Plans for a new-look, revamped Liverpool International Business Festival have been announced, with a £3m investment set to be made by the combined authority.
The festival, the fourth of its kind, is set to take place in 2020, and will feature a "good business" concept, which has been developed following a "creative design exercise".
That will explore how firms can maximise social benefits, with a focus on engaging Liverpool residents and organisations and attracting an international business audience.
Previous versions of the event took place in 2014, 2016 and 2018, and a report going to the combined authority's monthly meeting next week recommends that a delivery partner be commissioned to deliver a "new-look festival, delivered across multiple venues around the city region".
Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, said: “These are exciting plans that, if approved, would build on the success of previous business festivals that we have supported as a Combined Authority.
“Clearly there are lot of details yet to be decided but these are very exciting new ideas for the festival that would see businesses and civic society coming together to explore how we can maximise the social impact of investment and business activity.
“The concept of a dispersed festival, using venues across the whole city region, also has huge potential to engage with local people and organisations in an innovative way, whilst also attracting an international audience."
The combined authority said previous festivals attracted "tens of thousands" of business people from more than 100 countries and generated hundreds of millions of pounds of investment for UK firms.
Asif Hamid MBE, Portfolio Holder for Business Support and Brexit, said: “The International Business Festival has helped to raise the profile of the City Region with tens of thousands of businesses over recent years.
"It is important that we take the opportunity to build on that legacy in a way that actively involves and benefits our local businesses.
"This new approach looks very promising and should enable us to build on previous experience and successes, while developing an innovative approach that will involve the whole of the city region.”
