Andrew Hebden is Assistant Editor (Business) of The Journal »
Matt James runs fingerprint-recognition technology firm UKB Security »
James Mills is a web developer in the North East of England and founder of Refresh Teesside »
Phil Renton is managing director of North East IT empire Croft »
Matthew Rippon is an IP lawyer for BHP Law »
Formerly editor of a national business lifestyle magazine, Jez Davison is a business writer for the Evening Gazette in Teesside »
Ian Brown, Northumberland farmer and businessman writes about the agricultural industry »
Accessibilty Champion Steve Wilkinson on the importance of inclusion »
Shared Interest Staff at Newcastle's fair trade firm blog on their latest international missions »
PR man David Honeywell on raising your profile in the right places »
Marion Bernard is from NorthStar Equity Investors »
Caroline Theobald is the Managing Director of Bridge Club Ltd »
John Barton of Renew, on the region's low carbon and sustainable energy agenda »
Paul Williamson is Senior Partner at Deloitte »
Stephen Hall is Tax Partner at Deloitte »Guten Morgen (German), Buenos días (Spanish), Muraho (Kinyarwanda), Habari za asubuhi (Swahili)
There is a real buzz in the office today ahead of tomorrow’s Queens Award Ceremony (more on that later.) This is due to our overseas regional staff having arrived - Rachel from Kenya and Hugo from Costa Rica, and a producer customer of ours from Mauritius, Gabriel (Craft Aid Mauritius) which adds even more of an international flavour to the cultural mix we already have in the Shared Interest office with staff members from Germany, Ecuador and Venezuela.
I took the opportunity to chat to Rachel about the importance of involving the people we work with in every stage of our project. It turned into quite a lively discussion about the importance of involving beneficiaries in every part of our overseas work.
We aim to work closely with those people who will directly benefit from Shared Interest Foundation and its investment arm the Shared Interest Society (usually the farmers and the handicraft makers.)
At the beginning of each Foundation project, we start with a stakeholder meeting as local communities and businesses often have a clearer idea of the solution to their problems and are aware of any obstacles that need to be overcome before getting started.
For example, through the Shared Interest Rwanda project, we plan to run training in 10 districts throughout the country. However, before we can even set foot into many of these areas we need to seek approval first from the District Officers. We may not have known this unless we had the inside knowledge achieved from working so closely with people on the ground.
Rachel and I both agree that working closely with fair trade businesses in their own communities helps us to understand these types of issues including funding needs, as well as being able to evaluate the effectiveness of projects, plan for the long term future and target the most needy.
Although we talk quite often on Skype, it is great to talk to staff from our regional offices face to face like this and draw on their everyday experiences in Costa Rica and Kenya, which in some ways are very similar but in others very different to our own here in Newcastle.
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