North Yorkshire businesses invited to free ‘Innovate to grow’ events across the county in May

Designed to appeal to medium and larger sized businesses based in York and North Yorkshire, the event programme starts on May 9 at Eden Camp in Malton and will be running until 23 May, with the last event at Scarborough Spa.

Other iconic venues include a train ride on the North York Moors Railway from Pickering, C4Di, the former prison in Northallerton which is now home to various tech companies, and Co-Lab, a workspace for digital, tech and creative businesses in Harrogate.

Funded by Innovate UK, the events will provide opportunities for networking to collaborate and share ideas for innovation and growth with other local businesses.

Attendees will also be able to hear about the business support and funding available to them in their area from representatives from York St John University who specialise in knowledge transfer between business and education, York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub and the Made Smarter programme.

Speaking of the events series, Michael Wilson, Knowledge Transfer Manager at York St John University said: “We are delighted to be running this series of free events for businesses across York & North Yorkshire.

Working in partnership with York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub and Made Smarter, we look forward to seeing businesses form connections and to giving them useful information about the business support and funding that is available, whilst they enjoy some of the region’s most interesting venues.”

The full event programme is as follows:

Eden Camp, Malton YO17 6RT - May 9 11:30am – 2.30pm

North Yorkshire Moors Railway, Pickering YO18 7AJ - May 11 11:30am for 12pm departure

Co-Lab, Harrogate HG1 5NX - May 16 11:30am – 2.30pm

C4DI, Northallerton DL6 1AU - May 18 11:30am – 2.30pm

Scarborough Spa, Scarborough YO11 2HD - May 23 11:30am – 2.30pm

About the York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub

By its very geography, York and North Yorkshire is home to a diverse range of businesses. Regardless of size or sector, they are there to provide free and impartial business support. They are government-funded but locally based, which means that they provide tailored support based around the unique needs of businesses in the region. They are one of 38 Growth Hubs in England and are coordinated by the York & North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership.

For more information and to access the business support they offer, visit www.ynygrowthhub.com

About Made Smarter

Made Smarter was created following an industry-led review commissioned by the UK Government and published in 2017. The initiative encourages and assists the UK manufacturing sector to prosper through the adoption of technology and digital innovation. Made Smarter also promotes creating a skilled manufacturing workforce, fit for the future, under a leadership which understands the opportunities of digitalisation.

For more information on Made Smarter, and grants available to manufacturing companies, email Mike Pennington at [email protected]