A royal visit

HM The Queen and HRH Prince Philip came to visit our exhibition stand at the International Festival for Business last week.  

For all of the UK Trade & Investment staff there, meeting the monarch in her 90th year was undoubtedly a career highlight. Personally, I was thrilled. I just held my breath in the hope that everything would go smoothly, and breathed a huge sigh of relief, when – thankfully - it did. 

I saw the visit as recognition of all the hard work that our network has put in over the years to support UK companies and attract investment from around the world. It does have an impact. We help over 50,000 companies a year to sell overseas and help to land four out of five of the inward investment projects that generate 1,600 new jobs a week.

However, in the longer-term, what is exciting is what such a visit can do for the companies that we had on show. For them, this publicity can be a game-changer. And we had picked the best of the best.

There was Pufferfish Ltd. from Edinburgh, who make the PufferSphere, an interactive globe that is being used by NASA to teach people about planet topography. This globe, which has a surface that acts as an interactive touchscreen, has been the sensation of the festival.  

We had a group of students from the Cambridge University Eco Racing team, who were showcasing their record-breaking solar-powered racing car. One of my favourite statistics about renewable energy is that more solar energy falls on the earth in an hour than the entire world uses in a year. If we can harness it, then that’s our energy needs solved.

Then we had the Shadow Robot Company from London demonstrating the world’s most advanced commercially available robot hand, which can be operated by remote control. Robotics engineers, when looking at the types of work that robots should do, seek out tasks that meet the 3D criteria – Dull, Dirty and Dangerous. These hands are certainly not dull, but they can operate in environments where humans fear to tread, such as space and the deep sea.  I joked with Her Majesty that we should have got the hand to deliver a Royal Wave!

We are now two-thirds of the way through the International Festival for Business, and I have been enjoying the chance to meet a really wide range of UKTI staff and clients. So far, our UKTI events have been packed, and we have seen a real buzz about the opportunities that are on offer, not least the cheque-book ready investment projects worth over ￡40 billion that we have been pitching to overseas clients. I’m pleased that every part of the country has been involved in the festival: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

This week at IFB, we celebrate Creativity and on Thursday, I will be going up to Liverpool for the closing dinner, to present awards and to talk about how the UK’s creativity is leading the world.  

Business goes on, and the Olympics will be the next big thing. But last week in Liverpool was special. The chance to meet Her Majesty The Queen and HRH Prince Philip and to talk to them about the great work that UKTI does was something none of us will ever forget.