Member Article

Tees Valley needs to sell itself more effectively

Tees Valley businesses need to be “on-message” when it comes selling the region, concluded a panel and audience debate of Tees’ businesses.

A debate at the recent Tees Valley Business Summit, chaired by the BBC’s Steph McGovern looked at how the Tees Valley businesses can collaborate to drive growth.

DigitalCity boss, Mark Elliott said the region had to get better at selling itself on the national and international scene.

Mr Elliott said: “The media likes to focus on a lot of the rusting stuff up here - but it’s old stuff. We need to focus on the new too.”

PD Ports Group boss David Robinson pointed towards the North West as a good example of how a region can effectively communicate its achievements and assets.

He said: “The Tees Valley Unlimited LEP is doing some great work, and now that we’ve got that accountability in the region, we need to find a way to get collaboration between private sector and public sector to get this growth issue solved.

“How we interact with London is key and we have to get the banks, parliament and industry to understand what Teesside has to offer.”

One audience member suggested the region had suffered identity issues due to years of rebranding, having previously been referred to as Teesside, Cleveland and now Tees Valley.

Further to this, Steph McGovern asked the panel if Middlesbrough’s missed city status had any bearing on identity.

Mr Robinson replied: “We do need consistency in our label, and once we’ve settled on it, we should stop the debate.

“The important thing is that we come together as single thinking unit of people to deliver our ambitions. The area’s great strength is the connectivity of industry and we need to use this to our advantage in selling to our neighbouring regions.

“I’m not just talking about the North East. To the south, there is five million people living along the M62 corridor to Leeds and Manchester, and that’s a key market for Teesside in terms of our distribution.”

Mark Elliott later pointed out that it had taken around 70 years to fully develop Silicon Valley and urged the audience to think about growing as opposed to the brand.

If you’re a business or resident in the area, let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .