Member Article

Yorkshire Mafia to run first Leeds Business Week

Business membership organisation, The Yorkshire Mafia, has announced that it will run its inaugural Leeds Business Week from 23rd to 27th September.

Dozens of organisations from across the city have joined up as “Event Partners” to organise their own business events in support of the exercise.

Companies such as The Institute of Directors, 4Networking, Irwin Mitchell, Northern Ballet, Leeds City Council, Propaganda, Barclays and many more are all reported to be getting behind the initiative.

Geoff Shepherd, chairman of The Yorkshire Mafia, said: “Leeds is the third largest city in the UK. It should already have a well-established Business Week that brings its business community together. It doesn’t and being a can-do organisation we decided to lead the charge.

“But, this isn’t our week; it’s everyone’s and we really want as many organisations as possible to get involved. All too often we operate in silos and jealously guard our own networks, customers and database, but in September we’re going some way to change that. We’re bringing organisations together from all sectors, charities and social enterprise, education, culture and the arts, corporate businesses and SMEs.

“We’ve also been supported by Leeds City Council, Leeds City College and Agenci Information Security, without whom we couldn’t have run the event.”

Shepherd is calling on everyone in business in Leeds and beyond to support the Business Week and its 60 or so events across the city - from Harehills to Morley to Weetwood, Swillington, Headingley and Chapel Allerton. He added: “It’s our business community; we’re in it together and we should support each other. The more time we spend doing things together, talking to each other and opening up our networks, the better.

“There are some terrific seminars, workshops and content driven events happening and it’s something everyone should get involved with.”

Andy Clarke, CEO of ASDA and chairman of Leeds and Partners will be taking part in Leeds City Summit, a BBC Question Time Style event which is taking place as part of the business celebration on Friday 27th September. He said: “I’m really looking forward to the session and to the entire week, when Leeds will be able to showcase what it has to offer.

“At Leeds and Partners, we constantly strive to raise the profile of the place as a leading destination for inward investment, business and leisure tourism. Leeds Business Week is the perfect platform to show people that the city really is a great place to live and do business in.”

Leeds City Council CEO, Tom Riordan, is also backing the programme. He said: “The Week will offer a huge event programme and we will be involved in a number of events throughout the five days.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Gatehouse .