Held the second in this series of interactive educational events this morning. The topic this time was "Shaping the Future" and we had two great presentations from the Executive Dean, Prof. Mike West and Prof. Robin Martin.
The audience were given the chance to debate the topics and feedback their views. The event was a three way partnership between Aston Business School (the link will bring you to a report of the event), Birmingham Forward and Locate in Birmingham.
Had our eighth and final Patron's dinner of the year this evening. These Chatham House Rule dinners are a great opportunity for our Patrons, Directors and invited guests to have wide ranging discussions with a variety of key regional and national figures.
Last evening was slightly different in that we had the new CEO of The Barrow Cadbury Trust, a trust that spends some 60% of its funding here in the region. Sara Llewellin was joned by two inspirational leaders of local social enterprises, John Street from Free @ Last and Nathan Dennis from 1st Class Youth Network.
All three were truly inspirational and I hope that some concreate support will come from the guests present.
The 2010 programme is already being developed and the first of the eight speakers for next year will be Stephen Hughes, CEO of Birmingham City Council.
What great news!!!
Finally sense prevails and the minister has decided to prevent English Heritage from listing the current ugly library in Paradise Forum. We have fought hard to ensure this eyesore gets removed and we look forward to the exciting development that will replace it.
Staying with Libraries it is interesting that the Council had already started building the new Library without securing their planning permission - not sure the private sector would be let away with that - a bit of them and us I fear.
Attended the quarterly meeting of this forum where I am a member. Economic outlook is still bleak especially in our sector. Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for other areas besides services are more positive so hopefully it is just a logging indicator for our sector.
Unemployment numbers have slowed in the last three months but all present agreed there was still more bad news to come in this area.
Colmore Business District hosted a private viewing of this new exhibition for their members in conjunction with BMAG.
This is a fascinating exhibition of paintings and photos from the last 250 years showing how our city has, and is, changing. Some really amazing exhibits including a scale model of what Centenary Square might have looked like in a 1940's idea had happened. Also the maquette of our famous Iron Man, some truly amazing photos of how the city looked across different decades and some really beautiful recent paintings of life in Birmingham today.
Thank goodness there were people who took the time and trouble to record the change and our own Library's archive for so carefully preserving so many of the exhibits.
After an hour I had only seen about half of what was on display so I will be going back - exhibiton is open until early January so get yourself along - you will not be disapointed.
Time for the quarterly gloom and doom from Graeme Chaplin and his colleagues at BoE. Continued high attendance seems to suggest we all think we are still in recession - or so it was suggested.
Reason for large numbers is the quality and clarity of the presentations we receive - they really are excellent.
If you want to see what I mean go and have a look by following this link.
The one surprise for me was that they seemed unsure as to what was going to happen with unemployment. If the last three recessions are anything to go by we will see unemployment increase for another 6-12 months.
Went along to this event which we co-hosted with Barclays Wealth last year. Slightly different format to reflect the current climate but a great event all the same.
Portillo was on great form, David Smith from The Sunday Times provided some great insights and Michael Dick of Barclays summed up the presentations and discussion very effectively.
Lots of people present and a great opportunity to introduce some Australian visitors to a brummie networking event and also time to catch up with some people I had not seen for a little while. Excellent food as well.
Thanks to Graham Nicoll and his team for a most enjoyable evening.
Met with my Job Centre Plus mentee today. He really is a great guy and does seem to be getting extremelyclose to finding his next career move.
Overall our pilot with JCP has been a great success and I am overdue a sit-down with my colleague Andy Bass to decide how to move this whole idea forward.
Of the original cohort of professionals over 70% have now found new roles and the remainder are all getting close - a real success and thanks to all who have been participating alongside us.
The Board have now confirmed our overall strategy for 2009/10. We have kept this clear and simple - well we hope we have. There are three key themes and then some sub-headings under these:
•People & Development
- Mentors
- Education & Skills
- Diversity
- Third Sector
We have quite a bit of detail to go behind each of these and I will be happy to share it - please ask.
Congratulations to our friends and colleauges at the Broad Street Business Improvement District who have just held a most successful re-ballot which confirm the value of their first five years and gives them a mandate for the next five years.
The result was a resounding YES vote with a clear focus on their plans for a rapid transit system that can easily be implemented and which can be rolled out across the city. This is an exciting project and one that we are interested to see developed.
We wish the Broad Street BID every success for its next five years.
Members please sign in