THE Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council Alderman Graham Warke is in London this week to attend NI Business Innovation Showcase event that is hosted by the Northern Ireland Office, DIT and Invest NI.
The visit also provides the opportunity for the Mayor to continue to build on the City and District’s connections with City of London where he will meet with the Rt Honourable the Lord Mayor City of London, Alderman William Russell and representatives of the City of London Corporation.
The Mayor will also attend a reception hosted by the City of London Corporation ahead of the showcase event.
Speaking of the visit Mayor Warke said he was delighted to be in a position to travel to London for this high profile event to support the businesses from the North West that are taking part and to build on the existing strong relationship that exists between the City of London and the Council area.
He said: “I am delighted that the North West will feature very strongly in this event that showcase the best of innovative businesses, start-ups and universities across Northern Ireland.
“It is great to see representation from UU, Seagate, Allstate NI, FinTrU, Elemental and the Joule Group all taking part and promoting what we have to offer in terms of opportunities, skills, experience and expertise.
“We will be reinforcing a strong message that the North West city region is very much open for business with a strong offering of skills and talent, complemented by good connectivity and a great location for work life balance.
“The visit will also be a great opportunity for us to share our experiences of COVID and our planned recovery as well as outline our ambitious City Deal project plans.”
The Mayor added that a key element of the visit is to build on the existing strong relationship that exists between the NW City region and the City of London.
“The Showcase event is an opportunity to build on the existing partnership between our two cities and regions and look at ways of exploring that partnership role further and to look at ways of how innovation can impact on our business growth.
“I am delighted that the Mayor of the City of London will be hosting us and that we also get a chance to engage with Catherine McGuinness, who has been such a strong advocate of her our city and region.”
The NI Business Innovation Showcase will be attended by the Rt Hon Brandon Lewis CBE MP and UKG Minister Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with presentations from various organisations across NI including the NW.
