More than 100 business leaders took part in the first of a series of ‘Bristol Bounce Back’ events staged by city-headquartered law firm Gregg Latchams and regional chartered accountants Milsted Langdon.
The inaugural interactive online event heard from industry experts on plans for recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. 
With the theme of Reopening the city, economy and workplace: how does Bristol get it right? the guest panel discussed the challenges businesses are facing and shared insights into short-term measures to get the city and its businesses back up and running as well as how to plan further ahead.
The series has been designed to provide practical answers to the ‘big questions’ for businesses as the economy recovers.
The expert panel at the first event was made up of some of Bristol’s leading business luminaries from organisations that included the Bank of England’s South West office, retail group John Lewis, the West of England Combined Authority, business support organisation Business West, Quartet Community Foundation, Barclays and Gapsquare, the innovative firm that has developed software for pay transparency, gender and ethnicity pay gap analysis.
Panel member James Durie, pictured, of Business West summarised the city’s response to the pandemic so far and answered questions from the audience, including concerns around the economic impact of potential redundancies at some of Bristol’s biggest employers.
John Lewis operations manager Mark Houghton gave an interesting insight into the retailer’s response to reopening, which has dramatically reduced the number of shoppers allowed in-store from a capacity of 5,000 people to just 400 at any one time.
Mark explained the store’s strategy of focusing on providing a positive customer experience but also the importance of doing so safely.
Also on the panel were Milsted Langdon partner Simon Rowe and Cecily Donoghue, specialist employment solicitor at Gregg Latchams.
Simon, explained how businesses could consider financial and strategic preparedness following lockdown while Cecily, pictured, provided a detailed explanation of the key considerations for employers now and looking ahead to the coming months.
Gregg Latchams managing director Richard Hill said: “It has never been more important to bring together the local business community to help support each other through these extreme times and share experiences for the wider benefit.”
More Bristol Bounce Back initiative events are planned to provide clarity to organisations, help them understand the emerging responses and solutions around the region and build their own plans and recovery strategy.
To find out more or to join the guest list, email jo.stevens@gregglatchams.com
