{"id":5440,"date":"2025-05-29T12:57:35","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T11:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/?p=5440"},"modified":"2025-05-29T12:57:35","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T11:57:35","slug":"driving-collaboration-and-innovation-at-the-kent-and-medway-business-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/2025\/05\/29\/driving-collaboration-and-innovation-at-the-kent-and-medway-business-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Driving collaboration and innovation at the Kent and Medway Business Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Something special happens when businesses, educators, researchers and local government come together \u2014 and this year\u2019s Kent and Medway Business Summit<\/a> was a powerful reminder of the impact of true collaboration.<\/p>\n

Held on the University of Kent\u2019s Canterbury campus, the Summit welcomed leaders from across the region to tackle the most pressing issues facing our economy \u2014 from the rise of artificial intelligence to the future of sustainability, skills and innovation in Kent and Medway.<\/p>\n

Across a packed agenda of keynote addresses, expert-led panels, hands-on masterclasses and outdoor networking walks (\u2018netwalks\u2019) through our beautiful campus, the event created space not only for conversation, but for action.<\/p>\n

We were delighted to welcome Anna Leach, Deputy Chief Economist at the Institute of Directors (IoD)<\/a>, to open the day with a timely economic update, followed by deep dives into the future of sustainability, marketing, leadership, strategy, AI and the skills agenda. From practical demonstrations of new tech, to big-picture thinking about regional development, this year\u2019s Summit built on the energy of previous years while expanding the scope and ambition of what we can achieve together.<\/p>\n

Tudor Price, Chief Executive of Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce<\/a>, reflected:
\n\u201cThis is such an important event for business leaders at a time of great economic change and uncertainty. Working with the University to help businesses adapt and plan for the future is of great importance and we were delighted to be able to help deliver what ended up being a really informative day.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rupert Butler, Head of Legal Practice at headline sponsor Leverets<\/a>, added:
\n\u201cIt was great to see so many people sharing their experiences, insights and forecasts. The mood was upbeat and the outlook optimistic \u2013 we are grateful to have had the opportunity to support the Summit.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

We are also deeply grateful to our event partners, Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce, and event associates \u2014 the Institute of Directors (IoD), Federation of Small Businesses (FSB)<\/a>, Medway Council<\/a>, and Kent County Council<\/a> \u2014 for their invaluable contributions. Our thanks also go our session sponsors, Walker Construction<\/a>, Dodgems and Floss<\/a>, and AKITA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Kent and Medway Business Summit continues to be made possible through the incredible support of our corporate and community partners \u2014 and we are always looking to welcome new collaborators who share our commitment to driving innovation, growth and opportunity across the region. The Summit will return in 2026, and we look forward to welcoming everyone back to continue the conversation and the collaboration.<\/p>\n

If your organisation is passionate about supporting economic development, fostering talent, or championing sustainability, we\u2019d love to work with you. Explore corporate and business partnership opportunities with the University of Kent here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A heartfelt thank you once again to everyone who joined us and helped make this year\u2019s Summit such a success. The conversations may have started here \u2014 but they continue across Kent and Medway, every day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Something special happens when businesses, educators, researchers and local government come together \u2014 and this year\u2019s Kent and Medway Business Summit was a powerful reminder … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82219,"featured_media":5441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[112,212710,118123],"tags":[231473,74],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5440"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82219"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5440"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5443,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5440\/revisions\/5443"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}