We held the first of our 2018 lunches at the world-renowned Trent Bridge Cricket Ground on Friday 26 January. The Derek Randall suite, with its wide-angle view over the ground, filled with attendees including East Midlands Chamber, Malcolm Hollis and Smith Cooper along with 51 other businesses and organisations from across the city and county.
Proceedings began with Steve Mason, MD of Mason Infotech, the event sponsors, who delighted the room with his colourful life story; telling of his upbringing in Nottingham, from his apprenticeship at Boots to his time playing rugby in New Zealand and Australia. Mason explained that Mason Infotech approaches IT as you would building a house, with a logical infrastructure using the layers of the OSI 7 model. Mr Mason also highlighted the importance of security with 46% of UK businesses identifying cyber security breaches in the last 12 months.
The second speaker; Matthew Wheatley, Interim CEO of D2N2 LEP, shared invaluable insights into future trends and opportunities looking ahead to 2023, whilst considering the potential impact Brexit may have on economic growth across the region.
Mr Wheatley revealed that D2N2 LEP are working on a revised strategy for continued growth in a post-Brexit economy, which focused on five priorities over the next fifteen years; resilience, connectivity, digital skills, innovation and quality of life. A consultation with businesses will take place in the spring to shape these priorities.
Sean Akins of Bildurn then introduced Andrew Redfern, the Chief Executive of Framework. Mr Bildurn has collaborated with Framework Housing Association, through his sister company DHP Family, to create a brand-new music festival, Beat the Streets. The festival, held in the city last weekend, brought together over 80 artists and raised £100,000 for the Nottingham based charity.
Mr Redfern emphasised that homelessness is not a choice, and that a sophisticated understanding of the reasoning behind homelessness, must be adopted.
Here at Nottingham Partners we work to offer informative and valuable insights to the business community about major initiatives and strategies, enabling businesses to input into the future of the city and the county.
We are running a number of these events throughout 2018 to stimulate further positive discussion and most importantly clear actions to the benefit of the city and county. Members can book on to our events by clicking here and entering the usual access code.
If you are not a member of Nottingham Partners and would like more information, please email Annette Thornley on annette.thornley@nottinghampartners.co.uk.