Chair’s Report

MIKE FORRESTER: CHAIR’S REPORT

Mike Forrester, Chair

As part of my more formal role, I work with our Chief Executive on setting goals and targets and had the pleasure of signing off on her 2021/22 successful appraisal. At the same time making sure that this coming financial year’s objectives are aligned to the business plan and with several KPI’s relating to keeping the business fresh and relevant to its members and wider stakeholders. This year I have brought in some measures to build sustainability actions into the business model. More details to follow in the coming months.

I also had the pleasure of visiting Becca and Josh Guest from Guest Homes Ltd. They have been a Chamber member for 3 years and recently decided to flex their membership by making the most of its benefits. Having exhibited at the business Expo in March, Josh and Becca have now committed to maximising their membership by attending regular networking, booking their stand at the next Expo in November and appointing a PR agency to raise their profile locally. Learn more about my visit and how Josh and Becca are working towards the expansion of their lettings business by focusing on building their portfolio with corporate lets and longer term leases in my recent posts on LinkedIn. I’m available to support every member and welcome the opportunity to meet up. Connect with me at many of the upcoming Chamber events. For more information about the full events and training calendar, please go to: -------

hwchamber.co.uk/events-and-trainingcalendar.

As you can never stop learning, I enrolled on the Chamber’s Leadership Development Programme delivered by Lucy Barkas of 3WH. Now in its 4th year of running, the first module was attended by around 50 delegates at the Bank House in late March. My agenda here is to observe and interact with millennials and Gen Z. By 2030 80% of our workforce and customers will fall into these two generations. Appreciating how they communicate with each other, and colleagues, is an important skill we older managers and leaders should work on. I undertook an afternoon of judging for the Chamber Awards too. It’s always inspiring to talk to some of the wonderful businesses we have in the two counties and their journey so far. One of my personal social highlights over the last two months was attending the recent Patron and Strategic Business Leaders Dinner and hosting Tessa Sanderson CBE, you might have seen my LinkedIn post. Take a look at all my posts here: www.linkedin.com/in/mike-forrester. To finish off, I was at the Food and Drink Forum at Weston’s Cider on May 21st . A great story with significant growth achieved and huge new business forecasted over the next two years. With investment to support the increased activity. With a presentation by another of our fledgling start-ups ‘Veg Life’. Learn more here: www.veglifeeats.com. There’s lots of Chamber activity to look forward to in the coming months and I will be reporting back again soon. In the meantime, please reach out to me directly if you think I can help you and your business, Mike.