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If you are reading this in December, you are probably looking forward to winding down over the festive season, feeling charitable and generous and giving those who frustrate you the benefit of the doubt. You may be drinking a spicy mulled wine, or letting a hot toddy smooth out the kinks of Christmas shopping.
If you are reading it in January, you have a steely glint in your eye, you feel rested and refreshed and you are keen to crack on with your plans, promises and predictions for the New Year. You are drinking sparking water or herbal tea.
One magazine, one person - two very different outlooks.
This edition of Connect covers both, and that’s exactly as it should be. Because while you may be looking forward to a well-earned break at the end of the year, you know that next year will throw up real challenges which you need to be ready for. Starting, perhaps, with dealing with the true effects of political giveaways ahead of the general election in May, and continue with a series of new charges which businesses will be asked to contribute to the exchequer. Meanwhile, Brexit goes on.
On the subject of ‘not-so-cheap’ political giveaways, read The Fool on page 38. Expect a lot more where that came from in the coming months.
One phrase that is certain to cross your (digital) desk in 2018 is cyber security - after the recent Paradise Papers hack, no one can be left in any doubt as to the potential problems here, or the fact that irrespective of what we do in Jersey, a connected world means that we are just as vulnerable to a data breach (however it occurred) on the other side of the world, as we are to a problem at home.
Jersey will be in the headlines once again, and before you can say (as everyone did, ad infinitum, as if it was the real point) “nothing illegal has been done,” we will have more political fall-out to tidy up, with those around the world who are looking for ammunition to fire at the Channel Islands.
The island will have more of that type of media coverage to deal with in 2018, without doubt. You’ll find our cyber security supplement
on page 21, and also an interview with Tony Moretta of Digital Jersey on page 16, who looks at how the island can benefit from being a ‘sand- box’ for new digital services.
So, in common with the theme of looking ahead, and also back, once you have read Mr Moretta’s thoughts on our digital future, turn to page 41. On this page you will find the story of Hugo de Castro, recently named as one of the top concierges in the UK. In the forthcoming elections, when you hear politicians shed cheap words like confetti about support for the tourism industry, remember his story, which is all about what real support looks like: day-to- day care of something you love, attention to detail, a lifetime of working to make sure it has the best possible future. Mr de Castro has been at the heart of our tourism sector for decades, and in this edition of Connect he tells his story. I hope it inspires you, in your plans for next year.
Thanks for reading Connect - here’s to 2018.
