Digital roundtables launched to support county’s £1bn+ information and comms industry

By Groundswell Innovation

22 Nov 2021

A series of round table events for tech and digital businesses in Lancashire will be held across the county by Lancashire County Council this month.

Kicking off at Fraser House in Lancaster on 25 November, these peer network sessions will give tech businesses in the county an opportunity to feedback to the council on economic development, business growth, and the issues they are currently facing.

The Digital Round Tables are open to all tech businesses in Lancashire, including software development, manufacturing, telecoms and energy firms. They will be run by established Lancashire Business, Groundswell Innovation, and will visit Lancaster, Preston and three other locations across the county.

These events are part of wide-ranging digital sector support in Lancashire. The county has an extensive ecosystem of industry focus groups, business support programmes and peer networks dedicated to growing Lancashire’s tech sector.

They follow on from the successful Lancashire Innovation Festival held in October this year at a number of locations including Lancaster, Blackpool, Blackburn, Edge Hill University and the AMRC. The festival saw more than 400 people participate in a mix of virtual discussion, seminars and networking to share learning and best practice about tech and innovation. Key themes of this year’s event included Digital, Health, Low Carbon, Manufacturing and Social innovation and also focused on a range of cross cutting themes including emerging technologies, growth challenges, product development, skills and business support.

The Digital Economy Report for Lancashire that was published earlier this year outlined the strength of the sector in the county, and the potential for growth. The information and communications sector in Lancashire is worth in excess of £1bn, and there has been 28% sector growth* in the past five years. The tech sector is set to outstrip the local economy three times by 2028; there are more than 4000 digital and tech businesses, 15,000 software professionals, and 37,000 people working in the power generation sector in the country. With 84,000 manufacturing professionals in Lancashire, the county has the second largest concentration of manufacturing activity in the UK.

To take part in the Digital Round Tables, please get in touch with Dan Knowles on [email protected]

Round Table Event dates

25 November – Fraser House, Lancaster 3 December – Preston, venue TBC Other dates TBC

Read the Lancashire Digital Economy Report in full

Download at https://investinlancashire.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2021-Digital-Economy-Report-Download.pdf

About Groundswell Innovation

Groundswell Innovation helps people to get the right ideas to market, faster and fitter for purpose - new products and services that solve customer problems, profitably. They have been in business for more than 13 years, supporting businesses and organisations across the North West of England and beyond. Based in Lancaster and run by MBA graduate Jane Dalton, Groundswell Innovation brings that extra spark – informed energy that boosts growth by listening to what your stakeholders need. Their clients include Visa Europe, MAG, Finlays Global Coffee producers, VEKA and BT Openreach.

Find out more about Groundswell Innovation.