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IOM government conference


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On 9/19/2024 at 7:34 AM, Moghrey Mie said:

I'm not sure how many people travelled by bus but it was good to see a demand for electric chargers.

There was at least one person because I heard someone say they wanted to have a go at Crookall about them.  But I don't think there were many.

On 9/19/2024 at 7:36 AM, TheTeapot said:

Was there any room for dissent?

Not a lot because of all the Death by PowerPoint meant that question times were restricted and there were rather too many 'helpful' question from Chamber of Commerce types.  And of course they'd made a thing about the Conference being business-orientated - which didn't go down well with attendees and didn't even seem to attract many more actual business people (less I suspect compared to previous years).  But there were still a few critical remarks, if not enough to make a big impact.

The best bit of dissent was when Brian Thomson, the Steam Packet MD, got called a liar to his face (with justification).  It'll be interesting to see if that makes the video.

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For those for whom assisted dying can't come soon enough, the presentations from the Government Conference are now available from here:

https://islandplan.im/delivery-and-performance/iomgc-2024-presentations/

Though it took them three attempts at the email to get the right information for it and they still haven't supplied a live link for the response survey (though you can copy and paste the URL).

More interestingly the attendance figures have been published:

image.png.9cdfcb67aa6622c22e0fc954d7cfbd6b.png

Nominally the first 'day is 10% up, but that's because it was only held in the evening last year and not many bothered to actually turn up.  Registrations were down by about a quarter.  The second day is a better comparison being a full day (they even had a drinks party this year) 237 down from 449 last year, so only just over half. 

It's not clear how many came in 2022, the press releases vaguely say it was over a thousand, but it's a real picture of decline and clearly the move to Mount Murray was a failure unless the aim was to make the pictures look good.  I'm not really clear that it achieved it's aim of attracting more of the business community - their numbers seemed well down.

Edited by Roger Mexico
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1 hour ago, Non-Believer said:

Did they ever find a commercial sponsor for their food and drinkies?

Well as discussed before they had Marbral Advisory sponsoring the breakfasts and some of their guys were around in purple polo shirts for most of the time.  They seem to have some people on the Island, so no doubt more money will go to consultants to (at best) tell IOMG what it should know anyway.

The drinks 'reception' at the end was nominally sponsored by Mott Macdonald, but it was a very half-hearted affair (no nibbles I saw) and of course there weren't many there because after two days people wanted to get away. I didn't see any of their people there, which was a pity as they gave an interesting talk last year.

Otherwise the government will be carrying the cost of two lots of lunches and a lot of tea and coffee (no bikkies).  Interesting that no local firm felt compelled to stump up.

1 hour ago, Alanbellend said:

So around 100 people who pre-booked tickets in advance couldn’t be arsed turning up on either day. 

It's fairly normal at this sort of do, though given the much shorter lead in this time you'd have thought it would lead to a a higher rate of registered people turning up.  Oddly enough the percentage was exactly the same as last year, 72%. 

I think the venue and schedule was the problem.  If you're in a business in central Douglas it's comparatively easy to pop over to the Villa for a short time for a particular topic and if something happens at work to hold you up you might still make it over later for something else.  If something crops up when you're out, it's quick to get back.  But having to go out to Mount Murray is more of a commitment and it would have been less easy and longer to sneak off once you were there.  

Edited by Roger Mexico
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3 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

Otherwise the government will be carrying the cost of two lots of lunches and a lot of tea and coffee (no bikkies).  Interesting that no local firm felt compelled to stump up.

I thought the event was entirely funded by local businesses.

There can't/shouldn't be any cost to Government for the event. That's outrageous.  How would the expense be justified with a cost to the public? 

It's a business-only event and most businesses (excl. banks and retail sector?) don't pay taxes. 

If not, for an event that is clearly for businesses only, it has to fully funded by local businesses. 

 

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23 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Eh? Businesses and their owners pay many forms of taxes.

Sorry, I was meaning corporation tax. Am I wrong about that? Or is it just some some types of income that is taxed?

If they are contributing to the pot then I suppose it doesn't matter if event is sponsored or not.

Edited by La_Dolce_Vita
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9 minutes ago, La_Dolce_Vita said:

Sorry, I was meaning corporation tax. Am I wrong about that? Or is it just some some types of income that is taxed?

If they are contributing to the pot then I suppose it doesn't matter if event is sponsored or not.

There's a few, depending how and where you operate, and what your business does...

• Corporate Income Tax

• Value-Added Tax (VAT)

• National Insurance Contributions (NICs)

• Personal Income Tax

• Customs and Excise Duties

• Payroll Taxes (PAYE)

• Business Rates

• Import Duties

• Withholding Tax

• Licensing Fees

• Annual Return Fee

• Data Protection Fees

Probably missed a few out there 😀

 

 

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31 minutes ago, La_Dolce_Vita said:

I thought the event was entirely funded by local businesses.

There can't/shouldn't be any cost to Government for the event. That's outrageous.  How would the expense be justified with a cost to the public? 

It's a business-only event and most businesses (excl. banks and retail sector?) don't pay taxes. 

If not, for an event that is clearly for businesses only, it has to fully funded by local businesses. 

 

Think you mean rental rather than retail sector and then it is on rents from IOM properties. 

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