Business Festival highlights Black Country as prime investment hot spot

The enormous investment potential of the Black Country will be in the spotlight in the Black Country Business Festival from 13-24 May, with economic and investment showcases, alongside useful events about using digital technology in land development and how to get property deals over the line.

The Black Country is a prime location in the heart of the UK which has recently witnessed staggering investment that has seen the strategic centres of West Bromwich, Walsall and Wolverhampton transformed.

It is a brilliantly connected area with excellent transport links via several national motorways. The M6 Toll passes through the region making travel to north and south via the M6 more efficient. Coupled with this, air travel is very straightforward with Birmingham International Airport right on the doorstep including over 50 airlines flying to 140 cities worldwide. Business travellers can benefit from excellent facilities such as fast track and security express lanes, high-end corporate lounges and car park offers.

Enjoying a great location, connectivity and a renewed economy that is flourishing, the Black Country is an excellent place for developers and re-locating businesses to consider - and this will really be a feature of the Business Festival.

Specifically, the City of Wolverhampton will be staging a ‘meet with the Leader and Managing Director of City’ event to share exciting regeneration projects and activities happening in Wolverhampton, at ‘Shape of Wolverhampton's Future’ on Thursday 16 May.

Then on Tuesday 21 May, Dudley Council will also be presenting its vision for the Black Country’s historic capital, outlining an investment pipeline of over £1billion worth of opportunities and why the time is now to invest in Dudley. There will also be news about DY5 (Dudley’s Business and Innovation Enterprise Zone) part of the Black Country’s 120-hectare Enterprise Zone also encompassing sites in Darlaston and i54 Wolverhampton North. Businesses locating to an Enterprise Zone benefit from Super fast broadband, extensive business rate relief, streamlined local authority planning processes and much more.

Alan Lunt strategic director for place at Dudley Council said: “As the largest metropolitan borough outside of London and just eight miles from Birmingham City Centre, Dudley is well equipped to offer any business everything needed to succeed. We’re proud to be part of the Black Country Business Festival again this year. We want to put DY5 at the heart of conversations about growing and expanding businesses in the Black Country and beyond.”

Remediation/construction firms and land/property developers can benefit from an event by BRIC (Brownfield Research & Innovation Centre) and the University of Wolverhampton, on Thursday 23 May, which looks at how GIS (Geographic Information System) and BIM (Building Information Modelling) data can help to improve the planning and implementation of building refurbishments and new-build construction on brownfield sites.

There are a total of 113 different business events of all descriptions and subjects in the Business Festival. In addition to drawing attention to the Black Country’s investment potential, the remarkable culture and commercial strengths in the region will be on show through the impressive business engagement and sheer range of diverse business events in the programme.

Sarah Middleton, Chief Executive of the Black Country Consortium said, “Now is the time to let the rest of the UK know about the superb assets and opportunities here. The Business Festival is our platform to showcase all the impressive features the Black Country has to offer to a local, regional and national audience.

“From manufacturing to transport infrastructure, education to culture, the Black Country is a dynamic and enterprising area bursting with truly unique investment opportunities and rich with resources and is open to development.”

Nearly every event in the Business Festival is completely free to attend, although tickets must be booked in advance via the website www.blackcountrybusinessfestival.com