CHAMBER members were

out in force supporting the

StreetVelodrome event, which was

praised as busiest of the series.

Worthing and Adur Chamber

members including haulage firm

Sussex Transport and Electronic

Temperature Instruments (ETI) were

headline sponsors at the event, so

we asked for their feedback as to

the value of supporting these types

of events.

A spokesman for ETI said: “As

a Worthing-based business we

believe sponsoring local events

supports both the community and is

a great opportunity to promote our

business.

“Our cycling team thought the

Street Velodrome was a great new

experience – it was also good to

see the public of all ages getting

involved riding the track. We hope it

will be back next year.”

Sussex Transport was delighted

to be one of the key sponsors,

commenting: “We took two of

our brand new Mercedes Actros

lorries to the event, which were a

real crowd puller – and there was

a constant queue of interested

spectators waiting to climb into the

huge vehicles all weekend!

“This was especially of interest

to cyclists and allowed members

of the public to get a lorry drivers

view of the world – as well as photo

opportunities for proud parents!”

Worthing was praised for drawing

the largest audiences to date when

the inaugural visit of the Asda

StreetVelodrome Series landed in

Beach House Grounds.

A NEW confederation of British

Industry survey has shown SME

optimism has improved in the past

three months. But how do we turn this

confidence into growth? The answer is

alternative finance.

The rise of alternative finance has

been spectacular – the crowdfunding

sector is growing at over 400 per cent

per year, invoice finance use has

reached record levels and peer-topeer

lending in the UK stands at over

£3bn – but there needs to be more, and

raising awareness of these services is

a key part of the growth stage.

The government is embracing

alternative finance to a degree, such

as through the British Business

Bank (british-business-bank.co.uk)and

so are traditional banks, some of

which are recommending alternative

finance providers to SMEs that fail

their lending criteria. However, this

needs more impetus if small business

owners are going to benefit from the

full range of lending options available

to them and the much-highlighted

optimism is to be turned into growth.

The announcement of the UK’s first

small business funding exhibition,

the Business Funding Show

(businessfundingshow.com) demonstrates

this goal is being worked towards.

The exhibition will take place in

London in February and its aim is

to connect entrepreneurs and small

businesses with key finance providers.

The event has been backed by

Innocent Drinks co-founder Richard

Reed. The show will hopefully act

as a catalyst for other initiatives to

promote the availability of alternative

finance services.

On Friday, September 25, Worthing

and Adur Chamber will be hosting

a Networking Breakfast to discuss

funding opportunities, alternative

finance and support available in these

areas. Come along and join us at Field

Place, Worthing for what promises

to be an interesting, informative and

valuable meeting. To book, please visit

www.worthingandadurchamber.co.uk

Written by Tony Hedger, A&T Business Associates

Deadline looms for you to grab a slice of capital cash

DON’T miss the deadline for Coast

to Capital Business Growth Grants.

Coast to Capital Local Enterprise

Partnership, in partnership with

West Sussex County Council, has

launched the Business Growth

Grants programme and is looking

for small and medium-sized

businesses that are looking to

expand and create new jobs.

Coast to Capital has been

awarded £9.5m for business finance

across the next six years.

The money comes from central

government’s Local Growth Fund,

which is a capital grant, and the

aim of the funding is to support

economic development through the

creation of new jobs, homes and

employment space.

Some £1m is available for

Business Growth Grants for the

2015-16 financial year.

Applications are welcome from

businesses that are in one of the

Coast to Capital priority sectors

and/or be able to demonstrate

strong medium term growth plans.

Retail is not an eligible sector.

Start-ups, existing businesses

and social enterprises are invited

to apply, the proposed new activity

must be additional to existing

business activity.

Businesses must be able to incur

the grant in full by March 31, 2016,

and the grant may be used only for

capital items.

Expenditure incurred means

that the goods, works or services

have been received by the

business within that period and

an invoice has been approved for

payment.

