White City Place was delighted to welcome Capital West London to The Studio of WestWorks building for their Growth and Trade event. Capital West London is a partnership between the seven West London local authorities, whose aim is to bring a new cross-borough approach to driving economic prosperity and business growth across the sub region. The growth and trade event brought together businesses and individuals from West London to help provide insight into procurement opportunities, trading internationally, apprenticeships & skills and business.

The event began with a lunch and networking in WestWorks before moving into The Studio for a series of presentations and panel discussions. The presentations started with a intro from Katharine Glass from Capital West London, who explained the genesis of Capital West London and described the huge untapped potential for business prosperity and economic growth in West London.

Next were two presentations from two of the largest employers in the region. Firstly, Judy Chan, Procurement Manager, from Westfield described to the audience Westfield’s procurement model for IT services, offering detailed information on the process and advising how local business’ could bid for a tender. Then, Gerard Smith, Interim Head of Economic Development at Heathrow Airport gave a presentation on Heathrow, its planned expansion and the tender process they are undergoing to build the third runway.

The event then moved into a panel discussion with individuals from local organisations and establishments who discussed the availability of local apprenticeships and business support programmes in the region before ending with a brief introduction from a member of each of the seven boroughs with in the Capital West London alliance.

The event concluded with networking drinks in the main foyer area, which gave an opportunity for the audience to discuss their learnings from the day and to meet other business people from within West London.