With 100 delegates confirmed for Thursday’s BCOC Live, anticipation is high for the Banbury & District Chamber of Commerce annual symposium entitled ‘A Better-Connected Banbury’.
The Chamber has been encouraging the town’s businesses to be well prepared for the anticipated growth in population and employment over the next generation. This includes building for housing and business as well as incorporating exciting town centre developments including Castle Quay 2, Canal Side and at Bolton Road plus other improvements facilitated by the newly formed Business Improvement District. On a wider scale, and over the longer term to 2050, the Oxford to Cambridge arc promoted by the Government with its new expressway and rail links will aim, the Chamber has uncovered, to facilitate one million new homes and multiple acres of commercial development land with a significant proportion of this to be accommodated in Oxfordshire.
Neil Wild, Chamber Board Member says “with our increasing demand for accessibility, services and resources within Banbury and across the region we need to ensure the required social and physical infrastructure is in place to improve this connectivity as the town and region grows.”
On Thursday 22 November the Banbury & District Chamber of Commerce event ‘BCOC Live’ returns to Banbury Town Hall from 9am and finishing at 2pm. The event is titled, “A Better Connected Banbury” and is open to businesses and organisations in Banbury and the surrounding area. The event is now fully booked although anyone interested and who has not booked in can email the Chamber administrator in case of a cancellation on bcoc@banburychamber.com
Sally Dicketts CBE, Principal at Activate Learning and speaker at the event says “it’s great the Banbury Chamber are helping the Banbury community focus on connectivity issues and I will be delighted to be speaking at the event emphasising our role in promoting its value across the region.”
The Chamber is grateful to its sponsors Castle Quay Shopping Centre, Banbury Sound, Wellers Accountants, Stackers Training, Whitley Stimpson and Norbar Torque Tools for their support, enabling this to be a no charge event.
Confirmed speakers and Q&A panel members include; Sally Dicketts CBE, Principal at Activate Learning; Lucy Haworth Head of Operations 923 Jobs Ltd; Christopher Hipkiss working with Cherwell District Council for the delivery of the Castle Quay 2 project; Adele Taylor, Interim Executive Director at Cherwell District Council; Tim Tarby Donald, social entrepreneur; Brian Auld from Brethertons Solicitors; Nigel Tipple the Chief Exec of OXLEP, Iain Nicholson, the Interim Manager at Banbury BID; and Eric Owens the Assistant Director of Growth and Place at Oxfordshire County
Council.
This event and will run to the following agenda.
9 – 10 am Arrival, coffee, pastries, networking and trade stands
10 – 11 am Connecting People – Sally Dicketts CBE and Lucy Haworth followed by panel with audience Q&A with Brian Auld and Tim Tarby Donald
11 – 11.30 am Coffee break with trade stands
11.30 – 12.30 pm Connecting Place – Christopher Hipkiss and Adele Taylor followed by panel with audience Q&A with Nigel Tipple, Eric Owens and Iain Nicholson.
12.30 – 2 pm Lunch, networking and trade stands
