Innovation, making productivity gains and empowering the workforce were among themes explored by the region’s businesses at the East Midlands Future Flux Economic and Innovation Conference on 28th November.
Sponsored by RandalSun Capital and De Montfort University, which also hosted the event, a series of talks and panel discussions sought to reflect on performance of the East Midlands economy across 2025 and identify opportunities for future growth.
East Midlands Chamber Director of Policy and Insight Richard Blackmore shared key asks to political leaders from the Chamber’s recently launched Framework for Growth, alongside research data gathered from firms across the region. Speaking afterwards he said: “Research carried out by the Chamber across 2025 has continually shown a sense of fragile confidence among businesses in the region and getting firms, the education sector, economic experts together in one place starts conversations, builds ideas and helps navigate the economic pressures collectively faced.
“Holding this conference in the same week that the Chamber’s Framework for Growth for the East Midlands was released – a landmark document setting out key asks to political leaders across are areas like infrastructure, innovation, skills investment and planning – made the event all the more timely.
“That document outlines what the region needs to enable growth and a conference that unpicks the economic challenges and explores opportunities firms have identified with sharing of research data, insight from academics and from the Bank of England is extremely useful in achieving growth as we go forward.”
DMU Director of Research, Business and Innovation Helen Donnellan introduced the conference. Afterwards she said: “We wanted to partner with the Chamber on this event because it’s so important for us to bring stakeholders together. We are all custodians of our place and we all have a role to play in economic growth within our place. That economic growth is only going to come through more and more collaboration. The more we collaborate, the more we innovate.
“The opportunity to have these events, to innovate in small circles and engage more people, the better we are. Leicester and Leicestershire currently has a form of isolation around having wider discussions because there are very few organisations that have cut across the whole East Midlands and its geographical span. The Chamber is a key organisation that has the ability to bring people together and talk about things in a strategic context.”
RandalSun Capital Founder and Chairman Dr Nik Kotecha OBE DL gave a talk on driving prosperity through innovation and enterprise.Speaking afterwards he said: “I’m really thankful to the Chamber for putting this conference on. It’s so important for businesses and for voluntary sectors to come together and collaborate. We heard so much at the conference on collaboration. That’s how things move. That’s how things change. It was great to have universities, the public sector and funding bodies, as well as the private sector in one place, with all sorts of different businesses from SMEs to large corporates.
“Having a forum where we can talk – and this event was all about innovation and productivity – is a really powerful strength. It’s been a challenging year for business and we’re seeing that through the economic data that the Chamber gets from its members. We saw that with investment, hiring people, investing in machinery; all those things down.
“It was a difficult Budget last year and I think people are still suffering with that but with the Budget that’s just happened, the positive is that it’s finished. There was so much talk, so much ambiguity, so much that we didn’t know might happen. The fact we now know where we are means we can hope to have a year of stability. That allows business to plan, so I’m positive for 2026. Business will do what they do. We’ve got to get on, we’ve got to innovate and if we start seeing economic growth, that will really start stabilising.”
Bank of England Deputy Agent for the East Midlands Dr Jamie Jordan shared insight on inflationary performance and economic outlook for the region. Speaking afterwards he said: “Discussions about scale are really interesting and while the business community and all organisations have their own interests, what’s really evident in these discussions is there’s much more that joins them together. These discussions are really important to get a unified sense of what needs to happen to improve our prospects economically.
“Our eternal mission at the Bank of England is to ensure we have stability in the economy around the financial sector in terms of prices but there is the element of trying to inform people to help them understand decisions, like the environment in which decisions are made.
“There are headwinds in the economy. We still remain a little in the thick of it but there is always opportunity, so while there may be headwinds and uncertainty, there’s an element of how you can turn that to your advantage – it’s always worth asking that question to then try and pursue opportunity.
“It’s always amazing in all the discussions I have just how much creativity and novelty there is, even in difficult times.”
East Midlands Chamber former President Stuart Dawkins chaired a panel discussion on the conditions needed to support economic growth in the region. Speaking afterwards he said: “It’s always important to bring not just businesses but academia and the bodies that speak on their behalf like the Chamber. It’s doubly or trebly important for somewhere like the East Midlands, a region that is not understood, that’s underfunded by central Government and arguably underinvested in by everyone.
“The region doesn’t help itself by not having a political structure but there were very firm views in the room that our region has strengths and we need to shout about them. The only way we’re going to do that is by getting people together. The Chamber provides a good catalyst for that and can be the megaphone for that.”
Turner and Townsend Director and Chair of the East Midlands Chamber Derbyshire Members Forum Mark Deakin took part in a panel discussion on economic performance and prospects. Speaking afterwards he said: “Getting people talking about the economy, the region and how we can make it better post-Budget is a good opportunity to put positives into what was quite a nondescript Budget.
While the word growth was used many a time in the Budget, the ability to grow and a sense of confidence probably hasn’t come out of the Budget but business thrives on confidence.”
Digital Planning Chief Executive James Ferraby took part in a panel discussion on innovation for growth. Speaking afterwards he said: “I wanted to be at the conference as I wanted to hear what other businesses are doing, their ideas, insights, not necessarily just in response to the Budget but in response to the market in the real world, outside what we think is happening. What are people actually doing? Are there ideas we can learn from, can we share anything we’re doing to help the region as a whole?”
Speakers and Panelists at the 2025 Future Flux Conference:
- Dr Nik Kotecha OBE DL – Founder and Chairman, RandalSun Capital
- Dr Jamie Jordan – Deputy Agent for the East Midlands, Bank of England
- Prof Rachel Granger – Professor for Urban Economies, De Montfort University
- Helen Donnellan – Director of Research, Business and Innovation, De Montfort University
- Prof Mohamed Shaban – Professor of Finance and FinTech, University of Leicester
- Alex Hudson – Market Senor Partner for the East Midlands, PwC
- Ben Pykett – Partner for the East Midlands, PwC
- James Silverward – Regional Manager for the East Midlands, UKRI
- Dr Gareth Thomas – LSIP Stakeholder Engagement Lead, Pro Excellence Partnership
- James Ferraby – Chief Executive, Digital Planning
- Dawn Whitemore – President, East Midlands Chamber
- Dr Cham Kang – Vice-President, East Midlands Chamber
- Stuart Dawkins – Former President, East Midlands Chamber
- Richard Blackmore – Director of Policy and Insight, East Midlands Chamber
- Mark Deakin – Director, Turner and Townsend
