Founder and CEO of leading Nottingham digital marketing agency Hallam Internet, Susan Hallam MBE, was invited to meet with special adviser to the Prime Minister, Jimmy McLoughlin, on Tuesday to discuss government initiatives to support small business.
Susan was part of a small delegation of Enterprise Nation business leaders invited to discuss the challenge: “What would you do if you were Prime Minister for a day to support enterprise?”
Faced with this dream blue-sky opportunity, Susan shared her prime ministerial vision of doubling Nottingham’s gross value add (GVA) from £21K per person to get closer to London’s GVA of £46K.
Creative businesses will play a key part in delivering this vision. These businesses have the greatest propensity for growth and the highest likelihood to export their services.
These businesses require connectivity in the form of both high-speed digital connectivity, as well as high-speed rail connectivity, and Susan’s proposal would be to bring the new High Speed 2 rail right into Nottingham city centre.
The delegation had wide-ranging conversations with McLoughlin, from R&D tax credits to city centre regeneration.
With over 30 years of experience, the Nottingham-based entrepreneur is an advocate of digital transformation and has helped hundreds of businesses in the UK and abroad grow digitally. Susan’s thought leadership has empowered a wide range of organisations, from start-ups to large multinationals, to innovate online and become more successful.
Commenting on her visit to 10 Downing Street, Susan said: “I’m honoured to have been invited to discuss with special adviser Jimmy McLoughlin and I thank him for hearing out my ideas. Having founded and grown my own company in Nottingham, I have seen first hand the skills, resources and potential this city has for business growth. I strongly believe that Nottingham would be the best place to start a regional development plan that could be replicated nationally.“
