Future eBulletin - July 2010

July 2010

Outgoing Birmingham Future chair, Amanda Porter of Mills & Reeve, is delighted to welcome Julie Meyer – online Dragon and one of the top 30 most powerful business women in Europe – to Birmingham for the organisation’s AGM on Tuesday 10 August.

As an entrepreneur, advisor, investor and industry commentator, Julie has earned countless awards, such as ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ by Ernst & Young and ‘Global Leader of Tomorrow’ by the World Economic Forum.

Julie is founder and Chief Executive of Ariadne Capital, celebrating its 10th birthday this year, which backs entrepreneurs in life services, media and communications and was first set up to build the market leading companies of the new millennium.

She also founded First Tuesday, the largest global network of entrepreneurs, which many credit for igniting the internet generation in Europe and has most recently founded Entrepreneur Country, a dedicated community for emerging and leading entrepreneurs, investors and media and corporate partners who service the start-up industry across the UK and Europe.

Julie is an online Dragon for the BBC’s Dragons’ Den and writes for City AM, the business daily in London, as well as Business Week and FT Digital Business.

Incoming Birmingham Future chair, Darren Walker of Cobbetts LLP, is passionate about promoting and strengthening entrepreneurialism within Birmingham.  “Julie is a fantastic role model,” he said, “and we hope that she’ll be imparting some of her top tips for entrepreneurial success over dinner.  We’ll also be celebrating the achievements of Birmingham Future over the last year – including hosting the 10th Birmingham Young Professional of the Year awards – and sharing our aspirations for 2011 and beyond.”

Tickets for the three course dinner at the Crowne Plaza, which is being sponsored by Mills & Reeve LLP, cost just £25 + VAT and are available from Claire@birminghamforward.co.uk / 0121 632 2209.

Photo: Julie Meyer

Richard Price, an economics and geography graduate from Loughborough University has beaten off tough competition from over 100 challengers to secure the position of Birmingham Future’s Graduate Apprentice 2010.
 
The graduate scheme is run by Birmingham Future’s talent retention and development committee, with support from Graduate Advantage and has already helped four ambitious graduates get their foot on the career ladder.
 
Richard takes the mantel from the current Graduate Apprentice, Coventry-born Emily Williams and will embark on paid work placements at Deloitte, Brewin Dolphin and Glide Utilities. Richard has also won a year’s membership to Birmingham Future.
 
Richard said: “I’m thrilled to have been appointed this year’s Graduate Apprentice and fully intend to make the most of my time working within each company. I feel that Birmingham is a city that has many opportunities to offer graduates, it has a great history but also a very exciting future.”
 
The chair of the Birmingham Future’s talent retention and development committee Jason Norris, and a former Graduate Apprentice said: “The scheme really helps to promote the breadth of career opportunities available in the city, and the fantastic lifestyle that Birmingham offers young professionals. We received a record number of applicants this year, and are delighted to welcome Richard as our successful apprentice.”

Photo: Richard Price, Graduate Apprentice for 2010

On Thursday 15 July, Derry-Londonderry was named the first UK City of Culture.  Eve Smith, chair of the Birmingham Future marketing committee and Individual Giving Manager at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), comments on what this means for the city: 
 
“Birmingham is a diverse and vibrant cultural centre with a long heritage.  We don’t need a title to tell us that.  But, losing out does pose a challenge – and it is one to which the city must rise.  Birmingham is still perceived by some as ‘ugly’ and ‘tasteless’; we have the hangover of our industrial roots and a ‘cultural’ stereotype which does not accurately reflect the real goings on. 

"Visitors do leave the city with positive impressions and yet, nationally, there seems to still be a stigma in connection with our city’s reputation.  The business and professional services community must realise that Birmingham’s cultural offering is not just a sideline to their activities.  The most successful business centres are those which engage with their surrounding environments, which get involved in their local communities.  And, once the dust from this campaign settles, that is what we must try to build on.”
 

As many of you will no doubt be aware, both Birmingham Future and its sister organisation, Birmingham Forward, have been highly vocal in their support for HS2 coming to the city. 

Earlier this year, the previous Government published a Command Paper setting out the detail of their proposed route for high speed rail between London and the West Midlands.  Following the general election, the Coalition Government has confirmed its full support for the development of a high speed rail network. 

High speed rail is a transformational once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Birmingham and the West Midlands region as a whole.  The benefits high speed rail will bring are highly significant and numerous, particularly the opportunities for encouraging regeneration, economic development and inward investment to the region. 

But a key challenge will be to ensure that everyone from across the region is able to access the proposed stations easily.

Join us at The McClaren Building on Tuesday 24th August for an update on proposals from Geoff Inskip, Chief Executive of Centro (West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority); Julie Mills, Director of Greengauge 21; and Councillor Tim Huxtable, Cabinet Member for Transport and Regeneration, Birmingham City Council and Lead Member for Birmingham on the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority.  This event is kindly being sponsored by Bruntwood.

Tickets for this event, priced at just £20 + VAT, are available from Theresa Meek on Theresa@birminghamforward.co.uk / 0121 632 2204.  Numbers are limited so early registration for this event is advised.

Photo: Geoff Inskip, Chief Executive of Centro (West Midlands Intergrated Transport Authority).

It’s not always possible to find the time or resources to complete the projects that could make a real difference to your business.  In this very competitive market recruiting a student on a short-term placement is a low-cost and low-commitment way of boosting your workforce.

Using their skills, your business can assist you in getting ahead of the competition with research into new markets and product lines, diversifying your client base, implementing a business development plan, designing and launching a new website, the choice is yours.

