Why We Have To Stand Up And Be Counted

Gordon Fong
Nov 4 · 5 min read
A successful end to the 2019 Southbourne Revival event.

When a place feels like home, it acts as a base to step forward and get involved.

I’ve been doing a lot within recent years: in business; in my social life; and in the local community.

It was only when people pointed out that I took some time to reflect and understand why. Why the contrast to my first 15 years of business in Bournemouth which were very low key?

I co-founded e-mango, our web development company, in 2000. Heady days indeed when businesses and individuals would spend a lot of money turning their ideas into websites. Pretty basic and without many features.

I don’t think there are many web businesses still left from that “era”. I can think of two, how many do you know?

A Role To Stand Up From A Local Perspective

On a local level, to Southbourne where I live, I got to know the foodie businesses on the high street in the early Twitter days when Tweetups were a thing with owners and residents alike in 2009.

At the end of 2012, the Sobo Facebook group was born. As of November 2019, it has grown to nearly 14,000 members. As one of the administrators from day one, it has taken a lot of effort and cajoling to create a strong online community, albeit with the usual caveats and occasional spats.

I spun off a few other personal projects that included a Sobo pub crawl where people made new friends, a local walk and talk, and a website focussing on promoting the area as a foodie destination.

Whilst it’s not sought after, people do recognise me and come up to say hello and say thank you.

Being a huge supporter of the high street, some of my time and attention naturally gravitated to the larger events happening there. I tend to be the Social Media mouthpiece while other people do the real organising.

Rocking the high street at Frankenfest 2018

Being part of the team behind Frankenfest 2018 was fantastic. That was a Halloween themed family day that closed off the high street to put on a variety of children’s activities and live music stretching into the night for adults. Seeing people filling up the road and paths, all having a great time dancing to live bands, was very rewarding indeed.

In Spring 2019, the organisers of an annual summer festival in Southbourne decided to postpone their event for one year. It was a huge shame for the community as it had been a solid fixture in recent years. In response to the collective disappointment, the Frankenfest team stepped forward with just 13 weeks to deliver and we smashed it.

The conversations we had with people and the online feedback were touching. We seemed to have made a connection with the community, through honest words and action.

Cyber Awareness Event 2018

It was also through the Sobo Facebook group that I got to hear about incidents of people within the area getting scammed online and through telephone calls. To hear of a local pensioner going to their bank in Boscombe to withdraw money, believing she had an outstanding HMRC fine, in readiness for a courier to collect was extremely sad.

I felt that I needed to do something more than a few awareness posts online. I wanted to get people in a room to understand the real threats of cyber-crime and to be able to pass that on, and for it to act as a starting point for activities.

Why wouldn’t I try and do something that could help protect and inform the people of where we live?

As a business owner we can choose to take a very conservative approach. That is one option but what if you wanted to put back in, or to leave something for others to take on board? Doing that something extra can be harder than doing business, as there may be different obstacles and challenges to face.

Nothing happens unless you commit and make a stand. The Southbourne summer festival wouldn’t have happened unless me and a couple of other local residents stepped forward. It would have been much easier to do nothing and then just bemoan things on Social Media.

I often hear speakers at business entrepreneur events say that no one started a business just to make money, there were deeper purpose and reason. I don’t fully agree. I think making money, consistently affords you the ability to then fulfil a deeper purpose. The same goes for the “start with the why” proclamation. For many, the why reveals itself through years of trials and tribulations of doing business. Or the why also meanders.

Developing Further

I feel I have reached that stage in life. Business is doing well, but is there something bigger I can get involved with that has a wider contribution?

We opened up our second data centre facility at the Dorset Innovation Park for reasons such as to be near-future clients, competitive rents, a clean sheet to build a new hosting infrastructure. It was also to become a company that also has a base in rural Dorset to provide high tech employment opportunities to that part of the County.

Dorset Innovation Park, near Wool.

This would naturally lead me to a point where I could start talking about the Dorset economy as a whole. This is by having a base in both rural and conurbation Dorset, about the hidden businesses and sectors that are doing well but are poor about promoting themselves.

Innovation and collaboration across Dorset are what is needed to raise the economic profile leading to economic growth.

We are faced with the fact that in 2050 there will be parity between the number of people working and the number of people of pensionable age. Unless we have business growth, more businesses, and more employment, the county won’t be able to properly support public services for its population.

This all becomes substantial initiatives for me to get involved in doesn’t it? After all, this is my home.

Down on Southbourne beach, keeping my groyne clear.

Co-hosted by Datacenta

Finding the crossover between a hosting business and ensuring people are in the right place and all is under control.

Gordon Fong

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Co-hosted by Datacenta

Finding the crossover between a hosting business and ensuring people are in the right place and all is under control.

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