Stage is set for Black Country Business Festival finale
The Black Country Business Festival enjoyed one of its busiest days of the fortnight so far as Wolverhampton Grand Theatre joined local factories in opening their doors for behind-the-scenes visits.
They were taking place alongside a string of business seminars and meetings at venues across the area covering everything from health at work and improving security to advice on writing tenders to win new work and ways to win business overseas.
One of the popular highlights was a session on public speaking at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, where RADA-trained actress Caroline Kilpatrick took nearly 40 people through the basics of relaxation techniques and vocal exercises, tackling the physical side of addressing an audience with more confidence.
Later theatre chief executive Adrian Jackson talked about his experience of running The Grand as a business and his ambitions for its future, including expanding the role of the theatre in creating its own in-house productions, such as Brassed Off and Ladies' Day, and the way they create more opportunities to involve local people.
Capping a hat-trick of theatre events was a business networking evening shortly before last night's performance of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
A more industrial tour was on offer at Liberty Engineering in Oldbury, as part of a careers morning hosted by the fast-growing business, when visitors were taken around a number of the factory premises on the busy Popes Lane site.
In West Bromwich, bus and coach group National Express West Midlands was showing off the latest technology being used in its low-carbon Platinum fleet of vehicles.
A spokeswoman said: "We wanted to highlight how new technology is making bus travel easier for our customers.
"Our new contactless ticket machines take bank cards, Swift, mobile phone payments, as well as good old-fashioned cash.
"Also, our Platinum buses have the greenest diesel engines on the market, so they are helping to clean up the air for all Black Country residents."
And in Walsall the town's football stadium played host to a Manufacturing Roadshow run by the Black Country Chamber of Commerce, offering local companies the chance to find out about securing additional funding to expand their businesses or invest in innovation or training.
The growing importance of the hospitality sector was being discussed at another networking event, at the Mercure Wolverhampton Goldthorn Hotel, while across the city during the afternoon businesses had their first opportunity for a look at the new Elite Centre for Manufacturing Skills being created by the University of Wolverhampton at the former Springfield Brewery site.
The Black Country Business Festival is due to come to an end tomorrow afternoon, with a closing event at the Ramada Park Hall Hotel & Spa – the last of 122 events across nine business sectors that has taken place over the last two weeks.
The biggest event of its kind ever seen in the West Midlands, it has been the first of series of festivals planned to take place over three years, aiming to raise the profile of the Black Country as a home for business.
