Major business showcase planned for Brighton and Hove

Sara Turner Commercial Business July 13, 2011 0

A international exhibition is being planned for Brighton to showcase local businesses. Council bosses and business leaders want to raise the city’s international profile in a bid to attract millions of pounds of investment from abroad.

Amy Kennedy, cabinet member for the economy at Brighton and Hove City Council, is expected to approve a feasibility study for the project at a meeting on Thursday.

The exhibition would offer the opportunity to raise the profile of the best and brightest of the city’s businesses abroad.

It is hoped the exhibition will be used to attract lucrative investment and contracts and investment from other leading international companies.

A council report on the project states: “The exhibition would also be a useful platform to demonstrate the council’s desire to support and grow the indigenous business base and those able to harness the talent available within the city.”

A business case and funding plan will be drawn up once the project is given the go-ahead.

Councillor Kennedy said: “We are exploring an exciting proposal for an international exhibition to showcase our unique offer as a city. “The city has an extensive knowledge economy with two major universities and a high ranking medical school.

“It also has a proven reputation as a dynamic and creative digital hub and is home to a growing number of emergent sustainable industries.

“The exhibition will form part of our forward commercial vision as a pre-eminent centre for the regional economy.”

The move was welcomed by Simon Fanshawe, chairman of Brighton and Hove Economic Partnership.

He said: “If it is going to be used to advertise Brighton and Hove to cities where there are markets for companies here then it is a very good idea.

“One of the things we are keen to do is to create jobs at the top of the market so that graduates can go into those and do not occupy jobs that other people could do.”

The move comes after the city was named as one of seven ‘supercities’ which could lead Britain out of recession.

In 2009 banking giant HSBC named Brighton as a supercity which could act as a business hub for the regional economy.

The bank described the city as having a “rebellious and alternative” economy which attracts innovative start-up business. Brighton and Hove already has some of the world’s biggest business names working in the city, including American Express. It has also attracted emerging digital businesses and most recently French travel firm Madame Vacances opened a call centre in Hove.

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