Travelling, whether it is for business or leisure purposes, can be an opportunity to discover new and interesting places. But what every destination has in common is the unique option of accommodation, especially for business travellers – who may regularly be seeing the inside of a different hotel room. But unlike the excitement of your all-inclusive holiday hotel, or the hostel you might check into with like-minded travellers, business travel can see you away from your home for extended periods of time, without those creature comforts that remind you of the home you will be returning to. The feeling of…
Author: sme-admin
Thanks to a £100k grant from Youth Music, Rockinghorse Children’s Charity and Wishing Well Music for Health will deliver three more years of joyful music-making in children’s healthcare settings across Sussex. Rockinghorse previously worked with Wishing Well Music for Health, a Sussex based non-profit, to deliver their Youth Music programme for three years from 2020. But this new grant will enable these sessions to continue for another three years, benefitting thousands of children spending time in hospital. This project is backed by Youth Music, thanks to the National Lottery via Arts Council England. It aims to enrich the time spent in…
2023 saw a drop off in UK merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in comparison with the previous year – which is perhaps unsurprising, given the political turmoil we witnessed in the final quarter of 2022 and the continued interest rate rises that followed throughout 2023. Business confidence was dented, and borrowing became the most expensive it had been in the past 15 years. But Scotland did not appear to feel the 2023 downturn to the same extent as the rest of the UK. A key reason for this can be attributed to deals driven by Scottish SMEs, which form a…
We may be entering what feels like a period of hybrid working settlement after years of deliberating how a post-covid workplace should look like. Many businesses seem to have figured out a working arrangement that suits their employees. Nonetheless, 90% of companies with office space are still expected to return to the office in 2024 powered by hopes of improving productivity and increasing revenue. Dan Lawyer, Chief Product Officer at Lucid Software explores five takeaways from the past year of hybrid working that should be carried over into the New Year, But returning to the office shouldn’t mean reverting back to…
New research from Mental Health First Aid England, released to mark My Whole Self Day (12 March 2024) reveals almost 1 in 3 employees (31%) have experienced at least one form of microaggression or discriminatory behaviour from their manager in the past six months. My Whole Self is the campaign for workplace culture change, led by MHFA England. The social enterprise is calling on employers to create cultures where people feel safe to bring their whole self to work to drive improvements in mental health and performance. This research shows there’s a long way to go. The findings, among 2,000 employees,…
The European Parliament’s new proposal for regulation of packaging waste has been unveiled. The new Directive would ban single-use plastics packaging for fresh fruit and vegetables, mini hotel toiletries, and fast-food restaurants. For Michael Laurier, CEO of Symphony Environmental, a world leader in environmentally friendly packaging and advanced polymer technology, this ban is not the way to tackle the problem, instead it will cause more damage not only to the environment but also to businesses and the economy, and human health. “There is currently a paranoia around plastics”, says Laurier. “Plastiphobia arose due to a core problem with degradation, because regular plastics can create microplastics…
Data breaches are some of the most serious challenges organisations face, regardless of scale and industry. Dealing with a data breach can be incredibly complex, time-intensive, and a worrying situation for any business leader, with recent reports stating that data attack patterns have become more varied, severe, and frequent in the past few years. Keep Security Front-of-Mind When Digitising Organisations can ill afford to overlook their security infrastructure and response strategies given the evolving threat landscape of today. When sensitive customer, stakeholder or intellectual property information falls into the wrong hands, the possible outcomes and public scrutiny that arise are…
Tech brands and the investment ecosystem will unite for two days of knowledge sharing, networking and debate. Climb24, a festival of innovation, industry and investment, will return to Leeds on June 5th – 6th, 2024. Building on the success of Climb23, which brought together more than 1,500 delegates, 220 speakers and 150 active investors from across the world, Climb24 will showcase industry-leading innovation and provide investment-ready businesses with opportunities to make meaningful connections beyond their existing networks. The event will feature keynotes, interactive workshops and panel discussions covering some of the latest trends and challenges for companies at all stages of…
The UK travel sector alone is worth $106 billion, representing the fastest growing industry in the UK, and is expected to reach a value of $257 billion by 2025. As such, tour operators are faced with a highly competitive market. With so many comparison and aggregator websites, it can be a challenge to define your services and build connections with your audience. As consumer expectations around the travel industry shift, Michael Ryan, CEO and Director at Ink Digital explores how tour operators must increasingly focus on better customer experiences and authentic storytelling if they are to cut through the online clutter…
Ongoing tension in the Red Sea is yet another geopolitical crisis that has upended the international supply chain in recent years, shining a spotlight on its frailty during times of volatility on the global stage. At the forefront of these recurrent crises, Aramex UK has been helping clients navigate through the complexities of the global logistics arena, leveraging its extensive global network and decades of experience to ensure its clients’ shipments continue moving regardless of the state of play. With geopolitical volatility continuing to be ever present, Haissam Badr, National Freight Manager at Aramex UK has suggested that in order…