year: Cork Digital Marketing Awards 2022
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Lobbying & Policy Campaign: Securing Electric Trains for Cork
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Communications & Representation: Economic Trends Report
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Sustainability & SDGs: Sustainable Cork Programme
Cork Chamber was awarded the prize for the ‘Communications & Representation’ category for the Cork Chamber Economic Trends report. Economic Trends is a quarterly report produced by Cork Chamber that takes the pulse of Cork businesses and serves to engage with and inform on important issues for the future of businesses in the Cork region. Economic Trends, is sponsored by Permanent TSB, and a copy of the Q2 Economic Trends is circulated with this edition of ChamberLink and can be found online at www.corkchamber.ie