BeaconHouse Events partners with Wayne Hemingway to produce the first Northern Powerhouse Business Summit

Newcastle-based events management company, BeaconHouse Events, has teamed up with iconic Northern designer, Wayne Hemingway, and through his multi-disciplinary creative agency HemingwayDesign, will together manage the technical delivery and design of the first ever Northern Powerhouse Business Summit, which will take place next month in NewcastleGateshead.

The production team beat off stiff competition from right across the country to win the bid to produce the event, which is part of the Great Exhibition of the North. It will take place 4 – 6 July at Boiler Shop – the site where 19th century engineer George Stephenson designed and built the world’s first locomotive.

Hemingway, who hails from Lancashire, is a visionary in his field, starting out by co-founding famous British label Red or Dead. He has since worked on a wide-ranging breath of projects with several happening in North East England including designing a mass-market housing development in Gateshead, The Staithes, and bringing the award-winning Festival of Thrift to Redcar. He is also a Professor in The Built Environment Department of Northumbria University.

Sarah Thackray, Director of award-winning event management agency BeaconHouse Events, said of the partnership: “We were delighted to win the bid for the production and design delivery of this iconic Summit and working with Wayne Hemingway, who has brought so many creative ideas to the event’s design plans, has been an amazing experience.

“As proud Northern businesses, we can’t wait to show the exciting work that we’re doing to deliver exceptional events in the region.”

Designed to be the central business event during the Great Exhibition of the North, the Summit will bring together small businesses, government ministers, city region mayors and business leaders from across the North of England. Together they will help to shape the next stage of the Northern Powerhouse through panel discussions, presentations, workshops and speeches.

A high-profile line-up of speakers has now been revealed for the event, which includes: Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University, Collette Roche, COO of Manchester United, Sarah Weir, CEO of the Design Council, Elaine Warburton, CEO QuantuMDx and Pam Warhust, founder of Incredible Edible.

The programme for the Summit is being curated by Thinking Digital, Digital Catapult and Sunderland Software City.

Themes of discussions across the three-day Summit will include how the Northern Powerhouse can be at the forefront of the fourth Industrial Revolution – Industry 4.0 – and the government’s Industrial Strategy, including the role of the North in the ‘Grand Challenges’ of growing the Artificial Intelligence and data driven economy, clean growth, the future of mobility and an ageing society.

There will also be a number of workshops, delivered by Northern businesses, designed to provide a more in-depth look at these themes. Workshops will include practical sessions on designing for an ageing population, the future of work, digital transformation and building a Northern industrial strategy.

Paul Szomoru, Director of Business Events at NewcastleGateshead Convention Bureau, said: “The delivery partners involved are some of the best in their field, and what’s more this exciting partnership between BeaconHouse Events and HemingwayDesign represents Northern innovation and collaboration at its best, showing the quality of businesses that we have here in the North of England.

“The speakers are all outstanding leaders in their field and some of the topics covered, including AI and ageing societies, are areas of specialism here in the North East – we can’t wait to share the life-changing developments happening here.”

Tickets for the three-day Summit – which is supported by the European Regional Development Fund  is free to attend – and further details about the programme are available at www.getnorth2018.com/business.