Applications for expressions

of interest are now open and

will remain open until 12pm on

September 15 – or before if the

amount of funding available is

awarded before this date.

n See more at www.coast2capital.org.

uk/helping-business-growth/49-grantfunding/

450-coast-to-capital-businessgrowth-

grants.html#sthash.l9srSbLR.dpuf

Nominations are now open he Adur & Worthing Business Awards.

Enter now and don’t miss out on a great opportunity. Don’t miss the deadline!

Getting involved will enhance your business, encourage your customers and your clients, and energise you to do better. It doesn’t cost you anything – except your time and your efforts. The Adur and Worthing Business Awards provides a platform to recognise, reward and celebrate all the successful businesses and professional individuals we have in our area. The awards are now in their ninth year and we are looking for entries from those who can prove business achievement and excellence in their field. Whether that be in growth,innovation or contribution to the community we want to hear from you.

You may have a high achiever or team of excellence within your company – why not put them forward for an extra special award?

Nominations close on Wednesday, September 23. You can nominate your own business or another that you would like to shout about. The winners of these awards will be announced at a gala black tie dinner held at the Worthing Pavilion on Friday, November 13. What makes a good entry? On Wednesday, September 9, at 5.30pm come along and join

Worthing and Adur Chamber at their monthly networking meeting at the Southern Pavilion in Worthing, where a panel of

experts will be covering why you should enter the business awards.

Previous winners will be there to share their stories and explain why they entered and how your business can benefit from entering.

The panel will share some top tips to consider when submitting your entry including:

Reading the rules – carefully 

Choosing your category 

Why you should ask for testimonials

Nominating others

Involving your staff

Go ahead and do it. It’s not too late.

Good luck!

If you would like to book for

the event or want mor details on

the Business Awards please visit

the Chamber website at www.worthingandadurchamber.co.uk

Worthing Rotary Carnival 2015

Worthing's Rotary Carnival celebrates everything great about Worthing. A weekend packed with things to do locally including free family festival, vintage day, carnival procession & free family party.

SATURDAY 29th AUGUST 2015 - BEACH HOUSE GROUNDS

BEACH HOUSE FESTIVAL
Free theatre performance of FLYAWAY KATIE by Polly Dunbar.
The Fontana's & Carnival Collective, Junk Modelling, Story Telling, Live Music, Food & Beach Bar, Inappropriate Handclap DJ's And more - a day aimed at families hanging out beside the seaside...

ATOM BIG-TOP POPUP
Open Air Music with Sea Views atom presents CASH plus support & DJ's. Payin' respect to the man in black. One of the UK's leading Johnny Cash tribute acts. "When they play, you close your eyes and feel like you are at a real Johnny Cash concert."
Doors: 7.30pm Supoort: 8.00pm Cash: 9.00pm

SUNDAY 30 AUGUST 2015 - THE STEYNE

STEAMING ON THE STEYNE
Vintage Car Show, Live Music, Great Food, Vintage Hair & Make-up Salon, Tea Rooms, Live Jazz.
Hang out, eat, drink and be entertained with a chilled out vibe.

MONDAY 31 AUGUST 2015 - THE STEYNE

CARNIVAL PROCESSION & FREE FAMILY PARTY
Celebrate all the Carnival Floats & entries, Dog Show, Live Local Music, Seafront Market, Beach Bar & Fabulous Food.
Carnival Procession times: Assemble Grand Avenue: 11.30am; Depart: 12.30pm; Arrival at the Steyne: 1.00pm

A weekend packed full of things to do locally. Raising important funds for Rotary. Keeping it FREE: Collections for Rotary will be taking place across the weekend and we'd rather your pounds went in their bucket, please give generously. You can also give online at www.worthingcarnival.com.

This event is brought to you by Rotary and Bartie Presents.

Three of Worthing’s best amateur cyclists were lucky enough to qualify to race at the national finals of the televised ASDA StreetVelodrome Series held in Central London. Local rider Rowena Price went on to beat other competitors from around the UK to win the ASDA StreetVelodrome Series Female Amateur Champion title.

Riders Rowena Price, Harriet Goss and Gavin Stephens all managed to impress the StreetVelodrome officials when they took part in Worthing’s round of the national series. They were invited to compete in the series finale, called the SuperFinal, which was held in Exchange Square, Broadgate, City of London on 13th August.

