2020 - Reflections on a most surreal year

As I am sure many people have already said we are living in what could be called the most surreal times – life trying to continue as normal against the backdrop of this terrible virus.

Firstly I would send my kindest thoughts to anyone who is facing difficult times or may have lost loved ones during this challenging period.

Let’s hope that the vaccine offers us a pathway back to normality so we can again travel to see our family, friends and develop those new business relationships that enrich our lives.

There is no doubt that whilst Zoom/Teams/Webinars keep people connected, they will never be a substitute for face to face contact for business development where High Net Worth’s or potential new Financial Services businesses are concerned.

At this time of the year I normally reflect on what has gone on in the passing year but this year this is a bit of a challenge as we have all navigated our way through the chaos of the world.

There has been lots of new skills to learn, as performing in front of the camera’s has not been a natural ability – but having done so many webinars, it has actually been quite fun participating in delivering the Isle of Man message via different mediums.

The interest in the Isle of Man has never been so great as we have steered our way through the global challenges with a resilience, that all of us who live here had known existed. We are exceptionally fortunate to live on an Island that can control its own borders, has an abundance of space and a population who have been extremely respectful towards each other during our relatively short period of lockdown.

Socially and culturally the Island has demonstrated all of the good things that come from living on a relatively small Island where community still means so much.

I continue to work with a number new potential financial services businesses that have a desire to establish new ventures in the Isle of Man and this interest has increased significantly over the past 12 months. Indeed whilst we will not secure all of the current opportunities, we are already seeing the fruits of our labours from the work in South Africa last year with the first business already here and becoming established.

Many other projects are ongoing, and are well advanced, as we seek to work with industry in developing and supporting areas where we may be able to do ‘something different’.

Looking to 2021 we truly hope this will be our busiest year ever, (subject to us being back to being able to travel), with an extensive schedule of planned activity to promote the Isle of Man as an International Finance Centre of innovation and excellence, not to mention my planned trip to South Africa for the British Lions tour.

As always there is more we can be doing and we continue to work hard to support our respective sectors. If you feel there is something we could or should be doing please do not hesitate to contact me.

I would just like to add my thanks to everyone I have worked with this year, and for making 2020 as good a year as we could possibly have in the circumstances – I look forward to us continuing this into 2021.

All that remains is to wish everyone a safe, peaceful and happy Xmas – and that we can look forward to 2021 with some hope that we are moving back to something like normality.