Partner Article

Forum aims to aid Northumberland businesses

Commercial successes and funding opportunities in the Northumberland National Park will be on the agenda at the first networking event to be organised by the new Mid-Tyne Business Forum (MTBF).

Colin Earnshaw, community enterprise officer with the Park Authority, will be one of two speakers at the inaugural event, which takes place on Wednesday 20 January at Wark Sports Club.

He will be joined on the speaker platform by Paul Blakey of NatWest Bank, who will be providing insight and advice on the range of financial services and products available to local businesses as the economy battles its way out of recession.

The MTBF has been set up to support and sustain businesses based in rural west Northumberland.

It will also help companies in and around the area build new, mutually beneficial links with each other, and will encourage members to ‘buy local’ wherever possible to help enhance the nearby economy.

Forum committee chairman Gary Kilmister, who is principal of CI Accountancy Limited in Warden, said: “The idea of our events programme is to provide members with the chance to both hear useful information from our speakers and build relationships with their fellow attendees which we hope will lead to mutually beneficial business opportunities.

“Colin and Paul will both have a lot of useful information to pass on to our event attendees, and we’re very grateful to them for giving up their time to speak at our first event.

“There has been a lot of local enthusiasm about the launch of the Forum, and we’re very much looking forward to putting on our first event, which we’re certain will prove both popular and useful from a business development point of view.”

The Mid-Tyne region covers the parishes of Warden, Newbrough, Wall, Humshaugh, Chollerton, Birtley, Simonburn, Wark and Whittington, to the north and west of Hexham, but membership applications from companies outside these areas are also being accepted.

For further information about tickets for the January 20th event, or more general information about the Mid-Tyne Business Forum, visit www.mtbf.org.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .