Leicester Business Festival returns for tenth year in November

The University of Leicester is again proud to be a sponsor of the Leicester Business Festival, now in its 10^th anniversary year.

The aims of the Leicester Business Festival (LBF) are to celebrate the work that businesses in the region do and also to provide an opportunity for organisations to share their expertise and knowledge to create forums for networking and growth. The two week festival offers a great opportunity for the University to engage with the local business community and showcase its support and services to aid growth and innovation. 

Last November, the School of Business was proud to close LBF 2023 with a partnership event focused on ‘Activating Inclusive Growth and Innovation’ which welcomed the highest audience of the fortnight. This demonstrated the increasing level of interest and engagement with both the school and wider university from the local business community. 

LBF 2024 will take place between 4-15 November 2024 and notable highlights include:

• The Universities Partnership and Rutland County Council’s ‘Brewing Innovative Ideas Roadshow’ in Oakham on 6 November. This drop in event provides an opportunity for businesses to explore how they can benefit from working with the three local universities, showcasing their placements/ internships offer, graduate employment, consultancy, CPD programmes and collaborative research including Innovate UK grant-funded Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs).
• The School of Business hosting the ESG Leadership Summit at Brookfield on 8 November. This event is aimed at larger businesses seeking significant investment or who have international operations, to meet the changing requirements of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and climate related reporting. Rob McCann, Head of Environment, Climate & Nature at Virgin Media/O2 and Andrew Dymond, Director for Stakeholder Assurance from PwC will talk about the changing landscape in which businesses are operating. The summit will also highlight the importance of partnership and cross sector working, what can be learned from social enterprises, and the new multi partner project funded by Innovate UK, Leicestershire GreenerFuture.

Renowned nationwide, the LBF shines a spotlight on Leicester and Leicestershire, demonstrating the region’s business strengths, innovation, and highlighting its huge investment potential. It has become Leicester and Leicestershire’s annual economic showcase and is the largest business event in the region.

Events vary in size and type, across digital platforms or in-person, and range from workshops to product demonstrations, showroom tours and round table debates. They are all free to attend and anyone can register. The full programme can be found here.

William Wells, Deputy Director of Research, Innovation & Impact at University of Leicester said: "The great thing about the Leicester Business Festival is that it brings together the different parts of the regional business community, allowing the different members to share their professional skills, insights, assets, and facilities in the interests of improving the performance of the whole economy."

The University of Leicester is committed to supporting innovation and growth in the City, County and beyond and we are proud to support the festival”