EM3 Celebrates Innovation in Hampshire and West Surrey

Earlier this month, we came together with over 120 business leaders, local authority officers and Councillors, Civil Servants as well as representatives from the education and third sectors for the 2023 Enterprise M3 Annual Conference. This year’s event, held at the Village Hotel Farnborough, was a celebration of EM3 and all the amazing innovation happening across west Surrey and Hampshire.

We were delighted to be joined by a great line-up of local business leaders’ for our ‘Driving Innovation in High Growth Sectors’ panel, chaired by Ross McNally, Executive Chair of Hampshire Chamber of Commerce. The panel had representatives from four key and developing sectors within our region, including Ayantika Mitra, Business Strategy Director at TISICS Metal Composites, one of the key businesses working with EM3 to drive forward a Jet Zero cluster for decarbonised aerospace technology. Andrew Greenhalgh, Head of Marketing at Surrey Satellite Technology Limited, represented our thriving space and satellite industry, Simon Robinson, Founder of Hattingley Valley Wines shared key insights from one of our most successful agricultural based companies and Kam Pooni, CEO of Glyconics Limited, provided the perspective of the life sciences industry.

Another highlight from the day was our keynote speaker, Bernard Donoghue, Director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, who delivered an insightful presentation on ‘Our Cultural GDP – How a Region’s Arts and Cultural Strength Stimulate its Economy’.

The day wrapped up with a question and answer session with members of the Enterprise M3 Board, including Michael Queen, Barney Ely, Daniel Ruiz, Viriginia Barrett, Dr. Deborah Allen and Councillor Martin Tod, in which delegates were given the opportunity to ask questions about the work of the LEP and plans for the future, including the ongoing discussions with Hampshire County Council and Surrey County Council about the transition of LEP functions.

Our Annual Conference was also an opportunity to look back at the past year, including all the fantastic achievements outlined in our Annual Report for 2022-23.

To view a copy of the presentations from the Conference please click here.