Jeffrey Archer will be the guest speaker at a black-tie dinner to be held on Thursday 26^th April, entitled “Up close and personal with Jeffrey Archer: a private encounter with the man, his books and his life”, organised by the IoM Sporting and Dining Club and sponsored by HSBC.

Jeffrey Archer has sold over 270 million copies of his books in 97 countries and is the only author ever to have been a number one bestseller in fiction, short stories and non-fiction. His next novel, ‘The Sins of the Father’, is volume two of a five book saga called ‘The Clifton Chronicles’ and is due to be published in March this year.

Having gained a Blue in Athletics at Oxford, Jeffrey served five years in the House of Commons and nineteen in the House of Lords. He acted as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party from September 1985 until November 1986 and was made a Life Peer in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List of 1992. In 1999, he was charged with perjury and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, being released in July 2003, having served two years. An avid art collector and amateur auctioneer, Jeffrey has been married for 46 years to Dr Mary Archer, who is chairman of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

A charity raffle will yet again be held during the dinner, with all funds raised being donated to a local charity selected by HSBC. At the last dinner of 2011, at which the guest speaker was Michelle Mone, £920 was raised for the Friends of Chernobyl’s Children (IOM).

The event will take place at the Mount Murray Hotel & Country Club in Santon, with dinner tickets costing £65 for members and £75 for non-members, available by contacting the Club on 07624 495749 or email john@sportinganddiningclub.com.

Kevin Cartledge, Senior Manager at HSBC in the Isle of Man, said:

 The calibre of speakers at the Sporting and Dining Club’s dinners continues to get stronger and stronger and I am sure that many people will be keen to come and hear from Jeffrey Archer, one of the most recognisable political characters and prolific story tellers of our day. Having recently announced that over £30,000 has been raised for local charities through these dinners since they began in 2006, I’m looking forward to seeing that total increase significantly this year.

John Wannenburgh of the Sporting and Dining Club added:

 There’s no doubt that Jeffrey Archer will attract huge interest from islanders and that this will prove to be a popular event, so I would encourage people to book their seats early. Jeffrey can draw on an extraordinarily broad range of experiences, achievements and interests for what promises to be a fascinating, enlightening and highly entertaining dinner.

The UKBI Inspire accreditation process involved a review of business incubator policies, procedures and the team providing support to early stage companies.  The review involved benchmarking these areas against best practice and included a visit to the Island by a UKBI assessment team in October.

The Isle of Man Business Incubator was originally established in 2008 and managed by Coventry University Enterprises.  In 2010, the Department of Economic Development established a public-private sector partnership with the intention of enhancing support for local start-ups and also businesses looking to relocate to the Island.  A key target of the new partnership was to obtain UKBI accreditation by March 2012.

Kate Lord-Brennan of Isle of Man Business Incubator was delighted that accreditation had been achieved earlier than planned.  “This is major milestone and I am pleased with the feedback we received from the UKBI review team.  The review process was very constructive and we obtained a lot of advice which will help us to continue developing.”

Keiron Broadbent of UKBI commented “The Isle of Man Business Incubator has done very well achieving accreditation and we would not expect to see a similar aged programme to be as developed in so many areas”.

The event at the Isle of Man Business Centre also marked Global Business Incubation Day.  This provided an opportunity for entrepreneurs currently developing their business ideas to network with those running successful local businesses.

Director of Civil Aviation, Brian Johnson, told us:

Many of the aircraft registered with us belong to some of the most successful companies in the world. For several of them, this represents the first time that they have encountered the Isle of Man in a business context, which has enabled us to highlight the many benefits of doing business here. We are confident that 2011 will be another successful year with a further 11 new private and corporate jets already planned for registration.

While the Isle of Man Aircraft Registry cannot be used for Commercial Aircraft, there are a number of benefits that private and corporate aircraft enjoy including:

• High regulatory standards
• High service levels and quality international reputation
• Neutral Nationality registration prefix ‘M’
• Secure mortgage register
• No insurance premium tax (5% in UK)
• European time zone
• Professional infrastructure with experience in aviation finance
• A Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s AAA rated jurisdiction
• Clear and simple taxation regime
• Stable legal and political environment
• Modern and flexible companies legislation

The team at ManxVoice would like to congratulate the Isle of Man Aircraft Registry on this fine achievement and wish them luck and increased growth in the future.

Photography courtesy of Philip Pain

It’s very easy to take the availability of IT for granted. It’s often hard to imagine that there are people who have never used a computer, or indeed seen or had the ability to access the internet.

Leonard Cheshire Disability Centre is now able to offer disabled and older people in their community the access to IT facilities many people take for granted.

BCS Members worked with Keith Fitton, Service Manager of Leonard Cheshire, to ensure that the critical items were secured for the drop-in centre. BCS Members Nick Smith from Phoenix IT, John Cannell from RBS, Tracy Kinrade from Central Software and Peter Jackson from Open Systems Management worked together to plan, source and install all the IT requirements needed for four disabled users at the centre.

The idea of the computer drop-in centre was to meet three requirements:

1. Provide a facility where disabled people can simply come along for an element of social activity while they surf the internet or check their email and perhaps do their shopping online.
2. Offer an opportunity to develop completely new skills for people who have not used computers before.
3. Enable the process of supporting disabled people along the path either to further education or employment.

Other local Manx companies have supported the scheme to enable the project team to get the centre up and running. These include Cains Advocates, which purchased flexible computer desks that can be adjusted to allow wheel chair users to sit comfortably while working on the computer.

Gary Shilling from Wi-Manx donated a router and provided ADSL internet access, while Timberland flooring transformed the centre by donating a new floor, which is more wheel chair friendly. GamesMaster of Ramsey donated a Wii game station.

Tracy Kinrade from Central Software commented: ‘New technology has great potential to overcome barriers in education, the workplace and social life for disabled and older people.
The project team were all delighted to be involved and excited that this facility will provide its many users with the facilities and access to the world which we all take for granted.’

The centre was opened by the island’s Department of Health and Social Security Chief Executive David Killip, who said: ‘It’s clearly going to be a wonderful facility.’