Aerospace Up! week: Thursday: New business -- opportunity creation

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Welcome to the fourth day of our "Aerospace Up! week."

To register for the day, please see below (you need to register for each day separately). 

What is Aerospace UP?

This event is being delivered through the new Aerospace Unlocking Potential (Aerospace UP) programme, which supports the aerospace supply chain in the Midlands by helping to unlock its potential to be even more innovative. Aerospace UP is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (funding guaranteed by HM Government), until 2022.

Aerospace UP is aimed at giving SMEs across the Midlands grants and the combined expertise of the University of Nottingham, one of Europe's best aerospace universities and the Midlands Aerospace Alliance (MAA), one of the world's biggest aerospace cluster bodies, to improve their business through innovation in all aspects of their enterprise.

It is a coincidence that Aerospace UP is starting just as the Coronavirus emergency has started to seriously impact the aerospace industry.

What is Aerospace UP week?

The University and the MAA have been organising a weekly "Aerospace Up! hour" virtual meeting since March 2020, which has been an introduction to the programme, including exploring how the Coronavirus emergency is affecting the aerospace industry in the Midlands.

• The MAA has now launched a 5-point plan to help to rescue and recover aerospace supply chains in the Midlands hit by the Coronavirus. The 5 points encompass People, Finance, Supply Chain, New Business and Innovation. Aerspace Up hour will continue, but we are now organising a whole week of virtual meetings to help us all
• discuss the challenges facing the industry in more depth
• hear about how other companies and experts are working towards the 5-point plan
• how the Aerospace UP programme can offer further support to businesses.*

*To qualify for funded project support, your business must:

• Operate in one of the following eight Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas: Black Country, Coventry and Warwickshire, Greater Birmingham and Solihull (includes northern Worcestershire), Stoke and Staffordshire, D2N2 (Derby and Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, SEMLEP (Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Northern Buckinghamshire), Greater Lincolnshire or Leicester and Leicestershire.
• Employ fewer than 250 people
• Have an annual turnover of less than 50 million euros
• Complete an SME enrolment form

Thursday: New business: opportunity creation 

On today's agenda, we'll be looking at the details of the new business pillar of the 5 point plan:

• We need to work together to continue to promote the Midlands aerospace industry and our manufacturing supercluster, demonstrating our diverse and advanced capabilities to a global market.
• It’s never been more important to share collective market intelligence, especially to support companies in the lower tiers of the industry that do not have the capabilities to grow this knowledge in-house.
• Companies may need to look closely at diversification and unlocking opportunities in new markets. We will be supporting initiatives to build ‘short supply chains’ in the UK to serve other market sectors – building on the lessons of the 'ventilator challenge' which saw 40 Midlands aerospace companies make and deliver hundreds of thousands of parts for this sophisticated medical equipment in a matter of days.
• We will be developing a virtual business development toolbox to enable companies to open doors while travel and face-to-face meetings are restricted. These could transform the way we do business forever, making it much more efficient and cost-effective to create opportunities longer-term.

And we'll be looking at how Aerospace UP can support companies to win new business by being innovative.

Please join us!

Beforehand

• You need to register for each day separately (see below). But the week is free for anyone to attend!
• You will be able to join this virtual meeting using Microsoft Teams. You can register right up to the start of the meeting. We will then send you a link to join.
• If you don't have Teams, you don't need special software, or to download anything, you will be able to join on the web in a couple of clicks; for any issues email pamela.farries@midlandsaerospace.org.uk

On the day

• Come along with your coffee! Arrive five minutes early if you can -- like a "real" meeting -- to help us start on time.
• You’ll be able to send us your questions and comments during the meeting.
• There will be a break in the middle of the meeting.
• You can stay behind afterwards to say hello, chill, network, ask questions, as you normally would.
• (All that's missing is the biscuits and lunch!)
• Questions beforehand?: email MAA Technology Manager pamela.farries@midlandsaerospace.org.uk. 

Register now!