Name: Invest North
Start: 02/03/2022 09:15 AM +00:00
End: 02/03/2022 03:45 PM +00:00

Squire Patton Boggs is a full-service global law firm. We provide insight at the point where law, business and government meet, giving you a voice, supporting your ambitions and achieving successful outcomes. Our multidisciplinary team of over 1,500 lawyers in 45 offices across 20 countries provides unrivaled access to expertise and invaluable connections on the ground. It is a seamless service that operates on any scale &ndash; locally or globally. It encompasses virtually every matter, jurisdiction and market. And we place you at the core of everything we do.

Squire Patton Boggs

The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund, provides commercially focussed finance through Microfinance, Debt and Equity Finance funds. NPIF is a collaboration between the British Business Bank and ten Local Enterprise Partnerships in the North West, Yorkshire, the Humber and Tees Valley.&nbsp;

Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund

BECG is an award-winning, sector specialist communications consultancy for the built environment. We provide our clients with expert counsel and award-winning communications services.&nbsp;

BECG

Phoenix Group is the UK&rsquo;s largest long-term savings and retirement business. Our core purpose is helping people secure a life of possibilities. With c.13 million customers and c.&pound;300 billion of assets under administration, we have a unique opportunity to make a difference to millions of lives across the UK.
We are actively investing in social housing, digital and physical infrastructure, educational institutions, SMEs and green technology across the UK to make a tangible difference to people&rsquo;s lives. Over the next five years, with the right reform, our aim is to invest &pound;40-50 billion across the UK.

Phoenix Group

TransPennine Express is an intercity rail provider with a vision to Take the North Further. Following an investment of over &pound;500m including the introduction of brand new Nova trains, we are continuing to transform rail services through high levels of performance, investment in stations, enhanced accessibility, measures to improve sustainability and more investment. We are proud to be a FirstGroup plc company which provides easy and convenient mobility, improving quality of life by connecting people and communities.

TransPennine Express

We&rsquo;re a global engineering, management and development consultancy. Our purpose is to improve society by considering social outcomes in everything we do, relentlessly focusing on excellence and digital innovation, transforming our clients&rsquo; businesses, our communities and employee opportunities.&nbsp;
In our fast-changing world, anticipation and opportunity walk arm in arm. You need advisors who can think laterally and search out the connections that others fail to make. &nbsp;You need pioneers with a thirst for innovation, who will look at challenges from a fresh angle and turn obstacles into sustainable solutions for both your business and the lives you touch every day.&nbsp;
Our global network of experts never stops asking &lsquo;what if?&rsquo; &nbsp;We constantly stretch our thinking, imagining elegant solutions for the planet&rsquo;s most intricate problems.&nbsp;
Yet, in our drive for progress, we never lose sight of the human impact of our actions and the responsibility that this entails. &nbsp;Our restless curiosity propels you forward, challenging you to evolve with the community around you and focus more closely on your end-users.

Mott MacDonald 

Campaigner is a multi-channel marketing automation provider, founded in 1999 back when the internet and in particular email, was just beginning to reach the masses.
Since then, Campaigner has remained at the forefront in the evolution of email and more recently, SMS, as a marketing channel. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
Campaigner looks to help email and SMS marketers be more effective with their customer data, helping businesses create more personalised messaging to improve interaction rates and ultimately drive greater bottom-line revenue. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
Campaigner is trusted by 120,000+ happy customers, including Adidas, Subway and Tripadvisor among others. Campaigner has also been rated as a frontrunner in brand management software by Capterra.

Campaigner

Progeny is independent financial planning, investment management, tax services, property, HR and legal counsel, all in one place. Our mission is to be the most trusted professional advisory firm in the UK and beyond. We are greater than the sum of our parts and equipped through our diversity of expertise to deliver sophisticated solutions that meet the complex needs of investors, businesses, family offices and charities. We have overcome industry silos to build the most diverse-thinking professional group in our industry. We achieve the very best for the wellbeing of clients and their families. We always do the right thing for clients, team members and our community. We use technology to eliminate paperwork, improve communications and enrich the relationship between client and adviser. We create, enhance, and preserve wealth. We match the right professionals to achieve the individual goals of our clients. We make complex problems simple.

The Progeny Group

9.30am - 9.35am - WELCOME &amp; INTRO FROM THE BUSINESS DESK
&nbsp;
9.35am - 11.40am - INTERNATIONAL
In a post-Brexit and post-pandemic world, the North's economic success will be driven by the strength of its international trading relationships.
Partnerships between individual companies, sector clusters, and city regions will bring momentum and opportunity. Seizing and maximising the potential that is created will accelerate economic growth across the North.
&nbsp;
12.00pm - 1.40pm - FUNDING AND INVESTMENT
The North has been an increasingly-successful breeding ground for unicorns - privately-owned companies with a $1bn+ valuation. The successes of AO.com, AutoTrader, Boohoo, Matillion, On The Beach, and THG show that huge businesses can be built in the North.
Making sure the funding and investment ecosystem can support today's start-ups to fulfil their own growth potential is crucial. That will require a levelling-up of business funding, which remains disproportionately weighted to London and the South East.
&nbsp;
2.00pm - 2.55pm - INNOVATION
Long-term economic growth and achieving the UK's ambition of levelling-up will largely rest on innovation.
Key sectors such as life sciences and electric vehicles are already creating thousands of jobs a year across the North, while digitalisation and decarbonisation are forecast to transform our economy.
Utilising the expertise in world-class universities and research-intensive global companies based in the North is at the heart of how we can create a genuinely-widespread business culture of innovation.
&nbsp;
3.05pm - 3.10pm - EVENT CLOSE
Thank you and goodbye from The Business Desk

Pink Stage

Alex Turner

Welcome Session

Sponsored by Squire Patton Boggs
With many inward investment success stories across the north, the session will explore if the Northern Powerhouse as an aggregated region is still an attractive proposition to investors or whether the City Regions themselves are a stronger prospect.

Alastair McGeoch

Andrew Kennedy

Lou Cordwell

Hannah Kendrick

Amy Doyle

Becoming the go-to brand: competitive city regions or a united North?

Spotlight Session: How Greater Manchester is going to build on a record year for inward investment

10.30am - 1.30pm - PLACE
Regeneration is all about connection. Connecting homes to workplaces, the future of places to their heritage, the first phase to the final vision.
The purpose of place has become a central theme in the post-pandemic recovery. The North has great stories of reinvention and regeneration which can be built into the foundations of plans for the next generation.
The story of and vision for the North, which weaves a thread from the communities that cluster together to create international cities, is crucial to attract investment that can deliver transformational change.
&nbsp;
1.45pm - 3.00pm - THE WAR FOR TALENT
Working from anywhere gives Northerners access to a global marketplace, just as it offers companies based in the North the opportunity to recruit from around the world.
This has created inflation in wages and expectations, as individuals demand more from employers.&nbsp;
The pace of technological change is also putting pressure on universities to develop skills that will enable their graduates to get jobs that don't yet exist - but will soon be critical to the growth of businesses and the economy.
Leaders must respond to these challenges while building more inclusive teams to succeed in the post-pandemic world.

Blue Stage

Spotlight Session

Freeports are a key post-Brexit economic policy from the Government to stimulate economic activity through incentives and reliefs. Supporters see them as opportunities to create successful clusters that can kickstart wider regeneration and investment. How significant are these opportunities and how can the North make the most of its new freeports?

Dafydd Williams

John Lucy

Freeports: a gateway to prosperity?

Sponsored by BECG and Transpennine Express
The transport sector has been knocked off track during the pandemic. It now faces uncertainty about when, and to what extent, travellers will return - whether that's commuting into the office or flying off on holiday. Policy decisions about future infrastructure investments, and the impact of &nbsp;net zero ambitions, have also made the direction of travel less clear. Where does this leave the North and its ambitions to be better connected to itself, the rest of the UK and the world?

Henri Murison

Jan Bramall

Matthew Golton

Tim Wood

Kevin Whitmore

A connected super-region: infrastructure investment to transform the region

The UK has been looking to reshape its trading relationship with the world in recent years. Whether driven by necessity or the chances created by a new vision, businesses from across the North are well-placed to make an impact on the global stage.

Helen Jenning

Marcus Mollinga

Thomas Webb

Going global: Exporting the North in a post-Brexit world

Spotlight presentation by Oliver Steele, Head of Mott MacDonald&rsquo;s Cities Studio
Why levelling up and place-making must go hand-in-hand
The long-awaited Levelling-Up white paper saw the Government explain its philosophy on how to drive improvement across the country.
Oliver Steele from Mott MacDonald will set out why we need proper and effective place-making, led by local people, to create vibrant, dynamic and desirable communities - and why the white paper must just be the start of a truly place-based approach.

Oliver Steele

Wayne Hemingway MBE will lead the session examining the role of towns as economic centres. The pandemic has brought the focus back onto the places that have often been overlooked in recent years. We examine the success of Morecambe and the towns in Calderdale to see what lessons they can share about re-finding a sense of vibrancy.

David Harland

Nicky Chance-Thompson

Pamela Warhurst

Wayne Hemingway

The reinvention of towns

Sponsored by Phoenix Group
Investment in housing is central to the ambition to make the North a great place to live for everyone. The challenge can be how to deliver housing at scale and pace, balancing the demands of need, viability, sustainability and suitability - but success can bring with it significant and long-lasting rewards.&nbsp;

Amir Hussain

James Thompson

Mike Palin

Tom Sumpster

Making the North a home: The housing challenge

Sponsored by Campaigner
The North is a hotbed of innovation with a strong record of success. Connecting the North's most ambitious companies with the national and international investment network, and ensuring there is a pipeline of opportunity to deliver success in the future, is key to strengthening the economic performance.

Greg Holmes

Louise Chapman

Investing in Northern companies

The transformation of Eastlands has been one of the outstanding regeneration stories of the last 20 years. With the ambitious live events arena Co-op Live under construction, the area will once again provide a boost to Manchester and the North. What has made this regeneration project so successful and how can it inspire other long-term transformations?

Sir Howard Bernstein

Pete Bradshaw

Sara Tompkins

A generation's regeneration: From Commonwealth Games to Champions League and Co-op Live

Bobby Thandi is the founder and chief executive of XR Games, a fast-growing virtual reality games developer which has successfully secured backing from regional funds and investors over several funding rounds.

Bobby Thandi

Investment Case Study

Sponsored by NPIF
A healthy funding eco-system is vital to give those companies with high-growth strategies the very best chance of maximising their potential. Our panel will examine how the North is performing and how it can improve its support mechanisms for the region's entrepreneurial leaders.

Bod Buckby

Irene Graham

Ken Cooper

Simon French

Finding and funding the North's fast-growth firms

Business growth can be impacted by a number of factors in this session the CEO of growing advisory business Progency explains how they approach the talent challenge as they continue both organic and acquisitive growth.

Talent is the challenge for growth

Recruitment and retention is never an easy thing for businesses, but the last couple of years has exacerbated the difficulties companies are facing across all sectors. How do businesses make themselves more attractive to future employees and how can they make sure their growth plans aren't derailed by losing people in such a competitive marketplace?

Annette Joseph

Ian Turner

Rebecca Dixon

sarika Dhanjal

How to win the talent arms race

Life sciences has long been a specialism of the North and it has clusters and companies that are internationally innovative. What is needed to further increase its impact and what lessons can other sectors learn from its success?

Stages

Exhibition Booths8 Exhibition Booths

Squire Patton Boggs

Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund

BECG

Phoenix Group

TransPennine Express

Mott MacDonald

Campaigner

The Progeny Group

Stages

Exhibition Booths.css-7303n9{margin:0;font-size:1.4rem;font-weight:500;line-height:1.5;color:#5d5d5d;font-family:'Poppins',sans-serif;color:#FFFFFF;margin-left:0.8rem;font-weight:400;}8 Exhibition Booths

Squire Patton Boggs

Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund

BECG

Phoenix Group

TransPennine Express

Mott MacDonald

Campaigner

The Progeny Group

Exhibition Booths8 Exhibition Booths