The Global Business Summit, part of the British Business Embassy series of events organised by the Government, continues this week in London.
Cabinet Minister responsible for business, Vince Cable, and CEO of Facebook EMEA, Joanna Shields, were the latest to make keynote speeches this week.
“They were all positive, upbeat messages from people involved in the technology industries and it must be said that we do know how to put on great events in this country?This was very much a networking event,” was the opinion of Chief Technology Office of Timico, Trefor Evans, who attended as a delegate.
BT Chief Executive Ian Livingston, said: “We are delighted to be participating in the British Business Embassy summits at Lancaster House. This is a unique opportunity to showcase our expertise to international visitors and potential new customers in one place.”
Announcements coming from the summit included Vodne setting up a new London Tech City technology lab and Barclays setting up a new business club in Tech City with Central Working.
Milton Keynes, Sheffield and Ulster will also benefit from multi-million pound international business deals announced at the Summit on ICT, just one of the 18 summits organised by UK Trade & Investment.
The themes for the conference sessions running alongside the Olympics for six weeks in London include energy, infrastructure, retails, food and drink, advanced engineering, automotive and aerospace and Brazil. No doubt Rio’s hosting of the Games in 2016 influenced the last category.
British Business Embassy sessions can be followed live at: youtube.com/user/UKTIWeb. Follow also on Twitter @BritBizClub and join the conversation using the hashtag #BritBizEmbassy.
Another successful event spin off from London 2012 is the Cultural Olympiad which has proved so popular that discussions are under way on how to turn it into a regular national arts festival, The Times newspaper reports today (7 August).
Although the programme has had its critics and has content ranging from a bouncy castle Stonehenge to a huge celebration of Shakespeare, large and diverse audiences have been attracted, as well as global media coverage.
Official figures released yesterday claimed 12m people attended arts events over the past six weeks under the auspices of the London 2012 Festival, climax of the four-year Cultural Olympiad.
The festival will run for another month and organisers hope to add a further six million attendees to the events.
Ruth Mackenzie, Director of the London 2012 Festival and the Cultural Olympiad, said she was confident her team had a strong business case to demonstrate strong return on investment for the estimated £97m spent on the programme.
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