University Business School hosts high profile economic conference

The University of Wolverhampton's Business School was delighted to host the Black Country Chamber of Commerce's second annual Black Country Economic Business Conference recently.

The Conference is the flagship event for the Chamber’s latest campaign, ‘This is the Black Country,' and provided a platform for well-known speakers from across the region and beyond to discuss the local economy and the actions required to tackle the barriers limiting growth, productivity, and competitiveness.

Featuring contributions from the campaign’s business partners, national audit, tax and advisory firm Crowe UK, recruitment experts Pertemps, Dudley based legal firm Higgs LLP, IT experts EBC Group and the University of Wolverhampton’s Business School, the event provided a platform to promote the region as a dynamic and innovative place to do business and bring together experts to discuss the work of the campaign.

Neil Anderson, the Chamber’s Director of External Affairs said: “This is the Black Country celebrates and champions our great region.

“We are a region of makers, innovators, and dreamers and the Conference had a fantastic line-up of leaders who have helped to shine a spotlight on the great work taking place across the region, debating the issues affecting businesses today such as the skills gap, recruiting and retaining talent, driving innovation, accessing green power, and ensuring that the region remains connected to modern infrastructure to get its goods and services to the world.

The Conference opened with a welcome speech from the new Chamber CEO, and University graduate, Sarah Moorhouse and was followed by a state of the region speech from West Midlands Mayor, Andy Street.

Clare Schofield, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Business and Social Sciences, said: "It was wonderful to host such a high-profile conference in our Business School and great to see so many of the region's leaders mingling with our students - really putting the region's business and skills agenda on the map."