The role that cities and regions can play in driving the government’s growth agenda will be explored at a major event in Bristol next week.
Festival of Flourishing Regions will bring together policymakers, regional planners, economic development experts, academics and business and community leaders to explore and promote strategies for regional prosperity.
Sessions will cover university and industry partnerships; housing and infrastructure; productivity, cities, and combined authorities; maximising devolution; and case studies on the ‘connected cluster’ of Bristol, Cambridge and Manchester.
Festival of Flourishing Regions is staged by Futures West, the initiative launched last year by regional business group Business West – the organisation behind Bristol Chamber of Commerce – to promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth.
It takes place on Thursday, January 30, at the Watershed media centre on the Harbourside. 
Keynote speaker will be the crossbench peer Lord Jim O’Neill, pictured, chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP), the business-led think tank and advocacy group based in the North of England.
Other sessions will look at maximising productivity in regions, how cities and regions can deliver the housing and infrastructure needed, and why maximum devolution will deliver city and regional potential.
The opening speeches will come from Andrea Dell, the former head of Bristol City Council’s One City initiative and now director of The Futures West Foundation for Sustainable and Inclusive Economic Growth, and Bristol City Council leader Tony Dyer.
Among the sessions panellists will be Futures West Foundation chair and former Airbus UK managing director Sir Iain Gray, West of England Combined Mayoral Authority chief executive Stephen Peacock and Bristol-based National Composites Centre chief business officer Joanna Dally.
Futures West is hosting Festival of Flourishing Regions in partnership with the Growing Together Alliance of leading regional business groups, which includes the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, Business West, BusinessLDN, Business South, Cambridge Ahead and the North West Business Leadership Team.
For more information and to book to attend, visit Festival of Flourishing Regions
