IOM government conference

[Non-Believer]

16 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

The government is entirely funded by businesses.

 

[Omobono]

overall I thought the event was a vast improvement on the Villa marina , as a venue , plenty of parking  ,you could hear the speakers  and  every session was in the same large room   ,only minor complaint  Tea and Coffee stations crowded out   by the time you pushed your way to the front, no tea  or coffee left and never any milk  , 

all the ambitions  and priorities of government  rolled out ,  then 3 days after the conference we are told there is no money all plans on hold , and Alf has to save £10 million off the government budget , so in all a talking shop   filled with impossible aspirations ,  and a load of trouble for the Manx people as we hear the airport has gone into special measures  this week 

once upon a time in LA LA Land 

[P.K.]

On 9/22/2024 at 9:11 PM, Roger Mexico said:

I think it was only a success if you go by the pictures.  Using a much smaller room and forcing everyone into it was always going to make it look busier.  Someone told be that was why the change had been made - Cannan had wanted better-looking photos.  Which rather sums up the attitude - they wanted a rally not a conference.  The numbers will be well down on last year, even though it was full.

And while there is an advantage in having everyone in together, but it means a lot less gets covered and it relies on the sessions being good.  Instead we got a lot of what Alex Allinson (I think) described as "Death by PowerPoint".  The speaker puts up a long series of 'slides' and ... reads out what's on them.  Occasionally with a bit of extra speech no no more information.  And like all IOMG 'strategies' and 'plans'  they aren't anything of the sort, just endless business buzzwords and vague aspiration.  No action is proposed, never mind implemented.

Ralphs's presentation was particularly dire and I genuinely can't remember anything Megan Mathias said, except that she said nothing about what they were proposing to do.  Politicians read out dull speeches, badly[1].  The more successful bits were the question and answer sessions, but they tended to have too many people on the stage and not enough time due to those tedious presentations.  So some topics (eg this security nonsense) weren't really discussed.

There were a couple of round table workshops which would have been really good because there were a lot of interesting and well informed people there who had really good insights.  Unfortunately they decided to 'structure' this and as soon as things got productive, someone from the stage stopped everything and announced we should talk about something else (even though the topics were interlinked).  In the case of Ralphs this meant he wasted another five minutes reading out yet another slide.  It was extremely frustrating, though it did point to something that could be done more profitably in future.

In other words it was a just a data dump...

Big deal...

[Roger Mexico]

2 hours 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. 

The sponsorship was only ever about the food/drink that was available and may not even have covered the cost of that (named sponsorship often doesn't).  And they failed to get enough firms involved because they left everything to last minutes.

But it wasn't a business-only event - anyone could register and attend.  Obviously holding it during working hours meant that many people couldn't attend, but, as I said above, the same seems to have applied to people in business as well.  So most members of the public who went were retired and a lot of the business people were in the sort of businesses or charities etc that rely a lot on the government.

There's a surprisingly large number of government-funded events aimed only at business, but this was never one of them.

[Albert Tatlock]

18 minutes ago, P.K. said:

In other words it was a just a data dump...

Big deal...

"We the Government are looking to save £10 million"

...then simply turn around Alf, the answer's behind you, not in the audience.

 

[Non-Believer]

51 minutes ago, Omobono said:

overall I thought the event was a vast improvement on the Villa marina , as a venue , plenty of parking  ,you could hear the speakers  and  every session was in the same large room   ,only minor complaint  Tea and Coffee stations crowded out   by the time you pushed your way to the front, no tea  or coffee left and never any milk  , 

all the ambitions  and priorities of government  rolled out ,  then 3 days after the conference we are told there is no money all plans on hold , and Alf has to save £10 million off the government budget , so in all a talking shop   filled with impossible aspirations ,  and a load of trouble for the Manx people as we hear the airport has gone into special measures  this week 

once upon a time in LA LA Land 

A total success for the CS then, nothing changed, nothing forced, roll on to more of the same next year.

[Moghrey Mie]

I got the impression some of the people there on the first day were looking to see if there were any government funds/subsidies/handouts/support going.

They weren't there on the second day.

[Tinpot]

6 minutes ago, Moghrey Mie said:

I got the impression some of the people there on the first day were looking to see if there were any government funds/subsidies/handouts/support going.

They weren't there on the second day.

Or the topics discussed and covered on day one were of interest to them and/or their business, while the topics on day two weren’t?

Or they could only justify one day out of the office and chose the first rather rhan the second?

Or they went on day one, realised it was pants, and didn’t bother going g back in day two?

What made you draw your conclusion?  Is it just the fact they only went one day?

[Albert Tatlock]

Was it recorded/available for viewing anywhere?

Not that I'm suffering from insomnia.

 

[Roger Mexico]

1 hour ago, Omobono said:

overall I thought the event was a vast improvement on the Villa marina , as a venue , plenty of parking  ,you could hear the speakers  and  every session was in the same large room   ,only minor complaint  Tea and Coffee stations crowded out   by the time you pushed your way to the front, no tea  or coffee left and never any milk  , 

all the ambitions  and priorities of government  rolled out ,  then 3 days after the conference we are told there is no money all plans on hold , and Alf has to save £10 million off the government budget , so in all a talking shop   filled with impossible aspirations ,  and a load of trouble for the Manx people as we hear the airport has gone into special measures  this week 

once upon a time in LA LA Land 

The whole £10 million was just meaningless, no justification as why not £5 million or £20 million or £50 million.  They knew it and we knew it.  And at the same time they were announcing all sorts of un-costed goodies (for themselves) such as all this new security stuff.  And for the same reason - it's all about looking tough rather than being tough.

I think that Villa is a far better venue, though it does need more careful management.  But the fact they only attracted half the people of last year but still nearly filled shows it wasn't big enough.  If car users can't arsed to walk from Chester Street, then they should be deported - the lack of use of their legs will end up crippling Manx Care.

Pro tip: there was always tea and coffee in the room used to eat as well and never really a queue there.

[Roger Mexico]

1 hour ago, Moghrey Mie said:

I got the impression some of the people there on the first day were looking to see if there were any government funds/subsidies/handouts/support going.

They weren't there on the second day.

"Oh look - there's Ramsey Marina Man".  "Gosh! Another Crogga investor".

But given that this is a government whose idea of solving the housing crisis is subsidising luxury flats - who can blame them.  It's a wonder we weren't flooded out with Nigerian princes.

[HiVibes]

1 hour ago, Moghrey Mie said:

I got the impression some of the people there on the first day were looking to see if there were any government funds/subsidies/handouts/support going.

They weren't there on the second day.

I was told Mount Murray since the fire was rebuilt as an open prison housing low level sex offenders, right wing fascist and south Africans, perhaps their tags got activated?

[HiVibes]

32 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

If car users can't arsed to walk from Chester Street, then they should be deported - the lack of use of their legs will end up crippling Manx Care.

Are you some sort of leftie healthist Marxist trying to rid us of the lovely fat ruddy faced useless moaning old shits that milk our Manx kindness?

[Moghrey Mie]

https://islandplan.im/media/x2dmldvd/rountable-workshop_enhancing-our-islands-proposition.pdf

Perceptions of the Isle of Man were from 2010. (Stuart Baggs etc)

I wonder what they are now?

Edited Wednesday at 08:41 AM by Moghrey Mie

[cissolt]

11 hours ago, HiVibes said:

I was told Mount Murray since the fire was rebuilt as an open prison housing low level sex offenders, right wing fascist and south Africans, perhaps their tags got activated?

The tags were activated when the new 5g mast was turned on.