Birmingham and Leipzig forge stronger business connections

The Lord Mayor Ken Wood led  in early November a successful trade visit to Birmingham’s twin city of Leipzig. The aim of the visit was to highlight the many similarities between Birmingham’s and Leipzig’s business sectors and explore opportunities for knowledge exchange and trade.

As part of the two-day programme, 10 companies from Birmingham’s technology and creative industries, predominantly start-ups and young companies, gained in-depth insights into Leipzig’s creative and cultural scene. Close collaboration between Birmingham City Council, the West Midlands Combined Authority, Department for Business and Trade produced an interesting and sector relevant programme specifically designed to further links and synergies between the two twin cities:

Highlights:

• Welcome at the Invest Region Leipzig office, presentation of the location advantages of the Leipzig Region and networking with local businesses and stakeholders.
• Inspiring city tour through Leipzig.
• Visit to the R42 | Games Hub & Accelerator – valuable discussions with industry experts such as Christopher Siebenhüner and Sarah Schubert
• Insights into creative hubs like Basislager Coworking Leipzig MediaHub and Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig GmbH, where creative partners such as Marco Weicholdt, Daniel Korenev and Paolo Loeffler welcomed the delegation.
• Finally, a part of the delegation visited the LeipzigOperaBall, which was appropriately held under the motto ‘Great, Britain!’ – a successful highlight that rounded off the visit to Leipzig in style.

The visit highlighted the importance of city-to-city partnerships as a platform for accelerating opportunities for innovation and investment. The visit was supported with funding from the Birmingham and Solihull Export Support Programme: the creative use of Shared Prosperity Funding has helped bridge the gap for small and medium businesses looking to explore and expand into new international markets.