The Mersey Tram; the Shanghai Expo and Holly Wood feature heavily in the latest TFI. On the sporting front, we naturally focus on motor racing rather than football this week-for obvious reasons- and there is news of a DLIB sponsor officially opening impressive new city centre offices. Read on, enjoy, have a great weekend and don't do anything Frank wouldn't do...

YOU CAN NOW HEAR A PREVIEW OF TFI EVERY FRIDAY MORNING ON CITY TALK 105.9FM, 7.45AM, WITH FRANK McKENNA AND DUNCAN BARKES.

DONT FORGET TO JOIN DLIB ON FACEBOOK

Liverpool's plans for a tram system have been “virtually killed off” by the Government according to reports in the local media this week.

Transport minister Sadiq Khan has written to civic leaders in Merseyside telling them they have missed a crucial funding window for the £400m-plus Line One Liverpool to Kirkby.

He has warned transport authority Merseytravel and councils to “look carefully at their continued development of the scheme”, which has already had more than £70m spent on it without a single track having been laid.

However, transport bosses have hit back, suggesting that two crucial meetings over the next month will see them presenting a compelling business case for the project that make the rumours of the 'death of the tram' somewhat premature.

A brief Downtown review of the past seven days.

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The DLIB Chairman explains why we shouldn't give up on Mersey Tram just yet...

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Approximately 6,000 customers in three portfolios with a total of £1.27bn in funds under management will transfer to the Port of Liverpool Building-based business. This will take Rathbone’s total funds under management to £12bn.

Lloyds has also signed an exclusive agreement with Rathbone’s to refer clients looking to invest between £250,000 and £2m.

Rathbone Brothers chief executive, Andy Pomfret, said: “This acquisition is a very attractive opportunity to increase Rathbone’s funds under management. The clients concerned are used to a very similar service to our own and can be confident that our reputation for investment management and personal service, and our stability, will provide them with a high-quality alternative.”

We were particularly touched by Sam O’Connor’s (Tower Enterprise Funding) idea to launch a “Shoe box” appeal for the boys and girls in Afghanistan so we thought it appropriate to spread the word in this week’s TFI Friday.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WEEKS TFI FRIDAY TO AS MANY PEOPLE YOU CAN, AND LETS SEE IF WE CAN OVERWHELM THE POSTOFFICE WITH SHOE BOXES FROM LIVERPOOL BUSINESSES

There doesn’t need to be a lot of expense, just small items that you think the boys and girls overseas would appreciate in time for Xmas.

The shoe boxes can’t be sent via the MoD as they don’t have the resources to send them out to Afghanistan, but the local army offices have advised that they can be sent to Cyprus and the guys at the base there will transport them out to the various bases.

The address to send the shoe box to is:

WOI J WILSON RSM 2 LANCS
EPISKOPI
CYPRUS
BFPO 53

Please mark on your box if it is for a male or female.

Grant Thornton show off their newly refurbished offices in Liverpool’s iconic Liver Buildings

Managing Partner, Neil Sturmey took to the stage to welcome over 200 guests at the launch event for Grant Thornton’s new offices last Thursday.

It was a real who’s who of the business world, including Grant Thornton’s own senior executives, Cllr Warren Bradley and some familiar faces from Downtown Liverpool.

Delifonseca provided the most imaginative dishes of excellent nibbles and Purple Wines Limited supplied the vino.

Guests were also invited to join guided tours by GT staff around their stunning new office space.

Businesses who fail to secure their brand identity in the major social networking websites risk damaging their online reputation warns internet marketing agency Cl5.

The advice comes after CL5 has seen a marked increase in the number of incidences of companies being passed-off on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin without their knowledge.

Millions of people are unknowingly accessing wrong company information on social media profiles and groups. Users can easily be fooled into thinking they are communicating with the official company when it’s a blag. Businesses need to wise-up quickly and know how to combat actions like these claims CL5.

The official World Expo Shanghai 2010 mascot, Haibao was welcomed to Liverpool John Lennon Airport this week.

The distinctive, six feet tall, blue models have been positioned across the city to encourage residents to find out more about Liverpool’s plans for the World Expo. The Haibaos will still be in place later this month during celebrations to mark the 10th anniversary of Liverpool’s twinning relationship with Shanghai.

Robin Tudor, Head of PR for Peel Airports, said: " With more than 400,000 passengers travelling through John Lennon Airport over the next month, the arrival of Haibao is an excellent opportunity to promote Liverpool's forthcoming presence at the World Expo - not just to passengers from the North West, but also to the many international visitors passing through the Airport.”

After the mascots' month-long stint in their city locations, they will be found alternative homes in the city, possibly in selected schools.

This week there was only one option for us – Jenson Button. Despite a buyout of the Honda team, redundancies and some frankly awful racing conditions, Button won the 2009 World Drivers’ Championship. It’s not every day you become the best in the world at something, and DLIB felt duty bound to salute Button for not giving up and succeeding despite some pretty long odds. There’s a lesson there for us all.

We never knew how interesting you could make a bottle of shower gel. That is until we found this website. It may take a while to load, but it is visually beautiful.

VISIT SITE

Sir Thomas hotel will be hosting a "Poet's Society" event on Friday 30th October 2009.

The owner of Bodegas Vallemayor the Winemaker, Rafael Perez - Fonseca will be your host for the evening.

As part of the £45.00 (pp) package you will receive a sumptuous meal with some outstanding wines in the company of kindred spirits and invited guests who will be there to educate, inform and entertain.

This event is limited to 50 guests only so early booking is essential.

For more information please contact Helen Duffy on 0151 236 1366 or email events@sirthomashotel.co.uk

The ‘Livercool’ awards, rewarding the city’s most successful entrepreneurs, is hosted by Downtown Liverpool in Business in association with City Talk 105.9, Northwest Development Agency and Business Link, takes place on the evening of Thursday 19th November at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

This event is now SOLD OUT

KEEP VOTING

Kingdom go corporate. Already Kingdom has a strong relationship with some of the City’s high profile businesses. Now the entire business community are being invited to use Kingdom for their events.

CLICK HERE for more information

Equality Seminar - Tuesday 17 November 2009, DWF Liverpool

DWF's forthcoming Equality seminar will cover all aspects of Equality and Diversity in the workplace, and will help you in giving a clear message to your staff that Diversity is important. Including an update on the new Equality Bill and with a focus on practical exercises and tips, it will provide essential training for dealing with equality issues in the workplace.

Time: 9:00am – 1:00pm
Cost: £95 + VAT

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To view other DWF Legal Seminars including Recruitment, Managing Stress, and Bullying and Harassment please click here.

Name: Holly Wood ( yes it is a real name )

Company: www.mynetworkingpa.com

Position: MD

Red or Blue: Neither... team shoes

Brown or Cameron: Neither ..

Favourite Liverpool Bar/Restaurant: Studio 2

What’s your Tipple: Rum... it’s the urban pirate in me

Favourite Liverpool Band: The Rascals

Top Tune: Candi Staton , Young Hearts Run Free

Favourite Book: Master of the game Sydney Sheldon

Favourite Movie: Evita... sad I know

Who would play you in a film: Audrey Hepburn.

Favourite TV Programme: Balls of steel Channel 4 , its a hoot!

Most visited website: www.mynetworkingpa.com

Celebrity Crush: I lurve lurve lurve Travis Barker... don’t ask!

Interesting Fact about you: I can shake my eye balls at the same time

Why Downtown: DLIB gives me an environment in which to make contacts with out all the formality that many other networking organisations have out there.