The technical expertise provided by CTI has already been instrumental for Dublin and Malta based Setanta Insurance as they are growing their business extremely rapidly, selling a policy every 15 minutes. The projects completed by CTI have been designed to meet Setanta Insurance’s needs in regards to their intranet, internal applications, portal and Microsites, using a variety of technologies including Drupal, Grails and Spring.

The work completed by CTI is deemed to be highly influential as Setanta Insurance aim to convert a higher percentage of brokers into customers.  When commenting on the project Managing Director of CTI, Nick Rhind has stated: “Setanta Insurance share many of the same values as us, dedication, expertise, customer service and flexibility.  Working closely with such a dynamic company reflects our ambitions and drive at CTI.”

In addition to this, CTI have teamed up with Mason Media and Wilmslow based creative agency Driven, to launch a micro-site called “Keep Drama Off The Roads”, a project Setanta Insurance are undertaking to warn Irish people against “Drug Driving” and to highlight the devastating impact this can have.  In partnership with the Irish Road Safety Authority, Keepdramaofftheroads.ie includes a competition for film makers aged 15-25 years to make a short film which shows the impact of “Drug Driving”.

If you’re interested in taking part, visit the “Keep Drama Off The Roads” website for your chance to win €3000 and have your filmed screened to the public.

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Website: http://www.ctisn.com

Atlas One a new property consultancy practice, has opened up with two offices in Greater Manchester. Based in Portland Street, Manchester and Princes Street, Stockport, it will handle general agency, professional and consultancy work.

• Agency and Development
• Landlord and Tenant
• Valuations
• Commercial and residential surveys
• Property Management
• Consultancy
• Planning appeals
• Rating appeals
• Public Sector
• CPO Matters

AtlasOne.co.uk

Atlas One Manchester
1 Portland Street
Manchester
M1 3BE
T: 0161 951 7818
F: 0161 477 6001

Atlas One South Manchester
20 Princes Street
Stockport
SK1 1SE
T: 0161 477 6002
F: 0161 477 6001

www.spinningfieldsonline.com

Spinningfields, Off Deansgate

Last chance to view the open air cinema this summer

Event listings for September are:

3rd September – The Rocky Horror Picture Show

10th September – The Reader

Spinningfields, situated off Deansgate, is ideally located close to the city’s main shopping areas and offers an array of quality family eateries including Giraffe, Nando’s, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Carluccio’s, Strada, Wagamama and Samsi. For more information on Spinningfields and to sign up for a free Spinningfields yellow card offering a variety of discounts, visit the website above.

The spread of interest ensured the attendance of a wide spectrum of elected representatives, from local party delegates and local authority leaders and councillors to government ministers, MPs and MEPs. The Labour Party Spring Conferences also had a commercial dimension, with over 60 commercial exhibitors, numerous political and commercial lobbying companies, and sponsors of events and fringe meetings. Conference rooms at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Midland Hotel were also used for the event.

The conference was brought to Manchester through the efforts of Marketing Manchester’s conference team, supported by Manchester City Council. It is estimated that the event was worth £2.35m to the City, and placed it back at the centre of media attention, both nationally and inter-nationally. The success of the event should bode well in bidding for, and hosting, future high-profile political party events.

Manchester has a vast range of facilities available for conferences large and small. G-Mex and the MICC together have 12,500 sq m of exhibition space in three halls, an auditorium for 800, 12 breakout rooms and 15ancillary offices. The centre can also provide banqueting facilities for up to 5,000. Within G-Mex, the Windsor Hall provides 2,800 sq m column-free floorspace and the Central Hall 7,500 sq m. The Great Northern Hall within the MICC can cater for up to 1,600 people in its 1,900 sq m.

The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester’s International Concert Hall, on Lower Mosley Street includes an auditorium seating 1,875 and the Barbirolli Room, while Manchester Town Hall offers the elegance of the Great Hall.

Manchester’s UMIST and Victoria Universities are already two of the largest academic conference players in the North West and their merger this October will make the new Manchester University one of the biggest conference venues in the country. UMIST’s Manchester Conference Centre on Sackville Street consists of four purpose-built, adjacent buildings.

The Weston Building includes the 280- seat Weston Theatre and the 120-seat Manchester Evening News Theatre as well as meeting rooms and 500 sq m of exhibition space. The building also includes accommodation in the form of a 117-bed hotel and an adjacent 300 en-suite student bedrooms.

The recently refurbished Renold Building includes eight theatres from 140 seats to 500 seats, seminar rooms and 1,200 sq m exhibition space. The main building offers the 400-seat Great Hall, while the Staff House offers up to 13 seminar and syndicate rooms seating between four and 100. The Victoria University offers tiered lecture theatres, banqueting for up to 325,  exhibition space and meeting space at their main campus on Oxford Road.

The Rusholme Campus offers accommodation during the Easter and summer vacations and meeting rooms the whole year through. Chancellors Hotel and Conference Centre provides dedicated year-round conference facilities with 75 bedrooms and meeting facilities for up to 100 people.

Manchester Metropolitan University and Royal Northern College of Music also offer facilities, while the Manchester Business School includes 116 en-suite bedrooms.

