Name of lead organiser:
Leeds City Council
Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP)
The University of Leeds
Nexus
KPMG
Arup
West Yorkshire Combined Authority
Leeds Academic Health Partnership
Entrepreneurs Adam Beaumont, David Aspin and Ben Ziff.
Conference objective:
MIT REAP provided Leeds with the opportunity to showcase Leeds City Region to its international counterparts, strengthening its reputation of the city with the ongoing aim of accelerating economic growth and making the region more attractive to growing businesses and start-ups, to over one hundred leaders from government, business, universities and finance as well as entrepreneurs from across the world.
International delegates from:
Central Denmark, Mexico, Italy, Ecuador, Kentucky, Oslo and Sydney.
The event:
Delegates from all over the world gathered together in Leeds, as the City Region hosted the prestigious international innovation programme, in partnership with the world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The programme provides expert, evidence-based guidance to support regions to accelerate economic growth, job creation and social change. It has helped nations and cities such as Beijing, Tokyo and Qatar, shape their economic and societal impact. With three million people, the Leeds City Region is the UK’s largest economic area outside London and generates more than 5% of the UK’s economic outputs.
Venues across the city worked closely with each other, and the organisers, in order to deliver the global four-day programme. The UK’s iconic innovation hub, Nexus, was the setting for international teams as they all participated in interactive workshops. As a result of this, the workshops have helped Leeds to develop new strategies to implement change, as well as to support innovation and inclusive growth, all of which are essential for the economic success of the region itself.
The Royal Armouries offered a bespoke addition to the event, as the Welcome Drinks Receptions, which took place in the Oriental Gallery, housed a unique-themed interpretation of Knights in Armour. Taking it one step further, once the reception came to a close, delegates were then given the opportunity to ask questions about its history and even try on the armour, to really take them back in time.
The Civic Hall, which was home to the Innovation Dinner in the evening, showcased the taste of Yorkshire’s finest through its menu, with the offering of a Yorkshire Cheese Board to all attending delegates. For the evening entertainment, the Civic Hall hosted a special performance from Leeds-born Opera North.
Innovation Ecosystem Tours:
Special ‘innovation ecosystem’ tours were designed as a platform to demonstrate how the city inspires innovation, and also offered delegates the chance to meet with Leeds’ established entrepreneurs. The tours themselves focused on a range of the city’s strengths, ranging from creative cultures, financial technology, future mobility and healthcare technologies, and offered delegates the opportunity to visit venues across the city to get a real feel of its sector strengths and history.
As part of the creative cultures tour, which offered the chance to learn about how Leeds has nurtured a range of creative entrepreneurs and social enterprises, delegates visited the iconic AW Hainsworth Woollen Mill and Patricks Studios, a bespoke venue for artists.
When learning about the financial technology strengths of the city, and why Leeds is recognised as one of the main Fintech hubs in the UK, venues including CPP Group, Avenue HQ and Santander’s Work Cafe all welcomed the delegates, where they heard more about the start-up and scale-up experiences of entrepreneurs.
Embarking on the tour of future mobility, delegates visited the University of Leeds, Nexus and Arup, where they learnt about how the city is supporting innovations in transport through immersive technology, modelling and simulators, as well as the emerging technologies supporting the different ways we live and travel in towns, cities and rural areas.
Finally, delegates discovered more about Leeds’ sector strength is healthcare technologies as they visited Co>Space North and the NHS Horizon Conference Centre, in order to understand more about the region’s successful spin-outs, networks and partnerships.