Thursday 30th November 2017 saw the Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership, hold its first EU-Programmes annual Event at Lackham House, Wiltshire. Organised by the ERDF Technical Assistance team, over 80 people attended to hear directly from the numerous projects that are successfully delivering the local ESIF programme.  

The event showcased the Swindon and Wiltshire Growth Hub and delegates learnt about the diverse range of projects delivering a broad range of support to small and medium-sized businesses at different stages of their growth plans and across many sectors.

Innovate2Succeed introduced Rich Lloyd of Salisbury digital-business Blue Flame, who talked about his journey from junior coder, to fully fledged entrepreneur. And a presentation by the Porton Science Incubator and Life Sciences Hub projects showed the significant investment into the area’s innovation ecosystem.

Dave Potts, from Community First talked about the ground-breaking work of Building Bridges, the Big Lottery supported project that is promoting social inclusion and helping transform peoples’ lives across Swindon and Wiltshire. Throughout the morning, we heard invaluable insights into the achievements and the significance of European funding on the Swindon and Wiltshire economy.

The morning closed with sessions discussing hot topics including the Industrial Strategy white paper, as well as how business is planning its investment and trade in the lead-up to Brexit, particularly for manufacturing. Elsewhere, Emma Buckman went through the South West Rural Productivity Commission report, detailing the state of the rural economy and its fitness to tackle the Industrial Strategy’s four grand challenges.


Copies of the presentations can be found below: