Lisburn Castlereagh Connects With London
Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council will visit London next month when it travels to the City as part of its ‘Cities Connect’ programme.
This year’s programme includes a three-day dedicated trade programme for nine local companies and a business networking reception at the prestigious Mansion House; the official residence of the Lord Mayor of the City of London. The theme of ‘Cities Connect’, encompasses the strong partnership between the two cities and the success of local companies in the UK capital.
Chairman of the Council’s Development Committee, Alderman William Leathem, explains more about the event itself: “The Council is delighted to host its annual London business networking reception in partnership with Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP. This year’s event will showcase Lisburn & Castlereagh’s Professional, Scientific & Technical Services sector which has experienced significant growth, a trend which is set to continue with Lisburn’s planned e-SERC Centre of Excellence in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Recent investments from Qatar’s Excelledia and Nottingham’s Robot Exchange are testament to the availability of skilled people and the region’s focus on this key sector.
“Mansion House will be an excellent opportunity for such meetings to take place in person and hear more about our area and locally manufactured products and services. The change of venue this year will also bring an added element to this annual event which has proven very valuable to those local businesses who join us in London. Following Ad-Vance Engineering’s attendance at our previous Westminster event a new customer has come on board with orders to the value of £100k. This demonstrates that the council’s business support, our networking events and the promotion of our Council area for investing really works.”
Alderman Leathem continued: “I am also delighted to be launching the council’s investment programme portfolio fund at this event, highlighting the key investment projects scheduled to take place across our area in the coming years. If you have not already signed up to attend then please get in touch with us.”
The Mayor, Councillor Uel Mackin will be part of the cross-party delegation attending London. He said: “Identifying opportunities within the GB market is important to our local businesses and the Council is committed to facilitating networking opportunities like this one. At last year’s event, the Council was introduced to Transport for London (TfL), the owner and operator of one of Europe’s largest integrated transport networks who as a result of this meeting, facilitated a recent ‘Buyer Engagement Event at the Council’s Civic Headquarters. Through delivering programmes and ‘connecting’ with other cities we are opening doors to increase business within Lisburn Castlereagh as well as attracting tourism to the area.”
David Burns, Chief Executive of the Council, added: “As a council we work closely with our local business base to support growing their profile, identify new sales opportunities and ultimately grow our local economy. This year’s ‘Cities Connect’ programme is tailored within our strong Invest Lisburn Castlereagh brand and we want to ensure that we stand out as the best place to do business, relocate to and invest in regionally and nationally.”
If you are a business based in the council area and would like to join us at the ‘Cities Connect’ networking event in Mansion House (3rd April 4.00pm -6.00pm) please email lcccevents@catalina-consulting.com