Businesses across Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire learnt how to grow through the use of digital technology at a free conference held yesterday (March 8).
The D2N2 Digital Growth Conference 2018 was held at the Village Hotel, Nottingham. It was designed to help businesses across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire make the most of the very latest digital technologies to benefit and grow their operations.
The D2N2 Digital Growth Programme, half-funded by the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), has been set up to help businesses in its area of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire to grow, through use of existing and emerging technologies and information communications technology (ICT). Grants of up to £16,000 are available as part of the £7.2million programme.
The remaining £3.6m for the programme has come from partner organisations Nottinghamshire County, Nottingham City, Derbyshire County, Derby City and Rushcliffe Borough Council; Nottingham’s Creative Quarter Company and the East Midlands Chamber (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire); and also through businesses participating in the grant element of the Programme.
D2N2 is the LEP for the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire area and works with its areas businesses, local authorities, skills and training providers and community and voluntary organisations to grow its areas economy, with the aim of creating 55,000 new jobs in ten years (2013-2023). D2N2 also has an allocation of European Funding, which includes the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which is designed to help businesses to grow and become more competitive in a number of ways.
The D2N2 Digital Growth Conference 2018 was delivered in partnership with Better Broadband for Nottinghamshire (BBfN), an initiative to improve superfast broadband coverage across Nottinghamshire – which D2N2 is also part-funding (£2.63million).
Speakers for the D2N2 Digital Growth Conference 2018 included:
- Andrew Grill – Practical Futurist, who looked at how SMEs can use new and emerging digital technology to ‘outrun’ the competition
- Ian Lockwood – Boom Marketing – who discussed recent changes and the future of search engines such as Google, and what this means for business
- Rob Gregory – Magnifica – who looked at how businesses can increase their productivity through digital technology
- Joada Allen & Kelly Diver – Sky – who looked at the future of TV marketing, and the opportunities available for SMEs
- Paul Ince – LikeMind Media Limited – who looked at the rise of personalised marketing and how businesses can use this to boost their operations
- Liam Lally – Zaddle Internet – who looked at the latest developments in social media and how businesses can make best use of these.
The conference was opened by Councillor Kay Cutts, leader of Nottinghamshire County Council and D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership Board Member (pictured).
The D2N2 Digital Growth Programme is due to run until 2019. At least 2,380 businesses will be engaged with over the course of the programme; resulting in 852 businesses receiving intensive support, the creation of 69 new businesses, and 639 businesses introducing new digital products or processes.
Businesses interested in finding out more about the D2N2 Digital Growth Programme can visit www.ebusinessclub.biz/
For more information on how the private sector-led partnership of D2N2 is using its EU funding to stimulate economic and jobs growth across its area of Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire see its website at www.d2n2lep.org/EUFunding
For More Information on the above release, please contact: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Sean Kirby D2N2 Communications Manager 01159 578749 |  | Sam Burbage D2N2 Social Media and Marketing Officer 01159 578254 | ||
Find us on: | ||||
| Google+ |  Youtube | |||
