South Africa Chamber of Commerce

Summary

The request sought invoices, contracts, photographs, and attendee lists for the Department for Enterprise's sponsorship of the South African Chamber of Commerce Gala Dinners in 2023 and 2024. The Department provided the financial documents but disclosed that no photographs were held and no private attendee list existed as the drinks were open to all event guests.

Key Facts

• Finance Isle of Man was the Platinum Sponsor for the 2023 and 2024 events.
• No formal contract existed for the 2023 event; a proposal served as the agreement.
• The Department does not hold high-resolution photographs for either year.
• The post-event drinks at 1 Lombard Street were open to all attendees, not a private sponsor event.
• The Department does not hold a specific list of people who attended the post-event drinks.

Data Disclosed

• 2023
• 2024
• 28 June 2024
• 18 July 2024
• 3944705
• 1 Lombard Street
• 7213856162444677120

Original Request

1) Invoice and contract relevant to the sponsorship of the South African Chamber of Commerce Gala Dinner in 2023, and 2024. 2) High resolution digital copies of photographs provided to the Department from its sponsorship of the South African Chamber of Commerce Gala Dinner in 2023, and 2024. 3) List of people who attended the post event private drinks with the board, sponsors and distinguished guests at 1 Lombard Street that the Department paid for as part of its sponsorship of the South African Chamber of Commerce Gala Dinner in 2023, and 2024. 4) If the department only has part of the records requested above, then I request as much as the department has.

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Freedom of Information Co-ordinator 1st Floor, St Georges Court Upper Church Street, Douglas Isle of Man IM1 1EX

Telephone: (01624 686400) Website: https://www.iomdfenterprise.im/

Our ref: 3944705 18 July 2024

Dear ###

We write further to your request, received 28 June 2024, which states:

"1) Invoice and contract relevant to the sponsorship of the South African Chamber of Commerce Gala Dinner in 2023, and 2024.

2) High resolution digital copies of photographs provided to the Department from its sponsorship of the South African Chamber of Commerce Gala Dinner in 2023, and 2024.

3) List of people who attended the post event private drinks with the board, sponsors and distinguished guests at 1 Lombard Street that the Department paid for as part of its sponsorship of the South African Chamber of Commerce Gala Dinner in 2023, and 2024.

4) If the department only has part of the records requested above, then I request as much as the department has."

Our response to you is as follows:

Finance Isle of Man were the Platinum Sponsor of the South African Chamber of Commerce (UK) Gala Dinner in 2023 and 2024. This event showcased the Isle of Man as a jurisdiction, and as an International Financial Services Centre, to the UK based South African business community. South Africa continues to be a key market for Isle of Man businesses, and this was a good opportunity to highlight key aspects of working with Isle of Man based businesses to the audience in the room and wider membership of the organisation. While Finance Isle of Man were the sponsors, the event was also supported by several Manx businesses, who attended and provided positive feedback about the event and the need for the Isle of Man to actively promote in these forums.

1) Invoice and contract relevant to the sponsorship of the South African Chamber of Commerce Gala Dinner in 2023, and 2024.

The Department has provided the relevant information requested, it should be noted that for the 2023 event, there was no formal contract, rather the provided proposal formed the agreement.

2) High resolution digital copies of photographs provided to the Department from its sponsorship of the South African Chamber of Commerce Gala Dinner in 2023, and 2024.

The Department has not been provided photographs for either event, the Department has been provided with access to photographs, for 2024, the following photograph was accessed and published on the Agencies LinkedIn page:

No further photographs have been accessed or provided.

The SACOC has released a video of the 2024 on their LinkedIn page https://www.linkedin.com/posts/south-african-chamber-of-commerce-uk_the-south- african-chamber-of-commerce-uk-activity-7213856162444677120- SoE4?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

3) List of people who attended the post event private drinks with the board, sponsors and distinguished guests at 1 Lombard Street that the Department paid for as part of its sponsorship of the South African Chamber of Commerce Gala Dinner in 2023, and 2024.

The Department does not hold this information, whilst the event proposals and contracts include reference to “post event drinks with selected guests at No. 1 Lombard Street next door”, the venue is a public hostelry open to the public and the post event drinks were open to all attendees of the event, this was not a private event purely for sponsors, nor were drinks provided as part of the contract/proposal.

Please quote the reference number 3944705 in any future communications.

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Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact us. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.

This request took four hours to complete.

Directors:

South African Chamber of Commerce (UK) Limited Registered Address: Cournswood House, Clappins Lane, North Dean, Buckinghamshire, UK, HP14 4NW https://southafricanchamber.co.uk 1st August 2023 Finance, Isle of Man Attention:

IOM Department for Enterprise Email:

Dear

SPONSORSHIP PROPOSAL – 2024 SA CHAMBER UK GALA DINNER Thank you for your time last week to discuss the various areas of support we can offer in the short and medium term with events, introductions, invites and your mission to SA in November. We shall address these matters and revert on the points discussed.
The good news for us was to understand that Finance IOM are interested in sponsoring our 2024 SA Chamber Gala dinner. As you may know, I have close personal and business ties with the Island through family, staff, the Chamber, financial and legal services engagements. As discussed, we are in the initial stages of planning and chasing to hear back from the Mansion House and Lord Mayor teams on a correlated available date. At present we are working on two dates in May. We do have three options: - Go for our first choice which is the Lord Mayor to be, , who becomes Lord Mayor in October 2023 and therefore, will be residing in 2024, at the home of the Lord Mayor, Mansion House. This for me would be a desired outcome, for three reasons – o is a personal friend and is a close ally of the Chamber having led on several of our webinars, given numerous introductions to the City, and the covid flighting of “Life is Wonderful” about Mandela and colleagues right to live in the most recognised Human Rights legal case in South Africa’s history. He is a huge advocate for the City of London and therefore a great future contact for yourselves and businesses on the island. o Next year, I will be in the ninth year of my term on the Board and for governance reasons, it could therefore be my last Gala Dinner as Chairman, whilst not going anywhere, it would be personally rewarding to have 2024 at Mansion House with as host and yourselves as lead sponsors for all the reasons mentioned above. o We have moved the Gala Dinner to create new engagements, beginning at the Lords, then Mansion House and 2025 we are planning a different prestigious location. Therefore, this could well be our last year to host this event in the home of the Lord Mayor