Liverpool business in confident mood!

By Frank Mckenna on Jul 2, 08 04:04 PM

Last week Downtown Liverpool in Business, in association with the Northwest Development Agency, Noname Kitchens, Brabners Chaffe Street, City Talk and Grant Thornton, organised 'Liverpool Business Week.'
The week consisted of a series of high profile events, with decision makers and opinion formers addressing more than 400 business leaders throughout the programme.

The thing that stood out most for me was the confidence that the private sector now has in itself, and in its city.
From a presentation by Liverpool Football Club's Commercial Director, Ian Ayre, about the Reds new stadium, through to Phil Redmond's report back on a positive six months of activity during this, our capital of culture year, there was an optimism and spring in the step of the Liverpool business community that cannot have been witnessed since our forefathers were building the second city of the empire!
Despite the economic downturn currently affecting the UK, Liverpool's entrepreneurs are in buoyant mood.
And along with that confidence comes ambition. Gone are the days when people have given up on catching up with Manchester. We now want to surpass them. Or, as David Wade Smith put it 'Do to them what Tesco did to Sainsbury's.'
The private sector also wants to celebrate the city name. Liverpool IS the brand. Let's get rid of the 'M' word once and for all. Merseyside means nothing to anyone, so why do we persist in using the term in our marketing and promotional campaigns?
But are our civic leaders as ambitious as we are? Do they share our confidence, and indeed, can they be as bullish as we need them to be if Liverpool is to reclaim its place as the second city of England?
Warren Bradley's forthright presentation during the week was well received, but is the city region singing from the same hymn sheet, or are we still likely to see Liverpool's growth stymied by internecine warfare across city region boundaries, and indeed within the City Council itself?
An early test will be the 2010 Shanghai Expo which Liverpool has been invited to take part in. Outside of London, we are the only UK city to have this wonderful opportunity of showcasing ourselves to 70m people at an event that goes on for six months.
To do the job properly will need an investment of around £5 million. Small beer compared to the benefits that could be derived, but do we have a political leadership that will see the bigger picture?
Put another way, will the recently established city region 'super cabinet' demonstrate that they are as confident and ambitious about the place they are leading as we in the private sector are?