BUSINESSES across south Warwickshire are taking their seats at the roundtable next month in a bid to push growth and innovation.
The Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub is once again joining forces with Stratford District Council and the University of Warwick to host a roundtable session focused on addressing the issues surrounding Scaling Up.
Around 20 ground-breaking businesses are to be invited to the roundtable at SDC’s headquarters, Elizabeth House in Church Street between 8am and 11.30am on Friday May 19.
Irene Graham OBE, CEO of the ScaleUp Institute, will tackle subjects such as access to finance, skills and developing clusters.
There will also be a panel debate to give businesses an opportunity to discuss the issues affecting them and gain expert advice.
The event follows the success of the inaugural Driving Innovation and Growth Summit earlier in the year.
Over 70 businesses from the automation, AI, electrification, agri-tech, and the digital and creative sectors attended the summit at the University of Warwick Innovation Campus in February, which aimed to underpin the implementation of economic growth plans in the area.
Craig Humphrey, Chief Executive Officer of the Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub, said the Driving Innovation and Growth Summit had emphasised the need for this kind of event to help more businesses reach their high-growth potential.
He continued: “South Warwickshire and indeed the wider area offers a thriving scale-up opportunity but more needs to be done because these kinds of businesses are the proven engine of the UK economy.
“There are 710 scale-up businesses in Coventry and Warwickshire whose growth has increased by 20 per cent every year for three years in revenue or the number of their employees and around 140 in the Stratford district so there are plenty of opportunities to encourage greater collaboration.
“Irene is a fantastic speaker with a wealth of knowledge and she was so impressed with the potential of the area that she was keen to return and provide advice on accessing the right markets and talents as well as leveraging capital to access growth capital.
“One of the major barriers which is holding high-growth companies back is employing highly skilled people and one of the subjects which will be discussed is getting the right careers advice in place and making sure education is geared to new markets.
“We have invited a select number of businesses who we believe will benefit enormously from finding about more about scaling up, its challenges and the vast array of opportunities that are available within our business support eco-system to take their companies to the next level.”
