‘Full house’ at D2N2 Annual Conference 2017

Business speakers from the health and beauty retail, further education and elite sportwear sectors spoke to a packed D2N2 Annual Conference and AGM.

More than 120 delegates attended the free business event held at The 3aaa Pavilion at Derbyshire County Cricket Ground, Derby. Tickets for the annual event were sold out.

D2N2 is the private-sector led Partnership of business, local authorities, skills and training providers, community groups and social enterprises, and other organisations which promotes economic growth and jobs creation across Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.

This year’s guest speakers were:

• Elizabeth Fagan, Senior Vice-President and Managing Director of top UK pharmacy-led health and beauty retailer Boots.
• John van de Laarschot, Chief Executive of Nottingham College; the new college formed from the merger of Central College Nottingham and New College Nottingham in June (2017), which is now one of the UK’s largest further education colleges.
• Dean Jackson, Founder and Managing Director of specialist triathlon clothing and equipment manufacturer Huub Design of Derby; worn by top athletes including triathlon Olympic medal winning brothers, Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee.

Delegates at the 2017 Annual Conference and AGM also heard from D2N2 Chair Peter Richardson OBE and Chief Executive David Ralph on the Local Enterprise Partnership’s successes over the last year; and how it is delivering on its targets, including on increasing jobs numbers, and aiding small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to grow.

Facts and figures were available to delegates today, who were each given a copy of D2N2’s newly published 2016/17 Annual Review and 2016/17 State of the D2N2 Economy:Summary Report. An online version of the Annual Review is available by clicking HERE .

Peter Richardson, Chair of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “We had a terrific turnout for today’s Annual Conference, as always, with delegates representing a wide range of sectors, from the D2N2 LEP’s area and beyond.

“There was a genuine desire amongst people at the event to engage with difficult business topics including Brexit, raising productivity and how the Midlands Engine can support the ambitions of the Government’s Industrial Strategy; for the economic benefit of all communities in our area.”

D2N2 area successes in the last year, touched on at today’s event, included:

• opening of the £30million BioCity Nottingham extension in spring (2017) to support the LEP’s key sector of Life Sciences, which D2N2 contributed £6.5m towards;
• opening of the new University of Derby Chesterfield campus last autumn (2016), again part-funded by the LEP;
• launch of the £15million ‘Building Better Opportunities’ programme, co-funded by D2N2 and the Big Lottery Fund, to aid those most in need of help getting back into employment, or with financial or social exclusion issues;
• the more than 4,500 SMEs which have contacted the LEP’s D2N2 Growth Hub (since its December 2014 launch) to get help help to expand, access finance or seek out new markets.

For more on the work of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership see its website