Chamber Patrons Chamber Patrons Greater Birmingham Chambers’ leading supporters In Brief
The new Birmingham Conservatoire has been announced as the leading venue next year’s BBC Young Musician competition as the contest prepares to celebrate its 40th anniversary. Following the regional auditions later this year, Birmingham Conservatoire will host the category finals between and 20 March alongside the semi-final on 23 March. All performances in Birmingham will be recorded for broadcast on BBC Four.
Birmingham Conservatoire’s
new £57m home, opening in the Eastside region of the city in September, will also welcome the BBC Young Musician Jazz Award Final in 2018. Professor Julian Lloyd
Webber, principal of Birmingham Conservatoire, said: “Birmingham Conservatoire will be the first fully-digital music college and it is a tribute to our wonderful new facilities that the BBC has chosen us to host its iconic competition which has launched the careers of so many of the UK’s top soloists.”
The NEC Group has been announced as Large Company Management Team of the Year (Midlands) at the 2017 British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA) Management Team Awards in Birmingham. The awards, now in their ninth
year, are an annual celebration of UK companies, recognising and rewarding brilliant businesses that have been backed by UK private equity and venture capital investors. NEC Group chief executive
Paul Thandi said: “Our driver for external investment was to realise our business plan and beyond. “Deliverability and pace are
essential for us in responding to market opportunities, and bringing on board an external investor with the experience and breadth of LDC has brought a renewed energy and confidence to our teams and business, which has been essential in our progress.” As regional winners, the NEC
Group will now represent the Midlands in the national final at the BVCA gala dinner in London on 30 November.
24 CHAMBERLINK July/August 2017
HSBC has launched a £1bn lending fund to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the West Midlands, as part of a broader commitment to helping British businesses realise their ambitions for growth. The fund is part of a wider £10b fund for SMEs
across the UK. HSBC continues to be open to lending, having
approved 91 per cent of small business lending applications in the last year. Martin Hanson, HSBC’s regional director for the Midlands, said: “The launch of this fund reaffirms our commitment to support the growth of West Midlands based SMEs of all sizes, from start-ups to established businesses. “We have so many ambitious businesses in our
region who are keen to grow locally, nationally and internationally. This fund is all about helping those businesses make investments that will enable them to achieve their goals while stimulating our local economy and creating jobs.” A major focus of this year’s fund is to encourage
small businesses to feel confident about exploring opportunities for export. A 2016 FSB Report found that one-in-five (21 per cent) small businesses currently export, but there is potential to double this figure with the right support.
Contact: Henrietta Brealey T: 0121 607 1898
HSBC launches £1bn fund to support local businesses
HSBC’s 2017 SME Fund and broader package of
support includes: • A £10bn UK-wide fund for SMEs, allocated regionally across the UK.
• A free banking offer of up to 18 months for start-ups and 12 months for switchers.
• A fixed-price £5.50 monthly account tariff to commence at the end of a customer’s initial free banking period.
• A Personal Guarantee Fee of just £10 for any lending facility above £10,000.
• The Business Lending Eligibility Checker (BLEC) – an online tool offering potential new customers a credit decision in principle for loans of up to £30,000 in under two minutes.
• A free text alert service for informal overdrafts, which will help customers avoid paying informal overdraft fees and interest.
• Services such as the Parental Leave Support Package help our customers to grow their business, knowing they can be prepared for changes in their businessS
• Access to HSBC Connections Hub to help our customers connect, and build relationships, with HSBC Business customers from across the globe.
Museum pictures success at awards
Young artists from King Edward VI High School for Girls, Edgbaston, have been taking part in a sketching project at the ground- breaking Lapworth Museum of Geology at Birmingham University for the prestigious Art Fund Museum of the Year Award. The Lapworth Museum is one of
five high-profile venues, including the Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Gallery and the Tate, shortlisted for the £100,000 award, the biggest museum prize in the world. Groups of KEHS students have
visited the museum regularly, sketching and painting exhibits and developing coursework projects. “We’re a science museum – the
only one on the Art Fund shortlist,” said Anna Chrystal, the Lapworth Museum’s learning and community development officer, “But our collection has inspired a lot of artwork. The standard of work the girls are producing is absolutely phenomenal and we hope that this will show the judges how successful we’ve been at interlinking art and science and inspiring young people.”
Felicity Dean, 17, sketching fossilised bird skeletons at the Lapworth Museum
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