Liverpool on the Horizon

How far can you see from the top of the BT Tower? I was speaking at an event there this week, and Liverpool was just over the horizon. 

It might not be direct line of sight, but with a month to go until the opening of the International Festival for Business (IFB2016), it is certainly figuring large in the work of UK Trade & Investment.

Using our network around the globe, and working in partnership with Liverpool Vision and the GREAT campaign, we have been recruiting thousands of international businesses to come to this three-week global event so that they can meet, mingle and do business with UK firms.

We want to build on the strong results generated by the first festival in 2014, which attracted businesses from 92 countries, with over 68,000 delegate visits.

In total, some ￡280 million of deals were done. Translate that into economic impact, and you’re looking at 10,000 new jobs being created over three years.

So what do we have planned this time around?

The doors open on 13 June, with Manufacturing Week. We will have an Exporting is GREAT event, and our Export Hub will, of course, be in residence.

This will be followed by Energy Week and then a week to celebrate the creative industries. 

The scope and scale of the events on offer is dazzling. The challenge for delegates will be to work out which opportunity to pursue next.

We’ll be introducing UK food and drink businesses to some of the world’s biggest online marketplaces, with advice on how to sell via fast-growing digital channels.

With a growth rate of 4% and sustaining 500,000 jobs across the country, we will be looking at stepping up exports and investment in our chemical industry, which contributes ￡75 million every day to the UK economy.

Business leaders will be star-gazing about the future of the energy industry. By UKTI estimates, oil companies are expected to spend close to $170 billion across ten high value opportunity markets during 2016-17.  And we’ll be looking to win further green business building on our position as a world leader in renewables.

Home-grown UK start-ups will be trying their luck at delivering elevator pitches to overseas-based venture-capital companies. 

Others will be finding out how they can help global aid and development agencies, which spend upwards of $100 billion every year on everything from tents to medical supplies to consultancy and telecommunications.

We’ll be promoting opportunities in the global video games market, which is forecast to be worth $113 billion by 2018. While for those who prefer more traditional types of recreation, we’ll be looking at how to win contracts at the world’s top 50 major sporting events, on which an estimated ￡230 billion is due to be spent by 2025.

Liverpool, one of our Northern Powerhouse cities, with its proud trading heritage, is a fantastic location to host this international event.

It’s being held in a new venue - the Exhibition Centre Liverpool. This sits on the banks of the River Mersey, just a short stroll from Albert Dock, part of a designated UNESCO world heritage site that houses Tate Liverpool, The Beatles Story and the Merseyside Maritime Museum. An After Hours programme has just been published to encourage delegates to make full use of their time outside the Festival.

The countdown has begun, registration is open and I hope to see as many businesses there as possible. If you make time for just one networking event this year, then the International Festival for Business is the one you shouldn’t miss.