The Launch Event for Leicestershire Innovation Festival took place on 14 February at Space Park Leicester. The event saw over 70 guests join us to hear from some of the most innovative companies in the county along with organisations that dedicate themselves to supporting innovation across our region.
Dr Nik Kotecha OBE welcomed everyone to the event and took the opportunity to showcase all the elements that Leicestershire has that make it ideal for the creation of an innovative culture. Some of the key facts included
- Leicestershire is the largest economy in the East Midlands
- It has a GVA (Gross Value Add) of £23 billion and goal to increase it to £30 billion by 2030
- Our economy is mainly made up of SMEs – we currently have over 42,000
- Over 98% of businesses employ fewer than 50 people
- We have 3 world class universities – contributing over 17,000 skilled graduates to the workforce annually
You can watch his talk here.
Julian Bowrey of Innovate UK, gave an overview of the Innovation Landscape from local to national and international. You can watch his talk here.
Dennis Hayter, Vice-President of Business Development at Intelligent Energy spoke on ’21 years of fuel cell technology’ covering the innovation highlights from this period. Watch his talk here.
Robert Evans, CEO of Cenex, continued the green energy theme and spoke on ‘Towards Net Zero: Stimulus for Innovation’. Watch his talk here.
Peter Ware, Green Growth Board Chair at Midlands Engine’s talk showed that ‘An exciting vision for the region needs innovation’. See his talk here.
Finally, there was a Q&A Panel, hosted by Charlotte Horobin who is Regional Director MAKE UK and the Midlands Engine Business Forum. The panel included all of the speakers plus Sue Tilley from the LLEP, Rachel York from the Business Gateway, Will Wells from the University of Leicester and Helen Donnellan from De Montfort University.
Watch the Q&A session here.
