Launch for Black Country Business Festival
An exciting celebration of the business success of the Black Country gets underway on Monday with thousands of people expected to attend more than 100 events.
Around 100 key business leaders, politicians and sponsors are expected to attend the launch of the second Black Country Business Festival at the University of Wolverhampton’s Springfield Campus.
The breakfast launch will see keynote speeches from Professor Geoff Layer, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton; Corin Crane, chief executive of Black Chamber of Commerce; Paul Jones, founder of Wolverhamptoon business Goodstart Jones; Sarah Middleton, chief executive of the Black Country Consortium); Murray Lambell (Vice-President of UK Trading, at Business Festival headline sponsor, eBay – via video and Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands Combined Authority.
Tickets to mostly free business events in the festival, which runs to May 24, are still flying out the door. Already thousands of tickets have been booked and many events are already full to capacity.
They are available to anyone on a first come, first served basis through the website www.blackcountrybusinessfestival.com.
Mr Crane said: “I am really looking forward to launching our second annual business festival on Monday. It also gives us a real chance to celebrate our business, innovation, knowledge and strengths and show what our fantastic region has to offer.
“There are some absolutely awesome events in the programme again this year and I urge everyone to make the most of what’s available – and for free, during this exiting fortnight.”
Professor Layer added: “The University of Wolverhampton is delighted to be hosting this prestigious opening event to mark the start of the second Black Country Business Festival.
“We pride ourselves on being a place of opportunity for students, staff and businesses that we engage with; developing individuals who are entrepreneurial, eminently employable and well-connected.
“Last year’s festival was a huge success and we are proud to be playing an active part in the business festival again this year as a partner and also helping deliver a comprehensive programme of events for business and individuals to attend.
“This further demonstrates our ongoing commitment to developing the Black Country’s strengths, innovation, commerce, culture and huge investment potential to the rest of the world."
The festival was developed by the chamber and it is headline partnered by online retailer eBay. Other partners include: DY5 – Dudley’s Business and Innovation Enterprise Zone, Talbots Law, the University of Wolverhampton, Birmingham Airport, Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership and Black Country Growth Hub.
Sponsors are Casino 36 and M6 Toll. Supporters are Wolverhampton Racecourse, accountancy firm, Crowe,Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, Think Sandwell, Gecko Programmes and Walsall Council. Media partners are Signal 107, the Express & Star, outdoor media experts Elonex and Infonote Datasystems. It is run in association with Associate Events.
The festival contains events of all kinds and sizes from small workshops about recruitment, bid writing marketing and social media to large business trade shows, conferences about women in business and business networking and charity events.
