The Sound of Music

LIVERPOOL, Europe’s City of Culture 2008, is also the world capital of popular music, with more number one chart hits than anywhere else on the planet.

And BtoB is helping to build on this formidable reputation as part of next year’s Liverpool Sound City Music Festival – a four-day event taking place in late May.

Last year’s festival finished with one of the year’s major music events – a massive Paul McCartney concert at Anfield Stadium – and next year’s will have some equally well-known names, home-grown and international talent, on stages all over the city.

For the first time in 2009, the festival will also have a trading aspect, which is where BtoB has been asked by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) to help generate international business opportunites.

UKTI is the government department that supports British firms that trade overseas and it has seen the potential of bringing specialist digital technology firms from the north-west together with famous festival visitors such as Apple, Microsoft and Nokia.

It has asked BtoB to host a ‘Meet the Buyers’ feature at the Hard Day’s Night Hotel, the festival’s commercial headquarters, where the company will arrange face to face interviews for regional firms with as many as 20 potential buyers each.

Combining music and digital technology is a highly specialised business, but one where there is potential to secure very lucrative deals that would be fantastic for the individual firms involved and equally good for the regional economy as a whole.

700 look to set up business despite economic downturn

Business Link is a public-sector organisation with a comprehensive programme of business training and support.

It has been working with BtoB over the past few months to stimulate interest among would-be entrepreneurs in the north-east – and it has not been disappointed.

BtoB has organised and delivered four enterprise shows, attracting a total audience of more than 700 and delivering over 500 hours of training at each show.

BtoB’s Andrew Wilson said: “We have developed a combination of seminar subjects and additional support that would-be business owners find attractive. As well as listening to expert speakers, they can talk to a wide range of business service provides – from accountants and lawyers to designers and printers – who are all represented at the exhibition we run alongside our seminar programme.”

The most recent show, held in Newcastle in October, attracted 300 visitors on its own, suggesting that would-be entrepreneurs are not discouraged by the difficult economic situation in which we find ourselves.

Andrew added: “No doubt some people have been put off by the downturn, but for others, this is the opportunity of a lifetime, maybe to start the business they have always wanted to run. “Whatever individual’s motivations, we are still seeing a lively interest in the information we have to offer those with self-employment in mind. And that’s good news for the economic well-being of the region as well as the individual.”

Cleaning Up

Britain has an international reputation for the quality of its environmental engineering and UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) is hoping to generate some additional business in the sector with the help of BtoB.

Over the next few months, UKTI has organised a series of overseas visits to meet potential customers in the Baltic States, Saudi Arabia and India, and it has asked BtoB to generate interest among suppliers in the sector.

The target businesses range from large international companies to individual consultants with particular knowledge of specific processes.

UKTI can provide general market information, specific business contacts and the services of its diplomatic and commercial officers in the respective posts abroad.

But it is looking to BtoB to find six or more businesses interested in making each of the three visits as part of official British trade missions.

So far BtoB is pleased with the response: it says the present economic situation has not dampened the enthusiasm of would-be exporters.

Indeed, in some cases it has found that firms prefer the prospect of doing business in markets where money is still plentiful and projected growth rates remain healthy.

Raising Expectations

BtoB was among the hot shots recently at a gala evening at the Emirates Stadium in north London, home of Arsenal Football Club.

The much praised venue was the setting for this year’s prestigious Business to Business Marketing Awards.

And BtoB was one of the highest calibre participants as a finalist for its work with Itineris, a digital marketing company, on the development of a web-site for Supply London, a government agency that helps the capital’s smaller firms win millions of pounds of business every year.

The site was designed around a ‘Meet the Buyers’ event, in which BtoB specialises, and allowed potential buyers and sellers to book meetings with possible business partners as well as finding out more about the event itself.

Buyers could use the site to make sure in advance that they were meeting the most appropriate sellers, which helped to maintain the all-important focus needed to create the strongest commercial matches.

BtoB’s Paul Parkinson is delighted with the short-listing. He said: “This is exactly the kind of positive exposure we need in precisely the right sort of business setting.

“It will help us to create even more interest in the work we do with Meet the Buyer, which is becoming such an important aspect of our support for regional and local authorities across the country.

“The simple but effective formula helps them to stimulate their local economies at a time when business is becoming ever more difficult to find. It allows them to bring small and medium-sized firms in their areas face to face with buyers from larger organisations.”

See you in Derby next spring

PLANS are in hand for Aerospace Opportunities 2009 which takes place on March 4 next year, at the Rolls Royce Learning and Career Development Centre in Derby.

This is a Meet the Buyer event organised by Business to Business in association with UK Trade & Investment, the government body for international business.

The event offers aerospace companies from the Midland regions a day-long series of pre-arranged interviews with decision-makers from potential partners and customers.

As part of a comprehensive awareness campaign, there will be two launch events in January 2009, one in each of the Midland regions, encouraging aerospace firms to attend on the day itself and to consider a move into emerging markets.

There will also be two pre-event training workshops offering practical advice on how to make the most of each 15-minute meeting on the day. Delegates will have a chance to discuss their proposed presentations with International Trade Advisers.

As a curtain-raiser for the day itself there is a welcome dinner for senior procurement managers and decision makers from major overseas aerospace contractors on the evening of March 3.

A dedicated web-site is being created to promote the event internationally, with an on-line booking facility and meeting selection feature for all delegates.

The on-line application process will allow international companies to publish their requirements and UK organisations to apply to attend, by submitting pre-qualification information.

Business to Business Exhibitions Ltd. has a strong track record of assisting UK and specifically midlands aerospace companies to market their products and services more effectively. It has organised nine

International Aerospace Meet the Buyers events since 2002.