Manchester Conference Centre, operated by The University of Manchester under the name meeting.manchester, welcomed front-bencher, Paul Boateng MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and Lord Sainsbury, Minister for Science and Innovation, to its facilities as part of the Science and Innovation Conference – Competing in the Global Economy, on Monday (21st February). Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown MP also addressed the conference via video-link.
Event sponsors, the North West Development Agency (NWDA) and the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI), chose Manchester Conference Centre to host the event, which gathered together prominent business people, academics, regional and national government representatives and business and employee groups.
As a leading business arena and as part of the largest unitary university in the UK, Manchester Conference Centre was deemed the ideal background for an event, which among other things addressed how the regions, universities and businesses can best collaborate.
The 240-strong conference utilised the venue’s main auditorium -the impressive Weston Theatre – along with many of the adjacent seminar and syndicate rooms for the various break out sessions, which were used to discuss topics including how to make Britain an attractive place for entrepreneurs, scientists etc. and how well the country’s Skills Agenda meets the needs of the regions. The break-out sessions were also used to discuss the subject of innovation from a variety of perspectives and to consider the addresses made by the keynote speakers, which reads like a whose-who of leading figures in the worlds of business, science and politics.
Addressing delegates were Chancellor Gordon Brown MP, Paul Boateng MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Bryan Gray, Chair of the Board of the NWDA, Sir Digby Jones, Director General of the CBI (Confederation of British Industry), Debbie Coulter, GMB Deputy General Secretary and Sir Tom McKillop, Chief Executive of AstraZeneca.
With its highly corporate ambience and equipped with the most advanced facilities throughout, including high-specification audio-visuals and wireless internet access, the Manchester Conference Centre is every inch a conference venue for the 21st Century and exemplifies perfectly the concepts of innovation and commerce that ‘Competing in a Global Economy’ addressed.
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