Growth and culture highlighted at September’s lunch!

A big thank you to everyone who attended last Friday’s lunch at St James Hotel. A big thank you too to Nottingham Trent University’s (NTU) Employability Team, our sponsor for the event.

Proceedings started with a welcome from our Chairman Paul Southby and an announcement that at the end of October, after four years, Simon Gray will be leaving Nottingham Partners to focus on a number of personal business projects.

Paul took everyone back to the birth of the organisation, the brainchild of the late Jim Taylor, which began as Invest in Nottingham Club, rebranded as Nottingham Means Business and now is Nottingham Partners. It was an important reminder of the purpose of the organisation and the reason it was set up in the first place – to promote Nottingham and Nottinghamshire to the outside world and to support the drive for inward investment.

Simon Gray and Jim Taylor at the Invest in Nottingham Club Christmas Drinks in December 2013.

First we heard from Georgina Phillips from our sponsors NTU. She talked about a number of initiatives being championed by NTU to connect their students to the business community, including the Graduate Internship Scheme and the ERDF Enabling Innovation Project.

L-R: Brendan Moffett (Marketing NG), Steve Wooler (BWB Group), Paul Russ (European Capital of Culture 2023 Bid),  Georgina Phillips (NTU), Simon Gray (Nottingham Partners), Donna Close (European Capital of Culture 2023 Bid) and Hanna Luetkemeier (NTU).

Next Steve Wooler, Chief Executive of BWB Group, one of Nottingham’s great success stories, explained how the organisation has grown over the last 27 years from a start-up to becoming part of Spanish transport engineering giant CAF Group.

A full house at St James Hotel for September’s lunch.

Our final speakers were Paul Russ and Donna Close from Nottingham’s European Capital of Culture 2023 Bid. This is a huge opportunity for Nottingham and Nottinghamshire and you can find out more and pledge your support here.

Our next lunch takes place on 20 October at Notts County Football Club and is kindly being sponsored by Impression.