As well as the Midland, most major hotels in the City offer rooms for seminars. The Palace Hotel on Oxford Road includes a ballroom for up to 1,000 delegates. The Radisson Edwardian on Peter Street, due to

open in the summer includes 18 meeting rooms, suitable for eight to 80 people, situated on the first, third and fourth floors of the former Free Trade Hall. The Hallé Conference and Banqueting Suite on the second floor can be used as one major function room capable of hosting up to 425 people, with its own reception area, or as up to four individual suites for between 60 and 125 people. Other, quirkier, opportunities in the City include the Museum of Science and Industry and the Manchester Velodrome.

Climax of the delegation’s stay was a one-day conference – the Osaka-Manchester Forum 97 – which marked the 125th anniversary of the Iwakura Mission to the United States and Europe in 1872.

One of the objectives of the meeting between the two business communities was to establish trading links in high-tech sectors such as pharmaceuticals, biosciences and environmental technologies.

The three-day visit ended with a civic dinner hosted by the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Councillor Gerry Carroll, amid the Gothic splendour of the Great Hall in the City’s Victorian town hall. Terry Thomas, former chairman of the Co-operative Bank, chaired the UK side of the forum, while Masafumi Onishi, chairman of the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Osaka Gas, led the delegation which visited local firms and attended the special meeting.

Principal British sponsor of the forum, the Co-operative Bank, was joined by names such as British Nuclear Fuels, Zeneca Pharmaceuticals and Manchester Airport. Japanese sponsors included Sharp – which has its European headquarters in Manchester – and All Nippon Airlines.

Sanyo Electric chair, Satoshi Iue, said the forum had been a resounding success, adding that he would now be “actively looking for opportunities for renewed business”. For Sir David Trippier, chairman of Marketing Manchester, the conference had helped “increase awareness” of what Manchester and the North West had to offer. The Japanese ambassador Hiroaki Fujii commented after the visit that it had been “a very successful first step” and he added “it must surely now lead to developing concrete long-term business relations”. At the full sessions of the forum much of the discussion was on the prospects for increased trade.

British members asked about Japanese non-tariff barriers and urged faster progress on deregulation, but they were also reminded that British sales to Japan reached a record of £4.3 billion in 1996 – an increase of over 13.6 per cent.

In an article in the Japan Times Sir Hugh Cortazzi, chairman of the preparatory committee in Britain for the Oaska-Manchester Forum, said there was also considerable discussion about investment. “The British side made it clear that the North West authorities would do all they could to help Japanese wanting to invest in the region which had good communications and infrastructure.” Cortazzi also reported that delegates from both sides were interested in the development of small and medium scale industries and how the two regions could learn from the experience of the other.

At the end of the forum on September 26 the two leaders signed a joint declaration reaffirming their determination to expand the links between the two regions and develop trade, investment and technological exchanges.

It was also agreed that a high level team from Manchester and the North West would visit the Kansai next October as part of ‘The Britain in Japan Year’ to further cement and develop the relationships

Following on from earlier visits, an outward mission involving the City Council, Manchester Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and China Gateway is being planned for September this year. This provides the opportunity for business relationships to be established and contracts to be secured. Manchester City Council during the last two years has led civic and trade missions to Beijing, Wuhan and Hong Kong and has received over 30 different Inward Trade and Civic delegations to Manchester since 1995.

The City Council is currently engaged with a number of key partner organisations and agencies in the North West to promote trade and business with China. In addition to this, memorandums of understanding have been signed which are promoting trade, economic, cultural, sporting, and educational links between Manchester and Wuhan City.

Trade links have always been a major driving force between the two cities and Manchester in conjunction with the London-based China Britain Trade Group maintains an office in Wuhan. The aim is to strengthen economic cooperation with Wuhan, the largest city in central China with a conurbation of approximately seven million people – formed by the union of three cities, Hankow, Hanyang, and Wuchang.

A year ago the City Council led a Regional Challenge Bid in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce, the TEC, Umist, Yangtze Enterprise and Chinese Marketing & Communications to support trade and investment development work among local companies.

Following the success of the bid, China Gateway North West was established to take the project forward. Together with the participants in the bid it is a member of the China Gateway Partnership. The aim of the partnership is to intensify two-way trade and investment with China, and to restore the North West to its historic position as leader and innovator in trade, commerce, manufacturing and investment to the benefit of both countries.

For more information about the mission to Wuhan contact Penny Wang Orme on 0161 237 4031 or Michelle Kavan on 0161 237 4113.

CHINA GATEWAY PARTNERSHIP
China Gateway North West
Contact – Michelle Kavan 0161 237 4113
Manchester City Council
Contact – Carol Judge 0161 234 1502
Chamber of Commerce
Contact – Penny Wang Orme 0161 237 4031
Yangtze Enterprise Ltd
Contact – Steve Tang 0161 236 9881
TEC Contact – Richard Smith 0161 236 7222
UMIST Contact – Suzanna Thornton 0161 200 3665
Chinese Marketing & Communications
Contact – Simon Jones 0161 237 3821