Hot topics at State of the City 2013

Here’s whatsome of our State of the City panellists think the hot topics are at this year's debate, do you agree...?

Gary Peters, Chairman of the Brighton and Hove Economic Partnership

1 - Support for Start-Ups:

“Brighton has two fantastic universities, a very good city college and further education colleges. We’ve got a very high start-up rate and equally a very high failure rate for these start-ups. So I’d like to see more support for start-ups locally and this is beginning to happen.”

2 - Beyond tourism and digital media: selling the city’s other sectors.

 “People want to come here. Brighton has no trouble selling itself. What is it? 8.5 million tourists come here a year, which is great. However, we need to maximise on that by bringing some good brands in here; really selling it to prospects, telling them what else Brighton has to offer.”

“So the question then is, what does Brighton have to offer?  What Brighton has to offer is a very well educated, young, creative – and that doesn’t just mean digital media, but creative in a number of different ways – eclectic bunch of people, where innovation and creativity is key to them. So it is an ideal place to start businesses or have satellite orientated businesses in the area.”

3 - Attracting bigger employers to the city:

“When people talk about Brighton, they talk about the weekends, the holiday, the pier and the beach for example. That’s great and that’s also why I love living here.… However, if we actually go out and pitch hard about the huge innovation and creativity we have here, across many specialised sectors potentially, we may just bring down some of those bigger employers which we so badly need.”  

 “Wouldn't it be great if the Brighton Centre was built to a world class level ~ think about how many global brands we could attract to the area. What they’ve done so far to refresh it is great but if, as a city, we want to compete on a world-class level, we really need to invest a lot more into venues like this."

 

Julia Chanteray, president of the Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce

1 - Building on best practice:

“Brighton seems to be doing really well compared to other parts of the UK, and certainly other parts of Europe. So we need to look at the things that are working well here and continue with those things. But we also need to look at the danger signs, like possibly our retail economy so that we can compensate for it and meet those challenges. So it’s about continuing the resilience of our economy.”

2 - Being positive and proactive:

“Another thing is that visitor numbers from tourist economy is up in 2012, on 2011.  What we were talking about was all the doom and gloom in the increase in parking charges. But actually it doesn’t seem to have an effect on visitor numbers. So we need to be careful about what we talk about and we don’t talk down our economy.”

It is easy to moan. It is easy to say, “You should do that” and give the responsibility to someone else. At the moment, the council is concentrating on the stuff it has to do.  So we have to do it.”

3 - Making it easy to do business:

“We need to make it as easy as possible to do business in the city. We should make it more streamlined and easier for people to know how to do business. For instance, easily obtainable details of office accommodation, or just sharing tricks between chamber members and the business community. So, for instance, if there is a special offer this month on software from somebody, it’s good to spread that information around.  And if we make it easier for people to do business, we get more people doing business here. And we also make sure that the businesses already here don’t waste their time making mistakes or having to reinvent the wheel.. Part of that is encouraging people to come out and play and to come out to network. Lots of things that I have learned about business is from talking to other business owners.”

To book your place at this year's debate and submit a topic for discussion visit: www.businessinbrighton.org.uk/event/state-city-2013

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk