A delegation of senior representatives from Liverpool Vision, Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, Peel and the University of Liverpool are visiting Boston and Atlanta this week to promote the International Festival for Business 2014 (IFB) to the US market.
Business and academic audiences in both cities have been hearing details about IFB 2014’s aim to create a global showcase for business in Liverpool in June and July next year, as well as the Festival’s emerging events calendar.
IFB 2014 will be a global showcase of business, where Liverpool city region on behalf of the UK, will play host to hundreds of world-class events. The Festival will attract more than 250,000 visitors from across the globe to take part in 61 days of events, exhibitions and celebrations, in order to realise the potential of global economic recovery.
In Boston, they met with the Boston Redevelopment Authority before presenting plans for IFB 2014, which will be the largest business event in the UK for 60 years, at a reception at the historic home of the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park.
British Consul General to Boston, Susie Kitchens hosted the event and said: “You will hear tonight some things that will inspire you. I am very excited about Massachusetts and UK links on trade, investment, research and development. I see strong parallels between business that keeps this town ticking and what the International Festival for Business has to offer.”
IFB 2014 Festival Director, Ian McCarthy opened the launch by reinforcing the sentiment that Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson has expressed in a letter to his counterpart in Boston Mayor Tom Menino.
He said: “America is still the UK’s strongest source of exports and inward investment and there are strong sporting, business and academic links between our two cities which we hope to the make the most of at the Festival next year.
“Although we are in Boston to promote this huge global event, we offer our heartfelt condolences for the appalling recent events. The resilience and soul that Boston citizens have shown in responding to the bombing at the marathon a fortnight ago has been truly remarkable.”
Attendees included the Vice President of Phillips, President of Fidelity and Linda Henry, wife of John Henry owner of Fenway Sports Group, but also prominent in her own right spearheading both the Liverpool FC Foundation and the ‘mass challenge’ global business plan competition based in Boston.
New England is also home to some of the USA’s most prestigious academic institutions including Harvard and Babson Colleges and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
John Flamson, director at the University of Liverpool (UOL), highlighted higher education as one of the UK’s biggest exports and explained how UOL, together with universities across the country, are working to deliver a knowledge and business exchange during IFB 2014.
He said: “Proposed e vents on the international business of universities, innovation for businesses, business of cities, and the business of sport will underline the importance of universities in the economic life of every nation.”
In Atlanta, the delegation met with Mayor Kasim Reed, as well as taking part in a roundtable event at the World Trade Centre offices.
IFB 2014 presentations included reference to the broader offer of the cultural backdrop that delegates in Liverpool will be able to enjoy. The Festival sits within a year of top class international sport in the UK, including the Commonwealth Games and Ryder Cup in Scotland, the Tour de France starting in Yorkshire and the Open Golf Championship at Royal Liverpool GC in Wirral.
Geoff Harris, manager of England’s Golf Coast, told a corporate audience of golf enthusiasts at the prestigious Atlanta Athletic Club that not only would there be an opportunity to attend the Open Golf Championship at Hoylake, 17-21 July 2014, but two other nearby Open Championship courses, Royal Birkdale and Royal Lytham & St Anne’s.
Delegates in both cities were also interested in the Peel Waters schemes and the Peel International Trade Centre.
Peel director, Lindsey Ashworth, was delighted with the response: “There was clearly an appetite and desire for our audiences to invest in the Liverpool city region, so I invited them to think very carefully about what Peel could offer as a potential partner and respond. I’m sure that our collective effort will be rewarded if we adopt the Peel slogan for success – determination, perseverance and patience.”