November Bristol Chamber Round up

Last week’s announcement that Bristol will become home to one of Channel 4’s two new creative hubs is fantastic news. We were delighted to play a part in the bid team and the decision further demonstrates the strength of our media sector and that we are a city that actively works together.

This came hot on the heels of Bristol hosting the Global Parliament of Mayors Summit 2018 which brought up to 100 global city mayors and international experts from all continents to share their experience, expertise and leadership approach in tackling local challenges that result from global problems.

We have a very busy international programme at Business West and as part of this I recently traveled to Tbilisi, Georgia with Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees and a small business delegation to explore the potential for developing businesses and trade relations between Bristol and Georgia and the wider Caucasus region, as well as mark the 30th anniversary of the twinning between Bristol and Tbilisi.

Here also is our reaction to last week’s Budget 2018 and read how we can support your business to get ready for Brexit.

On transport we were recently part of the Greenfleet event in Bristol promoting the use of electric vehicles, and have just responded to the consultation on a new Bristol City Council Transport Strategy. Read more about local grants available to businesses in the West of England. For those of you unable to make our Business Togetherness event with Monty Halls, please see the round up here.

We continue to work to help bring forward major development plans for our city & region in areas including Filton, Western Harbour and the Temple Quarter Enterprise zone. We've also been finding out more about investment into the city Arena. Watch this space!

Finally, the Bristol Festival of Economics is about to get underway later this week and you can find more details here.