Fantastic feedback from first Coventry & Warwickshire Business Festival
The inaugural Coventry & Warwickshire Business Festival proved a resounding success with 86 per cent of business people in attendance confirming that their business was positively affected by the event.
Thoughts are already turning towards the second Festival, next November, after the first, which closed on December 1st, attracted thousands of visitors from the local area, the wider region and around the world.
The fortnight-long festival featured 114 events, of which 17 were filled to capacity. Ticket bookings overall reached almost 5,000 and 23 per cent of attendees were visiting Coventry and Warwickshire from outside the region.
Remarkably, for its first year, the festival even gained international presence with visitors from Italy and Nigeria as well as delegations flying in from France, Catalonia and Sweden specifically for events at the Coventry & Warwickshire Business Festival events.
In its first year, the festival, developed by the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP Growth Hub, secured headline partnership from the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC). It was also supported by a range of public and private sector organisations, including Warwickshire County Council, which understood the importance and relevance of the festival and recognised its potential.
Businesses and organisations from across the region pulled together to make the festival the biggest business event in the region in its inaugural year.
A huge variety of events spanned the whole region, from North Warwickshire down to Stratford-on-Avon in the south and from Coventry, Warwick and Leamington across to Rugby in the east. These events encompassed everything from virtual reality, logistics, tourism & hospitality, HR, data protection and digital workshops and seminars, through to an impressive food and drink expo, showcases from the region’s two first-class universities, trade shows, a small business conference and prestigious annual business award ceremonies.
An abundance of innovation, learning and sharing, networking and collaboration went on with 99 per cent of businesses rating the events they attended as ‘good to excellent’ while 86 per cent confirmed their business was positively affected.
The Business Festival succeeded in placing Coventry & Warwickshire on a national stage, highlighting the amazing knowledge, commerce and culture present and truly showing what the region has to offer to investors.
Margot James, then Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Corporate Responsibility, who spoke at the launch, gave a fantastic endorsement to the Business Festival and all the great work going on in Coventry and Warwickshire.
Planning is already underway for the 2018 Business Festival and it’s not too early for businesses and individuals to sign up now to pledge their support– whether through sponsorship, hosting events or becoming a venue partner.
For more information or to get involved please email hello@cwbusinessfestival.com, visit the Business Festival website www.cwbusinessfestival.com.