Uniquely the ASDA StreetVelodrome Series enables local amateurs to qualify to compete along side their professional counterparts at regional events racing in exciting head to head Olympic style pursuit races.

Worthing’s round of the Series, hosted by Adur and Worthing Councils, was seen as the best of the regional events with huge crowds enjoying the free cycle sport action on track over the two days. In addition the event also saw the highest number of local entrants and, according to race organisers, the best quality field of amateur riders so far in StreetVelodrome.

StreetVelodrome Series Director Carl Thompson comments “Looking back at the morning of the Worthing round of the ASDA Series it was amazing to see the queues of amateurs waiting to register for their chance to get on track. The level of competition was like nothing we had previously seen. Rowena was a great competitor both at the Worthing round of the Series and at the SuperFinals in London. We are very proud to have her as our 2015 Female Amateur Champion and it’s a fitting tribute for Worthing having hosted the most successful regional event of the Series.”

Councillor Daniel Humphreys, Leader of Worthing Borough Councils, adds: "I would like to congratulate Rowena on taking home the 2015 Female Amateur Champion title - this is really quite an achievement given the high standard of amateur competitors from around the country.”

“We are putting substantial time and energy into bringing the right events into the town, ensuring that there is something for everyone to enjoy and establishing Worthing as a vibrant destination for active holidays. I’m delighted at the reception our StreetVelodrome weekend received and am looking forward to seeing it in the town again.”

The ASDA StreetVelodrome Series will be shown on BTSport in September with further repeats on other networks expected throughout the autumn and winter. More details about the 2015 UK StreetVelodrome Series can be found at www.streetvelodrome.co.uk

The latest tourism stats are out for Worthing...

7-8 October 2015

ExCel London
The challenge of securing corporate data and networks to mitigate risk is greater than ever. CISOs need new tools, new thinking and policies to meet these challenges.

Cyber Security EXPO 2015 has been designed to do just that. Key themes to be included - Internet & Network Security, Social and Consumer Trends, Cyber Crime, Log Data & Advanced Analytics, Identity & Access Management, Privacy & Data Protection, Cloud Security & Governance and Mobile Device Management.

Read more

The government has released its latest set of guidance papers for suppliers who supply goods or services to the public sector via the Crown Commercial Service

The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) is in place to make sure that small and medium‑sized enterprises (SMEs) have access to government contract opportunities, making it easier for them to do business with government, and making sure that 25 per cent of government’s spend, either directly or in supply chains, goes to SMEs by 2015.
    
Additionally, CCS makes sure that departments publish details of future projects and contracts on the Contracts Finder website every six months, giving businesses the confidence and time to invest in relevant skills, labour and capabilities to win these contracts. It works to obtain simpler, more flexible EU procurement rules in Brussels to support economic growth by making the procurement process faster, less costly, more effective for both business and procurers; this will affect more than £45 billion of central government spend (more than £230 billion for the UK public sector) every year. This will help commissioners of public services to become more effective through the Commissioning Academy and use commercial intelligence more effectively to improve the value gained from contracts across government.
    
As a guide for suppliers and buyers there is a standard set of terms and conditions for framework agreements and call-off contracts for goods and services bought under the agreement. The template for call-off contracts forms the basis of the terms and conditions in individual further competitions and can be supplemented or refined with additional terms to suit the requirement.
    
All CCS suppliers must submit monthly management information (MI) returns. This is done online through the MISO system. You will need to include the unique reference number (URN) for each customer listed on the return. Failure to submit MI returns correctly or within the agreed timescales may incur admin fees.
    
CCS is updating its internal Customer Relationship Management system and as a result the weekly downloadable list of URNs will be changing. The existing sheet of four tabs will reduce to three, listing all live URNs with customer details, a second detailing merges and a third detailing name changes. Legacy tabs will be added for the time being showing older changes that are not present on the new system. The sub-sector is now known as organisation type and is being updated to better and more accurately describe the organisation within its sector.

