Bristol Initiative Meeting - 6th December 2022

On the 6th of December 2022 we welcomed members of the Bristol & West of England Initiative and some special guests to our final gathering of the year at Business West’s home in Leigh Court. This wasn’t just any Initiative meeting though, but a celebration of everything the Initiative and Business West has achieved over the years as we said goodbye to our long time Initiative Director, James Durie. It was a sold-out event, and over 170 people braved the cold snap and made their way up to Leigh Court. 

First up to speak was President of Bristol Chamber of Commerce, Jaya Chakrabarti MBE. Jaya welcomed everyone to the event and talked about how proud she was of the commitment the Initiative Members show to making Bristol and the region as a whole a better place to live and work. She thanks James for his great work and years of service to the region and also talked a little about a charity organisation that the Chamber of Commerce supports, 91 Ways to Build a Global City, which you can find out a little more about here: https://91ways.org/ 

Next up was Colin Skellett OBE, Chair of Business West. He shared some stories about his time working with James, recalling his first assignment – to buy a hot air balloon. He also shared some interesting statistics on James’ time with Business West: 

• James has been with us for 21 years 
• Over 100 Initiative meetings 
• Outlasted 7 presidents 
• Met 3 Prime Ministers 
• Presented on behalf of Business West and the region in the USA and India 

Colin noted that this was not goodbye but see you soon – as he expects James to return as a member! James was also gifted some sailing lessons as a thank you for his years of service. 

After accepting his sailing lessons and a fetching captain’s hat, James took the stage to talk about his time with Business West. He started by joking that everyone keeps asking him if he’s retiring, but his father is still working at 81 so he doesn’t see himself stopping any time soon.  

James reflected on his time with Business West, and said he wanted to use his time to talk about the great work that we’ve done in the region. He said that one of the biggest problems with talking about his work is how long projects can often take, so by the time the project is done and you want to talk about how excellent it is, people are already moving on to the next big thing. However, James said he was proud that we had achieved so much social and environmental good, not just work on behalf of businesses and the economy. He was especially proud of how early Business West had started to talk about sustainability, something which is now mainstream but was not really discussed widely when we first started to pitch it to the region. James also talked about how exciting it was that Business West and many Initiative Members have certified as B Corporations, cementing our commitment to being a force for good. 

James listed off the amazing projects that Business West and the Initiative has had a hand in, from the regeneration of Bristol’s harbourside, to Cabot Circus and helping set up Visit West and Bristol Ideas. James also shared some great anecdotes, like the balloon he was asked to buy was to support the campaign for Bristol to be selected as European Capital of Culture and how he intentionally arranged for it to be flown over competing cities like Liverpool and Newcastle. He also joked that now he isn’t working for Business West it will be a lot easier to explain his job to his friends, as they all think he works for Bristol City Council. 

Finally, James said a special thank you to everyone he had worked with on the Initiative and in his time at Business West. He made a special note to thank the Phil Bridgeman and the Membership team, Natasha Shinner and the Events team and finally his team – Victoria Matthews and Anna Keenan. 

Next up to speak was Victoria Matthews, former Initiative Manager for the West of England, who was announced as the new Membership Account Director for Business West, taking the reins from James Durie. She noted that it was hard to follow James after a speech covering 21 years of work at Business West, but thanked James for his work.  

Victoria noted that it had been a trying time for many people and businesses in 2022, with the instability in government and uncertainty in the economy. However, despite these difficulties we are still working to make Bristol a better place to live and work as always.  

Victoria also highlighted the new Clean Air Zone for Bristol and urged members to provide feedback on how it is affecting them. We’re also working closely with Visit West to be sure that there are no adverse effects to tourism and footfall in the region. 

Finally, Victoria welcomed new Initiative Members and talked about upcoming events, including the next quarterly Initiative Meeting which will be held at Bristol Beacon – more information on this will be sent to members soon. 

After Victoria, Business West’s new Membership Director Emma Carter took the podium, thanking everyone for their warm welcome at her first Initiative event. She said that her first port of call after taking on her new role was getting out to talk to and meet members, and is looking forward to doing more in the new year. Speaking about the future, Emma said that one of Business West’s primary goals is to become a top 5 chamber of commerce in the UK.  

Emma said that more than ever, we need our Initiative members to help us grow and help everyone in the chamber make the best use of the benefits they get from membership. As we look to grow and better serve our members we want to be inclusive in terms of who we partner with, clear about why new members should join and open to new opportunities like new Hydrogen South West, Nuclear and Net Zero memberships. 

At this point Emma announced Victoria’s promotion to Membership Account Director, whose role will be focusing on all things Bristol Membership and Initiative. She also told the assembled guests that we need our Initiative members to help ensure our priorities are right. Finally she talked a little around upcoming events, and also for Initiative members to look our for calls for feedback and ideas on how the Initiative and membership in general might change in the future to better serve members.

Our final presenter for the evening was Professor Philip Taylor, Pro Vice-Chancellor Research and Enterprise at Bristol University, to discuss hydrogen and how it could fit into the businesses in the region. Professor Taylor has been working in energy or energy related academia for the past 25 years, and also sits on the Government’s Net Zero board – making him one of the foremost experts on energy and renewables in the South West.  

Professor Taylor shared some interesting facts and his views on how Hydrogen would be best employed. For example, Hydrogen for domestic heating wouldn’t really work with the infrastructure we have now, as the National Grid would need to grow by 4-500% in size to be able to accommodate all the homes in the UK. He also talked about how the South West is a real hub for many hydrogen related projects at the moment, with the GW4 universities all partnering to support the adoption of hydrogen in the region and the University of Bath currently working on a big hydrogen-related project. EDF is even using depleted uranium to store hydrogen in the region. 

However hydrogen isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution – many areas would be extremely hard to convert from fossil fuels to electricity. But while hydrogen isn’t the solution, it is one of many that could help our planet to stay habitable for as long as possible. 

Professor Taylor went into great detail on how hydrogen fits in with other renewable electricity methods, if you'd like to see everything he discussed you can click here to download his slides.

If you’d like to know more about hydrogen and the Hydrogen South West membership, visit our hydrogen hub: https://www.businesswest.co.uk/hydrogen  

After Professor Taylor’s talk the meeting broke up for food and drinks and a chance to catch up and network for the Initiative members. You can see some photos from the event in the gallery below.

Interested in attending a future event? Our Initiative Meetings are for members and invited special guests only, but if you’d like to know more about joining the Initiative you can click here: https://www.businesswest.co.uk/initiative/west-of-england-initiative