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London and New York top most people’s travel lists, but for Dan Hare, Founder of Continuum, Jersey is the best place in the world to live and run a business. Indeed, there’s not a lot he would change.
However, after over 25 years working in tech and finance, and nearly five years running his company, Dan appreciates there’s always scope to make things even better.
For someone who spends his day showing how Data Automation and Artificial Intelligence can help businesses, Dan’s changes are surprisingly low-tech, as he told Express...
Everyone should be more positive and be proud of our island rather than overly focusing on the undoubted negatives.
Having lived and worked in London and New York, to which Jersey has been unfavourably compared in some of these articles, Jersey is a fantastic place to live and work.
Pictured: Dan thinks everyone needs to be more upbeat on our Island, rather than constantly focusing on the negatives.
We have easy access to some of the most beautiful beaches and countryside in the world – try going for a swim after work in major cities! We have decent and improving travel links compared to many of our competitors, and very good internet which allows us to compete with anyone in the world.
We have some of the smartest people here by choice in many growth industries such as finance, law and technology with an accessible regulator, a government that is embracing technology and encourages start-ups via Digital Jersey and Jersey Business. Everything is in place for someone with a good idea to build a world-leading business from here.
For an island nine-by-five, recycling and upcycling is difficult. I’m as guilty as many for not paying enough attention to my household waste, although I do recycle my jokes...
Pictured: Dan think islanders need to make more of an effort with their recycling habits.
One has only to see the crowds at the Sunday morning car boot sale to understand the scale of supply and demand for pre-loved goods – this should also be the case for recyclable materials.
As a slightly off-the-wall example, I recently met a Holidays For Heroes visitor who was expounding on the beauty of our island and how we could use flies to convert waste food into protein. The mechanism for this is a bit yucky, but it can be odour free and our diminishing stock of empty greenhouses would be a perfect location for something like this, when our food waste can no longer be given to animals.
I’ve always cycled to and from work and would love to see many of our single occupants of cars move to bicycles.
Pictured: Jersey has brilliant cycle routes running from the out skirts of town, along the avenue and out to the west side of the Island, but is there a need for more routes through the middle of town?
I’m still a member of the London Cycling Campaign group that has made great strides with the Mayors of London to lobby for and deliver safer and easier cycling, and the great growth in cycling in London is testament to this. Simon Crowcroft is also a keen advocate of cycling, as witnessed by the dramatic increase in places to lock one’s bike in town, but I’d love to see more cycle routes through town to reduce the need for circuitous routes from e.g. Liberation Square to Snow Hill.
I also drive a car but appreciate that our health and environment is under threat due to the inexorable increase in traffic and reduction in exercise so would accept some inconvenience to reduce traffic levels.
Our bus service - routes 1 and 15 aside - isn’t reliable, frequent or affordable enough to tempt people away from their cars.
For example, it’s cheaper for a couple who live in Mont Felard to drive in and park on the Esplanade than to take the bus to and from work. This is mad.
Pictured: Current bus provides LibertyBus offer a services which Dan thinks is too expensive for some users.
I’d like to see a free bus service, expanded school buses and out of town park and ride subsidised by road charging within St. Helier for those who want the choice to use their cars at peak hours.
Charging would be suspended for taxis and those with reduced mobility, offsettable for businesses, with bus/shared use lanes prioritising public transport and multi occupancy vehicles.
There is a lot of fear and misinformation about the rise of Cloud computing, data analytics, artificial intelligence and introduction of self-driving cars.
These amazing technologies create a level playing field for all jurisdictions and have never been easier to use.
Pictured: Dan thinks we need to use technology in conjunction with our brain power to solve problems and advance as a society.
Jersey is very well-placed to lead lucrative fields such as private equity, intellectual property (IP) and e-commerce since we are big enough to have an awful lot of clever people and businesses who know each other and can do business on a hand shake and would provide skilled jobs and support industries.
We aren’t big enough to be able to throw people at problems to make them go away, so by embracing modern technology with local experts we can become even better regulated, keep and attract money and jobs on the island and get a competitive advantage over other jurisdictions.
Some friends and I set up Project 52 two years ago as a cashless, crowd funded, co-operative bar entirely based on Cloud technology to have fun and add more variety to Jersey nightlife whilst still growing our own businesses – where else could you do that?
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and not Bailiwick Express.
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