Taking place across the Liverpool city region in October and March, the Good Business Festival is the replacement for the International Business Festival. Tony McDonough reports
Details of Liverpool city region’s first ‘Good Business Festival’ – the replacement for the International Business Festival – have been revealed.
Household business names such as Coca Cola, Mastercard, Liverpool Football Club, frozen food retailer Iceland and the British Fashion Council are all taking part in the festival which will be held several months apart.
‘Act 1’ takes place on Thursday, October 8, and ‘Act 2’ across three days on March 2, 3,4, 2021. The Good Business Festival is part of a global movement that believes in the power of business to affect positive change. Environmental group Greenpeace has also agreed to take part.
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a sharp focus on the role and responsibility of business in broader society, in the face of great societal and economic upheaval, and in response, the festival aims to show leadership and continuity during the global challenge.
In 2014, 2016, and 2018, Liverpool hosted the International Business Festival, each time taking place over several weeks and welcoming tens of thousands of people from across the world.
The Good Business Festival hopes to have a similar impact over a much shorter period and will feature a mix of “hard-hitting talks”, workshops, knowledge sessions, fringe events and social experiences.
It promises to host “content you wouldn’t expect in places you haven’t been” and will utilise the city region’s workplaces and warehouses, temporary pop-ups to heritage sites – described as “an imaginative mix of arts, culture and business”.
Its is an international festival curated by Culture Liverpool and Hemingway Design, on behalf of Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram. Mr Rotheram said: “The Coronavirus crisis has given us the opportunity to think about the kind of world we want to live in and there can be no return to business as usual.
“In the Liverpool city region we’re looking to build the UK’s fairest, greenest and most inclusive local economy, with a particular focus on inclusive growth and community wealth building.
“That means ensuring that local communities really feel the benefit from investment, with good-quality jobs and fair wages. We’ll need to do things differently, and the Good Business Festival is a fantastic way to showcase our region as a radical leader for ethical, values-driven businesses.”
The Good Business festival will use Act 1 to enable, support and galvanise its network and its audience to develop real, change-making initiatives and pledges in the aftermath of the crisis, and then leverage Act 2 in 2021 to bring everyone together to openly discuss those commitments.
Liverpool FC chief executive, Peter Moore, added: “We are living through a period of unprecedented times during this global pandemic and the way businesses adapt to new environments is critical to their future success.
“At Liverpool Football Club our priority has, and always will be, the health and wellbeing of our people, the local community and supporters. We have a local heart with a global pulse and our values remain strong throughout and beyond the pandemic. The ambitions of the Good Business Festival align with ours, and we are excited to be a part of something which is focused on generating more for business by doing the right thing.”
Click here to see how you can get involved with the Good Business Festival