Lord Young recommendations
In February this year, a report by the Prime Minister’s Enterprise Advisor Lord Young outlined a set of new reforms that will give smaller companies more opportunities to win government contracts. The report, which was five years in the making, analysed the developing nature of business since Lord Young’s appointment as Enterprise Advisor in October 2011.
    
A stand out feature of the report was the government’s plan to abolish Pre‑Qualification Questionnaires (PQQs) for all low value contracts, and to standardise these for contracts above the EU threshold. This represented a change to the previous system, whereby small businesses often lacked the resources that were made available to larger firms, making it harder for them to compete in the public sector.
    
The proposed changes came into place in April. Lord Young said: “PQQs have been found to be onerous by small businesses, often imposing more than 40 pages of questions before they can be considered for bidding for a contract.”
    
The report also detailed a ‘golden age’ for small businesses, commenting on how a record number of said small businesses now operate in the UK. Since 2010, the amount of small firms has increased by 760,000, and now numbers 5.2 million. This has boosted employment levels, with 48 per cent of private sector employees now operating in small firms.
    
The report stated how obstacles which previously prevented small firms from initiating a business were slowly falling away – in part due to the growing influence of new technologies, particularly the proliferation mobile and digital devices to further business prospects.
    
Lord Young was quoted: “In the last five years I have met countless numbers of inspiring entrepreneurs and small firms – from all ages and backgrounds and all reporting that starting a business is the most exciting and challenging thing they have ever done.”
    
The findings of the report were hailed by David Cameron, who stated: “Lord Young has made a huge contribution as my Enterprise Advisor, with his reports driving home the importance of getting things right for small businesses and start-ups.”

NHS Agreement
CCS has signed an agreement to help the NHS meet their non-medical, non-clinical temporary and fixed term worker needs in a flexible, efficient way. The new agreement has been developed to provide the NHS and other public sector organisations with access to temporary and fixed term staff in white and blue collar roles from the most junior to the most senior, including board level roles.
    
The agreement has been specifically developed to help manage the legal and commercial risks associated with engaging temporary staff, with suppliers required to ensure compliance with NHS Employers Employment Check Standards. The agreement has been awarded to 176 suppliers, 83 per cent of which are small and medium businesses. In 2014/15 the CCS helped save the NHS in excess of £343 million and this new agreement is one of a number of initiatives designed to help the NHS make further savings.

Potential Savings
Meanwhile, Sally Collier, chief executive of the Crown Commercial services, has publicly said that the public sector could save up to 25 per cent through better supplier management. Collier based the claim around possible savings via improved procurement and supplier innovation and management.
    
Speaking at the Public Sector Show in London, Collier said: “There is no reason why suppliers can’t make a healthy profit. What we have to agree is what the optimum profit is in any deal. I accept we may not be an intelligent client but we are getting better at being an intelligent client.” Collier also commented on how the CCS was reducing the number of frameworks used to channel a percentage of the £230 billion spent on goods and services across the public sector each year.
    
She said: “Framework agreements are great when they are great but not when they are used inappropriately and don’t produce the best outcome. For many, if you are a young fast streamer you perhaps wanted to be in the diplomatic service or other departments.
    
“I am absolutely delighted to say the tide is turning. For the first time we have a commercial fast stream. We see people who want to come into commercial. Where else could you do something exciting with £15 billion? I’m not interested in buying tanks and trains: I’m interested in taking the pain away of buying and managing common goods and services.”

Former CIA employee-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden is confirmed as a keynote speaker at IP EXPO Europe 2015, which takes place on October 7th at the ExCeL Centre, London.

Snowden will speak to the audience live by satellite from an undisclosed location (believed to be somewhere in Russia) and interviewed on stage by journalist and broadcaster Andrew Neil.

In 2013, Snowden leaked large number of classified National Security Agency documents to journalists and is wanted by the US Department of Justice to face charges including two counts of violating the Espionage Act and theft of government property.

Snowden’s disclosures have fuelled debates over mass surveillance, government secrecy, and the balance between national security and information privacy.