The fourth annual Black Country Business Festival ended on Friday (15 October) after an exciting fortnight of online and in-person events.

The BCBF is overseen by a board of local, independent business volunteers. The programme is managed by Associate Events in partnership with the Black Country Chamber of Commerce.

This year, eighty events took place across the Black Country – including interactive webinars, workshops and a golf day.

According to the organisers, 67 per cent of attendees had not been to a business event in the 12 months leading up to the BCBF. So the festival was a great way to bring the business community back together after a very difficult time.

We were delighted to host several digital events on behalf of or alongside our colleagues at Sandwell Council. Through these sessions we updated local businesspeople on the Towns Fund projects in our borough (in conjunction with the Sandwell Business Ambassadors), explored Sandwell’s economic recovery and ways to work with the council, and showed the progression of the Sandwell Aquatics Centre development.

Our emphasis, as always, was on giving local businesses inspiration and confidence to tap into opportunities in our region. If you missed any of our events, you’re welcome to contact the Think Sandwell team any time. Go to our business services page to see how we might be able to help you and your business.

Corin Crane is CEO of Black Country Chamber of Commerce. He said: “This year’s festival was set in a backdrop of genuine business challenges around supply chains, energy costs and staff and customer safety and it has addressed all these issues through knowledge sharing, networking and a wide range of events. I couldn’t be more pleased with the way that businesses have once again risen to the challenge and run brilliant events across the area.

“Thanks to everyone who has been involved – you’ve been amazing. We’ll be back again next year – bigger, louder and with even more energy.”

You’ll find information on BCBF 2022 on the website in due course: www.blackcountrybusinessfestival.com. We’ll be there next year too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BCBF 2021 in stats: 

Eighty total registered events
602 businesses engaged
1372 total attendees
29 per cent attendees from outside the region
45 digital events
35 events in person
Nine events sold out
255,186 social media engagement
85 per cent felt BCBF had a positive impact on them or their business
96 per cent events rated ‘good to excellent’
67 per cent of attendees hadn’t attended a local business or networking event in the past 12 months.