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Ahead of our Annual Conference in Birmingham tomorrow, we spoke to Ciaran Gunne-Jones, Senior Director, Head of Economics, at Lichfields, one of our conference Gold Sponsors – including about Revitalise, Lichfields’ new toolkit for delivering town centre transformation.

Thank you for your sponsorship this year. What is your role at the forthcoming event?

“Lichfields has been involved with the IED Annual Conference for many years, and we are delighted to be able to participate in this year’s conference particularly as part of the organisation’s 40^th anniversary celebrations. The Annual Conference provides a really valuable opportunity for us to share insights with other economic development professionals, meet with clients and to network with stakeholders in the sector. Convening the conference in Birmingham for the first time also has added resonance for us, as it is home to Lichfields’ ninth and newest office which opened in 2019.”

The title of this year’s Annual Conference is ‘Grow for Good? Reappraising the UK's Growth Objectives’. What does that mean to you?

“The country seems to be at something of an inflection point about how to drive future economic growth, what type of growth that should be, and how to ensure as many people and different parts of the country can benefit from it as possible. Amid so many other rapid changes in technology, environment and society, these can be difficult questions to answer. But what is also clear is the economy has faced many challenges in recent years and living standards have been under significant pressure for many communities, so some real immediacy is required around kick-starting growth in the short to medium term, whilst also creating a platform to harness the growth opportunities that change will bring in the longer term. The economic development community has a critical role to play in delivering both aspects.”

What aspects of the conference are you especially looking forward to?

“The IED team has, as always, curated a really interesting and varied programme of speakers and topic sessions for this year’s Annual Conference. The breadth of the agenda shows just how many facets there are to current economic development practice, so the Lichfields team attending is looking forward to engaging with this. We will also be hosting one of the break-out sessions – this year on the theme of town centres – which is always a great opportunity to deep-dive into a particular policy area and share experiences and ideas with guest speakers.”