This week we have a number of events and occasions to mark. Local enterprise week celebrates the diversity of our local indigenous businesses and nurtures their growth by providing advice, information and support to people setting up or growing a business. This year's schedule of events comes as organisations of all sizes struggle with soaring energy costs, supply chain issues and access to finance, all of which pose a challenge to scale and grow.  

 

March is an exciting time to promote Cork and Ireland internationally. Through our international relations activity we work to develop partnerships and promote Cork as a destination for business and over the next couple of weeks, we will represent you in New York, San Francisco and Washington. – we will share more updates on this through on our ConnectingCorkLinkedin page.  

 

Today we also mark International Women's Day 2023. At Cork Chamber we are committed to championing diversity in our team, in our governance, our operations and in advocacy, events and engagements. We are committed to the United Nations Sustainable Development, Goal 5, Gender Equality, but wish to push the wider diversity agenda forwards in parallel. (See more of our recent activity online <here> .) We are pro diversity, and with equal vigour we are anti-racist and anti-discrimination. We and the wider business community have a key role to play in diversity, equality and inclusion and it is important that this is demonstrated by actions and not by words alone. 

 

Our national Chamber grouping is represented on the Advisory Council of Balance for Better Business (B4BB), an independent business-led Review Group established by the government to improve gender balance across senior leadership in Ireland. Recent figures released by B4BB indicate a positive trajectory when it comes to achieving gender balance at board level. Ireland has now moved into the top 10 countries in the EU27 for female Board representation for the first time, however, work still needs to be done as results state that representation of women at CEO level has dropped from 11.1% to 8.3%.

 

To grow and to thrive, Cork must be a genuinely warm and welcoming place of equal opportunity for people of all backgrounds, beliefs, genders and identities, and our business community must lead progressively to forge inclusive work cultures where  careers thrive, and achievements are celebrated. 

 

The challenges acknowledged by many members around talent attraction and retention may serve to sharpen our focus on the importance of inclusive work cultures. We are here to represent you, our members, and to make Cork the best place for business. I encourage you to speak with us about how best to meaningfully evolve this agenda.