Birmingham Forward e-Bulletin - October 2009

In September we held a breakfast event to introduce our mission to Bahrain to coincide with the World Islamic Banking conference, which is held there every December. We had a great panel of speakers but perhaps John Hughes of Needham & James was the most inspiring, as he had already been there and done it.

More details of the mission are available from Steve Cunnane, the BPS expert for UKTI, based at Birmingham Chamber of Commerce.

We had a great debate earlier this week on the plans for High Speed Two (HS2) to link Birmingham to London and the North. Three great speakers and our transport champion, Richard Winfield, provided some excellent background and clearly outlined the options.

The key to moving forward is to lobby government, the opposition and our local MPs with a clear and concise message. We are working to draft a few core paragraphs for this letter and will circulate these shortly. We could summarise our approach as follows: “Link London and the Midlands directly on the proven route that is already experiencing capacity issues. This can then lead to further linkages with the North and Scotland.”

Birmingham has been named as the best performing European city in which to do business, having risen more places in Cushman & Wakefield's influential European Cities Monitor than any of its competitors.  It is now second only to London in the UK for business.

Birmingham now occupies the 14th spot amongst a total of 34 across Europe. It is not only the city to have made the biggest rise in the rankings (up seven places), but has also risen in 11 of the 12 key rankings, outperforming all other UK cities in this year’s report. 

Click here to read further. The full Cushman & Wakefield European Cities Monitor report is available to download atwww.europeancitiesmonitor.eu.
 

Birmingham Forward is delighted to welcome Ayshen Turk as a Graduate Intern for the next six months. This is a result of Birmingham Forward’s participation in the West Midlands Graduate Internships scheme that launched on 13th July. The scheme, partnered with Job Centre Plus, Graduate Advantage, Advantage West Midlands and the European Social Fund in England, allows employers to access graduate level skills to tackle the effects of the economic downturn and support them into the upturn. It also gives graduates the opportunity to gain valuable work experience to enhance their skills and employability.

Ayshen will be working primarily on Birmingham Forward's database system, helping to develop the reporting process and also assisting in the development of a Birmingham Future alumni database.
 

Patron member Aston Villa held a special event to celebrate the opening of their new look Holte Suite.

Around 300 people – including club partners, representatives, corporate clients, community leaders and members of the media - attended the prestigious re-launch event on 3rd September.

Guests enjoyed a three-course gourmet menu prepared by Villa’s award winning chefs, while there was live music from the 20-piece Birmingham All Stars band.

A raffle took place, with prizes presented by special guest Jennifer Bolt – mother of the world’s fastest man and triple Olympic sprint gold medallist Usain Bolt.

The event, which was compered by AVTV’s Jack Woodward, raised £2,300 for Villa’s official partners, Acorns.  
 

Thai Edge, Oozells Square, Brindleyplace, Birmingham, B1 2HL 
Tuesday 20th October, 12.00 - 14.00

Having officially launched on 1st April 2009, the Colmore BID has immediately engaged with the business community and begun work to improve and sustain the BID area. The aspiration of the BID is to improve, promote and sustain the Colmore Business District as the commercial centre at Birmingham’s heart- and it appears to be well on its way to doing so.

We are therefore pleased to welcome Gary Cardin, Colmore Business District Chair and Michele Wilby, CBD Manager to speak at our Meet & Eat lunch, to be held in the popular Thai Edge in Brindleyplace.

Gary and Michele will be offering a brief overview of the Colmore Business District and the journey that was taken to secure the CBD.  They will also update you on the first six months of the Business District’s activity and its future plans.

Click here for further information. To book your place contact claire@birminghamforward.co.uk/ 0121 632 2209.

Photo: Gary Cardin, Colmore Business District Chair

Birmingham Hippodrome, Hurst Street, Birmingham B5 4TB
Tuesday 3rd November 2009, 12.00 - 14.00

For Birmingham Forward’s third Keynote Lunch of 2009, we are pleased to welcome Brian McGowan, Chairman of Catalyst Corporate Finance and co-founder of Williams Holdings, who shall be speaking to us about his experience of the city in which we live and work.

Having himself spent nearly fifty years working with the City, Brian has observed countless changes, both in the aesthetics of the city and in its governance. With an emphasis on the latter, Brian will provide us with his own perspective of the growth and progress of the UK corporate landscape.

Click here for further information. To book your place contactclaire@birminghamforward.co.uk / 0121 632 2209.

Photo: Brian McGowan 

Birmingham Forward and Birmingham Chamber members enjoyed the company of Vikki Heywood, Executive Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company at the recent Breakfast Connections event.

Vikki provided the audience with an overview of the RSC, the work it does within the community and its national and international acclaims. She then elaborated on the continuing transformation of the theatres, including the reasons behind retaining some of the architecture of the previous theatre. As ever with architectural decisions, the views of maintaining and honouring the previous structures met with both agreement and argument but after many discussions it was agreed that the work of the architect, Elizabeth Scott, should be preserved, as this was the first example in the country of architecture designed by a woman. 

Vikki also addressed the issue of public transport to and from Stratford upon Avon, highlighting the necessity of effective and frequent public transport in order to allow their patrons better access to the entertainment provided by the RSC.

Finally, as part of their leap into the twitterverse, the RSC had posed a "tweet" asking fellow "tweeters" to encapsulate the plot of Hamlet into 140 characters or less. The favourite to date had been...... "moan, moan, moan, moan, moan, moan, moan, moan, moan, moan, moan, moan, moan, moan, moan, moan, moan, moan, moan, moan, moan, moan. Dead." The full list of entries can be found at http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23hamlet.

The Voice of Black Opera (VOBO) is a biennial competition to find the operatic voice of the Commonwealth within the Black & Asian communities. The event, presented by the Black British Classical Foundation, will be held on 31st October 2009 at 7.30pm.

VOBO seeks to encourage, promote and recognise excellence amongst Black and Asian classical singers, whilst developing audience attendance of classical music and opera in those diverse communities.  The competition will be a unique opportunity to be heard by industry professionals and will give the opportunity to demonstrate the wealth of Black and Asian talent that is the future of the British and Commonwealth cultural landscape.

The event flyer and press release  give further details.