D2N2 – the Local Enterprise Partnership for Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire – is getting ready to hit the road again to meet with businesses and other partners at a series of breakfast briefings.
And Chief Executive David Ralph wants to hear from business leaders to find out in which areas they would like them to be staged in the coming months.
The LEP held successful briefings during March and April across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, attracting more than 300 businesses.
They gave local firms and partner organisations the chance to find out more about the LEP, its activities to date and its future plans, as well as feeding in their views and identifying key priorities or issues which may influence the LEP’s Growth Plan, investment initiatives, skills strategy and its work on business regulation.
They took place in Derby, Nottingham, Mansfield, Ashbourne, Worksop, Chesterfield and Newark, with the final one in Buxton earlier this week.
After their success, Mr Ralph is determined to get out and meet more businesses in the region.
Mr Ralph said: “The last series of business breakfasts have been a big success with hundreds of local businesses and partners taking part and engaging with us.
“We are now looking to arrange further events in the near future and we want to meet more businesses to discuss ways of growing the economy in the D2N2 region.
“We would also like to hear from businesses as to which areas we could go to in order to host these breakfasts as we want to reach as many people as possible.
“The next series of breakfast briefings will give local businesses and partners the opportunity to find out more about D2N2 and its plans for the future and I would encourage all businesses who want to have their say about the support they need to grow to express an interest and attend any future events.”
Reflecting on the initial business breakfasts, chairman Peter Richardson said: “Once again we found the business breakfast, this time in Buxton, to be a wonderful opportunity to listen to the local business community and those who lead the local authorities in terms of the key requirements for their area and this will undoubtedly further inform the next stage of our Growth Plan, which will be launched in July.
“Overall the interest in the LEP has risen significantly and it is now our responsibility to respond and act on what we have learned.”
To have your say on where you would like the business breakfasts to take place, email your ideas to stevie.roden@dncc.co.uk
