Good luck to everyone across our membership who is taking part on Sunday – there are lots of you all raising money for a wide variety of good causes. Weather looks good if perhaps a little too hot so do ensure you keep the liquid intake up. I remain in awe of anyone who can cover such a distance irrespective of the time they achieve. Watching the fatigue of competitors in our own half-marathon I recognise that I will never be a participant. Let’s hope my colleagues in Birmingham Future will continue to represent us so well.
Richard Brennan's Blog
Marketing Birmingham (22/04/10)
Slight groundhog moment at lunchtime today when I found myself receiving the same presentation for the second time in the same day from Marketing Birmingham – even second time around it was worth seeing and hearing.
Neil Rami, Tim Manson and the team have really transformed the organisation and we greatly enjoy their Team approach which allows us and others to work with them. In the last year we have participated in Taste of Business, Overseas trips, Party Conferences and Inward investment visits with the team and they are really great ambassadors for the city and the region.
Their co-location with the Inward Investment Team means that our Ambassadors programme is now also available to a wider audience. They have some great promotional materials both slides and video that they can make available to businesses who want to promote Birmingham to overseas clients and prospects. In these cost conscious times having a readymade resource like this to support your overseas activity may be exactly what you need.
20th Anniversary Supplement (22/04/10)
I hope you all felt as proud as I did today when you saw the superb supplement in the Birmingham Post celebrating our 20th anniversary.
Sincere thanks firstly to those who provided sponsorship to make it happen – we really appreciate your support and hope you get as much benefit from partnering with us. Secondly a very special thanks to Aimee Postle at Kinetic, our PR partners, who really went above and beyond to ensure we delivered a well researched and well written piece.
This is not to forget our partnership with The Birmingham Post themselves which continues to demonstrate the value of working together.
Volcanic Ash (21/04/10)
Another ‘Black Swan’ incident for us to try to wrestle with.
Living on the Birmingham Airport flight path as I do it was easy to notice the noise difference but the economic impact is really only now starting to be understood. Will some airlines fail as a result of this, will air travel suffer another hit, hotels are reporting major losses from cancellations – the list goes on.
At a debate I was asked what would I do different if I had known – but surely this is the challenge – we did not know. Europe’s active earthquakes are in Italy and until last week the risk of Icelandic eruptions had not been factored in. Hence the ‘Black Swan’ reference – if you don’t understand it do follow the link above – you will not be disappointed.
The French Chamber of Commerce in Britain (20/04/10)
Delighted to be invited to participate in this visit – the first to a regional city by this very successful Chamber. Birmingham did itself proud, led by Mike Whitby who welcomed the French Ambassador and the delegation and went on to host a lunch for them at Opus.
The delegation included some very senior business leaders including Richard Brown from Eurostar who had some interesting views about HS2. The delegation met with French businesses based in the region and then visited some of our key organisations including Jaguar Land Rover. The day ended with a dinner hosted by Birmingham Forward members Wragge & Co who have strong presence in France.
Nastional Insurance Payments (05/04/10)
Good to see business leaders from both sides of the political spectrum coming together to condem the proposals in the recent budget. Although we need a clear plan to reduce our national debt we also need to ensure we can stimulate employment as we move slowly out of recession.
Birmingham Forward is acutely aware of the fine balance required in these matters and we look forward to an announcement of the election date and the move through the election prcess to a new government that will take clear and positive control of the situation.
Any increase in employers costs ast this time can be seen as a tax on employment.
Saxon Hoard (27/03/10)
Great to see the local support and enthusiasm for this significant find. Both the number of visitors, and the value of donations, clearly indicate that we have a real passion for our heritage including the Saxon Hoard .
Rita McClean and her team at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG) have done a great job, working with other local museums to ensure that there was a strong campaign and a real sense of local pride.
We need more of this pride in both our business and private lives. We live in a fantastic city located in superb surroundings and a lot of the time we fail to realise how lucky we are. Secondly we totally fail to communicate that message to the wider world so they will beat a path to our door as they did in the days of Matthew Boulton.
Let's try to learn from this example and look for other business related stories that help to put Birmingham and the West Midlands on the global map.
High Speed 2 - HS2 (27/03/10)
Well we finally got the long awaited report and generally it seems to make sense. HS2 is really important to the Midlands and we need to get the government, and any new government, to push on.
The decision to delay the start of the project to 2017 has got supporting reasons but in all reality is crazy. We need to move now, we need to go through a quick and effective planning review and make the final route decisions. This will reduce the impact of blight and may take some three or four years off the total project timetable. The country needs infrastructure projects like this and adding a four year delay to the process seems pointless when viewed against that need.
Connectivty to HS1 (Channel Rail link for you and me!) also needs to be sorted out. We need a joined up system. If we go for another option we will have to correct our error in the future - so let's get it right from the start.
Despite all the good news there are some local impacts such as the planned new BCU campus at Eastside. Another reason to move forward with alacrity so that alternative solutiions can be found and implemented.
Well done to the HS2 team for the work done thus far, don't lose momentum now but rather push on for all the reasons stated above.
Regular Blogging (27/03/10)
Sincere apolgies for the interruption of service over recent weeks. I am for every complaining about other blogs that suddenly stop and here I am doing exactly the same thing. No real excuse, pressure of work, some unplanned leave, and one or two other matters - however the real cause is not being in the habit.
Communication is that challenging channel that we are always told we do not do enough of and for me I really want to create a stronger community around what I am saying and doing on behalf of our membership. What I am really looking for is response from our members and others to ensure this becomes a dialogue rather than a lecture.
Primary responsibility lies with me to get back on track and to post enough interesting material to stimulate some good debate. So here I am back in harness and ready to give it another go. I hope you will continue to read and start to comment.
Big City Plan (12/02/10)
As you are aware both Birmingham Forward and Birmingham Future worked very closely with Birmingham City Council and Urban Initiatives as they developed an excellent first iteration of their Big City Plan. We firmly believe that our city needs such a Masterplan and the continued development of this plan is even more important in the current economic landscape.
Despite assurances at a very senior level we are now getting deeply concerned that this worthwhile project has stalled. This is unacceptable if it is true!
The council need to provide some assurance, confirm when an update will be issued and stick to that committment. If you have any views, or knowledge as to what is happening, I would really like to hear from you.
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