ICAEW London and South East Economic Summit – Monday 7th December 2020

Overview

Tom Ahmad, one of the directors of Bailey Ahmad Business Recovery and the President of the ICAEW Croydon, is working with the ICAEW to host a major region-wide pan-professional virtual event on Monday 7th December 2020 about the short-term future of our local economies, and what professionals can do to help.

On 30th November 2020, the ICAEW will release its Business Confidence Monitor™, one of the largest and most comprehensive quarterly reviews of UK business confidence. The report provides a regular snapshot of the economy informed by senior business professionals running all types of businesses across the UK.

Event details

The ICAEW periodically produce a Business Confidence Monitor (BCM) based on interviews with 1,000 senior business professionals in a range of sectors and regions. It has historically proved to be a remarkably accurate lead indicator of GDP trends, and is widely used by the business community, policymakers and academics. The next BCM is due for publication on 30th November 2020, and will be of particular interest and value to businesses who will be formulating their 2021 growth strategy, recruitment plans and capital allocation decisions in the wake of a difficult few months.

The event will begin with commentary from the ICAEW and the Bank of England. Attendees will then break out into separate panel discussion rooms with experts from each county in the region about the specific implications for their local economy. There will also be a Brexit breakout room.

The discussions from the breakout panel rooms will be distilled into a report of practical tips, advice, and action points to help us all lead our region through the coming recovery.

The Panellists

A number of high calibre speakers and panellists have been confirmed for the discussions in the different break-out rooms including:

 Plenary speakers

• Iain Wright, Director of Business and Industrial Strategy at ICAEW

• Rob Elder, Bank of England Agent for Greater London

London Room

• Rowena Howie, Chair of London Policy, Federation of Small Businesses

• Luke Bruce, Head of Economic Development, Greater London Authority

• Lauren Quigley, Head of Innovation Programmes at London & Partners

Croydon, South London & Surrey             

• Richard Plant, Chairman, Develop Croydon

• Steve Broom, Area Director, Metro Bank

• Matthew Sims, Chief Executive, Croydon BID

• Caireen Mitchell, Chief Executive, Croydon College

Kent & Sussex                      

• Jonathon Neame, Chief Executive ,Shepherd Neame

• Gavin Cleary, CEO, Locate in Kent

• James Bullock, Partner, Corporate & Commercial, Brachers

Oxford & Berkshire             

• Mike Clark, Vice President, Coco Cola European Partners

• Alison Webster – Chief Executive, Thames Valley Berkshire LEP

• Katy Rabindran, Director, Innovation & Technology, BDO

Brexit             

• John Boulton, Director, ICAEW Technical Policy, ICAEW

• Allen Simpson, Managing Director of Strategy and Corporate Affairs, London and Partners

How to join the event

The event is free for business professionals to attend. Please register for the event here: https://events.icaew.com/pd/18676/. You will be asked which discussion room you would like to join as you register.

The aim is to have an audience which combines a range of sectors and industries; the more perspectives the better.

We hope you join on the 7th December for what will be a very interesting and insightful event.