In recent months, all over England, Local Enterprise Partnerships have been launching their own area-specific Growth Hubs. These valuable initiatives see public and private sector organisations partner up in order to provide businesses with easy access to and information about the support they require. In total, there’s a network of 39 hubs and one of the most recent to launch was the North East Growth Hub. Although the majority of the hubs’ work takes place online, this launch was a real-world event hosted by iconic music venue The Sage Gateshead. We went along to find out more.

The Sage Gateshead is a glittering mound of a building which stands proudly on the River Tyne’s south bank, a beacon for musicians and their fans from all around the globe. On 28th April, this local landmark certainly seemed a fitting place for the launch of the North East Growth Hub, a digital platform that provides access to invaluable information, advice and inspiration to the region’s businesses. Paul Harper is a regional Mentoring Manager here at the IOEE covering the North East and Yorkshire. He represented the IOEE at the event, taking the chance to enlighten a new set of people about the benefits of mentoring. Along with colleague Christine Dryden, he manned a dedicated IOEE stand, providing delegates with a rich source of information on everything from the recently relaunched SFEDI Directory and our involvement with British Banking Association’s mentorsme.co.uk initiative to detailed information on the IOEE itself, our centres and our academies. Paul says:

“In the main we were keen to speak to people about mentoring. There were a lot of speakers at the event and almost every one mentioned mentoring as something they’d recommend to new business people and aspiring entrepreneurs. We also networked with other business support organisations like the UK Trade and Investment International Trade Office, which encourages its members to access mentoring. It was a great day, the talks were inspiring, the sun was shining and the response from all the delegates was very positive!”

Many attendees were eager to accept Paul’s offer to match them up with hand-picked mentors. Having chatted casually with a number of new and more established micro and SME business owners, the Mentoring Manager left having made plenty of interesting contacts, as he explains:

“I spoke with business owners and directors from all sorts of different types of business, but all seeking mentoring support. I made good connections and I’ll now go on to match them up with the right mentors. One chap I spoke to had a company called StreamGo, which streams live video from events onto the internet. He was very keen on getting a mentor but because he works across Europe he needs his mentoring to happen at a distance via email, phone and Skype. This is exactly the type of situation where we excel - creating flexible, person-specific mentoring relationships that provide both parties with the exact benefits they require.”

The morning-long event, which was targeted at those businesses with 250 or fewer employees, was hosted by radio presenter John Myers. As well as a vibrant exhibition area where businesses had the chance to meet support providers like our own Paul Harper, there were break-out sessions, opportunities to network and discussions on funding and support options.

North East LEP chair Andrew Hodgson, who is also chief executive of subsea company Soil Machine Dynamics, said: “The North East Growth Hub is a fantastic resource for ambitious small and medium sized businesses in the region who are looking for advice and support to grow their businesses. The online platform has dedicated sections for people and skills, innovation and technology, trade and export, finance and funding, sales and marketing, and advice for start-ups and running a responsible business.

“It is a key building block in our programme to bring more and better jobs to the North East, by linking businesses with relevant business community, public and private sector support to help them grow and prosper.”

You can take a look at the North East’s work online at www.northeastgrowthhub.co.uk, or
to find out about your LEP and the Growth Hub serving enterprise in your area, visit www.lepnetwork.net.