Top speakers have been lined up for the region’s biggest investment and regeneration event, taking place in Derby next week. The 2023 Derby Property Summit will be held at Reach Events, in Pride Park, on Wednesday, July 12.
More than 250 people are expected to attend the event, including business leaders, key decision-makers and investors from across the region and beyond. The central theme this year will be the big issue of curating cities to make them fit for people and businesses in the future.
The summit is being organised by Queen's Award-winning investment promotion agency Marketing Derby and will once again be hosted by BBC and LBC business journalist Declan Curry.
Entitled ‘From Customer to Citizen – The Collective Curation of Cities’, this year’s event will explore how we can shape the future of our cities by working together. It will also will give an insight into Derby’s investment pipeline and key schemes that are underway and planned.
The line-up of keynote speakers, who will give their perspectives on what it will take to shape our cities going forward, will include Melanie Leech CBE, chief executive of the British Property Federation, which represents UK companies involved in property ownership and investment.
Regarded as the voice of the UK property industry, the BPF works with the government and other regulatory bodies to help the real estate industry grow and thrive. Melanie’s role as chief executive is to champion a diverse, successful and sustainable UK real estate sector.
Also speaking will be Professor Yolande Barnes, chair of the Bartlett Real Estate Institute, which is based at University College London (UCL). It is part of The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, and is a global institute that is rethinking the traditional view of real estate.
Another keynote speaker will be Robbie Jones, insights director at Derby-based themed attractions designer Katapult. The firm works with major theme parks across the world, designing new experiences. Closer to home, the company has recently been working with Down to Earth Derby, to help it realise its vision for a nature-led regeneration of the city centre.
And finally, in his major public speech since becoming leader of Derby City Council, Councillor Baggy Shanker will be taking to the stage to set out his goals for the city over his next four years in office.
There will also be a panel debate featuring Paul Simpson, the city council’s chief executive, who has been helping to take Derby’s investment message both national and international by accompanying Marketing Derby’s investment team to events such this year’s MIPIM and UKREiiF.
He will be joined on the panel by Alex Hudson, market senior partner for PwC East Midlands.
In May, PwC published its latest Good Growth for Cities Index, in which Derby was named as the best ‘all-rounder’ for growth.
Also taking part in the panel debate will be Tom Ketteringham, chief of staff at the Great British Railways Transition Team.
Earlier this year, it was announced that Derby had been selected to be the new home of GBR, which was major coup for the city.
Also joining the panel will be Donna Smith, sales director at Wavensmere Homes – the company behind the Nightingale Quarter residential scheme – and the chosen developer for the regeneration of the derelict Friar Gate Goods Yard.
John Forkin MBE, managing director of Marketing Derby, said: “Cities are key drivers of economic growth, yet many require radical transformation following the digital revolution and Covid-19 pandemic.
“This year’s Derby Property Summit will look at how we can shape the future of our cities by working collaboratively.”
Now in its 11th year, the Derby Property Summit is the largest investment and regeneration event in the Midlands.
For more information about the Derby Property Summit, visit marketingderby.co.uk.
