West Midlands Growth Company

The home of invention, Birmingham and the West Midlands region has a long history of seeking and bringing about change and innovation. From being the meeting place of the Lunar Society, some of the 18th century’s greatest thinkers, to the forging of the Industrial Revolution.

Today - whether its developing technologies to reduce carbon, revolutionising our approaches to preventative healthcare, or just changing the way we think about public transport,- the West Midlands celebrated tradition of bringing people together to spark fresh ideas and overcome challenges is still just as strong. With a £105bn economy (the size of Hungary) and a diverse 4.7m population (the size of New Zealand) drawn from 190 countries, we have the skills and scale to be the launchpad for the future. Truly we are “one region, many worlds”.

It’s therefore fitting that the West Midlands is home to the Forum for Global Challenges, and we are proud that experts, visionaries, and influencers are once again gathering in Birmingham to seek answers to some of the most pressing issues faced by society.

The West Midlands Growth Company is proud to sponsor the Forum for Global Challenges and put our support to bringing about change and improvement to people across the globe.

The West Midlands Growth Company helps the region make its mark nationally and internationally. Our primary purpose is to attract investment, jobs, visitors, and businesses to the West Midlands. We help bring together private and public sector partners to help unlock new investment, kickstart exciting new projects, and create new opportunities, many of which resonate with the Forum’s core themes. We also forge strong links between our region’s world-leading universities, our globally recognised businesses, our dynamic R&D assets, our thriving commercial and tourism ecosystems, world-leading conference venues and the many senior policymakers who are based here.

The West Midlands Growth Company is also a product delivery partner of the Business and Tourism Programme (BATP), which aims to leverage the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games to embed positive perceptions of the West Midlands into the international imagination, driving long-term economic benefits across the region, fostering civic pride. Focusing on tourism, trade and investment, the three-year programme catalyses the West Midlands’ growth strategy, cementing the region, and wider UK, as a globally sought-after location to visit, invest, trade and live in.