Businesses can benefit from:

•  Free front-end recruitment services to find suitable candidates for you to interview
•  A subsidy of up to £750* to pay your new recruit
•  A flexible, low cost recruitment solution lasting from 5 weeks over the summer, 30 hours a week
•  An injection of new ideas/skills

To register your interest for this please call Tamsen Poole on 0121 204 5103 or Dan Davies on 0121 204 4425. 

*Full terms and conditions

Offer available to private sector and third sector organisations, based in the West Midlands region, subject to criteria.  Your student recruit must be in post by no later than 30th September 2010.  You must invoice Graduate Advantage for up to a maximum of £750 (this equates to £150per/wk graduate bursary for 5 weeks).  £200 per/wk is the minimum level of remuneration your company is able to offer your student recruit.

Payments made by Graduate Advantage will be processed and paid by BACS transfer into the business bank account approximately 6 weeks after all paperwork is received.

If you would like to join a team of passionate, energetic and dynamic individuals who co-ordinate mentoring opportunities on behalf of the Birmingham Future and the city then you might be in luck...

Birmingham Future’s mentoring committee is now recruiting for three new members to join the successful team which is chaired by trainee solicitor James Richards of Mills & Reeve LLP.  The Birmingham Future Mentoring Scheme launched in 2002 and helps match mentors and mentees from Birmingham's professional community into mutually beneficial relationships. The Committee works closely with Birmingham City University on a downward mentoring scheme with the university's undergraduates. 

The scheme has been awarded Life Long Learning status and the committee are now working towards accreditation by the Mentoring and Befriending Foundation whilst pursuing other mentoring opportunities in the city.
James is joined by Kate Onions, HBJ Gateley Wareing; Richard Hadley, Deloitte; Andrew Bass, Bass Clusker Consulting; Melissa Leong, CW Corporate Communications and Matthew Broomhead CU4 Coaching.

To find out more about the committee and how you can become involved, please get in touch with James at james.richards@mills-reeve.com

By Paul Fielding – Community Development Committee

Thanks to those who responded to my plea for runners in last month’s e-bulletin. As a result of this and through word of mouth the team now stands at an impressive 14 people. Our aim at this point is simple, to get this figure up to 20. You could help us to achieve this.

This year we have taken advantage of a very kind offer from Stuart Humphries, who is a personal trainer based at Hotel Du Vin. He has very kindly organised a lunchtime running club, which is now, ahem, up and running! If you’re not sure if you can run a half marathon, why not come along to one of his sessions to see if he can inspire you.

If you would like to join the team, come for a lunchtime run or have a chat before committing please contact me for further details on email paul.fielding@brewin.co.uk.
 

This month’s Volunteer Spotlight features Lisa Biddlecombe of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Please go to the Birmingham Future website to find out what prompted Lisa to get involved in volunteering, who has been her biggest inspiration and lots more.

Photo: Lisa Biddlecombe

For details of all our forthcoming events please have a look at the Birmingham Future Website.

Tuesday 10 August - Birmingham Future AGM Dinner - Julie Meyer, BBC Dragon's Den 'online dragon' and one of the top 30 business women in Europe - Crowne Plaza, Birmingham City Centre.

Thursday 12 August - Summer Barbecue and Sports Quiz - City Inn Birmingham, Brindleyplace

Tuesday 17 August - "The Business we call 'Show'..." - Lunch at the Hippodrome

Thursday 19 August - Meet & Mix: The Prince's Trust and Challenge 500 - Colmore Bar and Grill, 3-6 Waterloo Street

Tuesday 24 August - HS2 Update: Geoff Inskip and Julie Mills - 20th Floor, The McLaren Building

Wednesday 25 August - Personal Skills Development - Deloitte, Four Brindleyplace

Thursday 26 August - A "Rare" insight into Microsoft and Fazeley Studios - Fazeley Studios, 191 Fazeley Street
 

For details of all our recent events please have a look at the Birmingham Future Website.

"You learn more from your failures than your successes"
 
This was the view held by Sir Bernard Zissman of Advantage Business Angels at the Birmingham Future debate held on 5 July 2010 as part of the visit to Birmingham by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Nick Anstee.
 
The motion was "Birmingham:  Striding Ahead in Promoting New Business Start-ups.... But are we supporting them financially?" and the panel consisted of 2010 BYPY winner and owner/founder of Glide Utilities, James Villareal; Andrew Springhall of www.inafishbowl.com; and Dr David Hardman MBE, managing director of Birmingham Science Park Aston as well as Sir Bernard.
 
Panel chair and Birmingham Development Company property developer Anthony McCourt opened the debate by stating that Birmingham is a city of contrasts.  “We are known as the city of 1,000 trades and over 50% of UK patents are registered here every year,” he said.  “But, we are also the city with the highest youth unemployment.”

Dr Hardman argued : “In this region, there is still a glass ceiling on people’s expectations.  People don’t think big enough.  100% of a cupcake is still a cupcake.  We need to grow businesses of 50 people as well as 5.”
 
Andrew Springhall suggested: “You can buy a book from someone who has made their millions.  But, you really need a well rounded approach.  One size does not fit all.”

Finally, James Villareal gave some insights into his own business expansion.  “Turning 20 and raising £1/2 million for a business is great,” he said.  “But it is a struggle to let go of your baby, to release the equity.”

The entrepreneurship theme will be continued with the speaker dinner and AGM taking place next month. 

Photo: (Left to right) Back - Amanda Porter, James Villarreal, Anthony McCourt & Louise Whitehouse. Front - Andrew Springhall, Sir Bernard Zissman & Dr David Harman.

Don’t forget there are lots of exciting discounts that can be redeemed across the city and beyond by using your Culture Club card!

If you are a Birmingham Future member then you will be eligible for a Culture Club card. For more information about the Club or to find out how to join please contact the Birmingham Future office on 0121 632 2200 or visit the Birmingham Future website.