Annual Edition
Leaders Per Summit
Keynote Speakers
Day. Maximum Impact.
See It For Yourself
500 leaders. One room. One day a year. This is what it looks like when the Midlands gathers to set its agenda.
About the Summit
“The only event that is truly regional, a PAN-regional forum bringing the best of East and West together.”
Ninder Johal DL, Chair
The Midlands Engine economy, every year.
Larger than Denmark's economy. Larger than Portugal's. The UK's second engine, and underinvested by £102.1bn since 2005.
The Midlands Economic Summit is the largest pan-regional forum in the region. Each year it brings together 500 people from business, academia and the public sector, drawn from across the East and West Midlands. There is no other event that does this.
It runs for one day. There are keynotes, policy panels and time to talk. The point is that the right people are in the same building, and the conversations that happen here tend to be ones that actually go somewhere.
Hear directly from the people allocating capital, setting policy and building businesses in a region that accounts for 22% of England’s exports.
Sit in the same room as the ministers, combined authority leaders and senior officials who are setting the region’s economic direction.
The people you want to know are here. It is one of the few genuinely pan-regional gatherings in the UK, which makes the connections a bit more useful than most.
Who Attends
You will hear things here before they appear in a press release. The conversations about where capital is going, which sectors are worth watching and where the infrastructure spend is landing happen in this room.
If you want to understand how policy is landing on the ground, this is a good place to find out. The room is full of people who will tell you, directly, what is working and what is not.
The connections here tend to be warmer than most. People come because they want to talk. One conversation at lunch has led to more than a few partnerships.
The gap between what universities produce and what businesses and policymakers actually use is a real problem. This is one of the few places where both sides sit in the same room and talk seriously.
Previous Speakers
Shown: 2025 Summit speakers
Chair
Keynote Speaker
GBCC
Midlands Connect
CBI
Keynote Speaker
Keynote Speaker
Keynote Speaker
Academic
Keynote Speaker
Programme
15 June 2026 · The Vox Conference Centre, Birmingham · Full programme to be announced
Arrival & Refreshments
Registration from 08:30. Networking from the moment you arrive.
Opening Keynote
Economic Global Context. Speaker to be confirmed.
Panel: Global Disruption
How the Midlands navigates a fractured global economy.
Panel: Regional Resilience
Energy, infrastructure and supply chain stability.
Networking Lunch
Included with all tickets.
Panel: The Productivity Paradox
Closing the £86.3bn productivity gap through investment and skills development.
Panel: AI & Tech Disruption
AI adoption across manufacturing, logistics and professional services.
Keynote: Policy & Investment
Senior government speaker. To be confirmed.
Panel: Young People & Talent
Building the workforce the Midlands economy needs.
Plenary & Event Close
Closing summary and reflections on the day.
This Year's Theme
The 2026 Summit focuses on a few things the Midlands cannot afford to ignore. Globalisation as we knew it is fracturing, and the region's manufacturing and export base is exposed to that in specific ways. Productivity remains stubbornly low despite real potential. And AI is not a distant prospect any more; it is already changing how factories run and how logistics decisions get made.
The Midlands has the foundations. What it has lacked is a consistent, credible voice at national level. The Summit is an attempt to fix that.
Tariffs, reshoring and the fragmentation of global supply chains, and what that means for the Midlands’ export base.
How do we close the £86.3bn productivity gap? Innovation, skills, infrastructure investment and regional policy alignment.
From automotive automation to AI-assisted logistics, the technology is already here. The question is what to do with it.
Energy security, transport infrastructure and the long-term investment decisions the region needs to get right.
The Midlands Engine
The numbers make a reasonable case that the Midlands deserves more attention than it gets.
Annual Regional Economy
Larger than the entire economy of Denmark
Population
Within 4-hour drive of 92% of the UK
of England’s Exports
More than London and the South East combined
Businesses
48,000 new enterprise births in 2022 alone
Annual Goods Exported
2022–2023 financial year
Universities
21 high-tech science parks across the region
Investment Portfolio GDV
Potential to create 220,000 jobs
Additional GDP Potential
+8% regional growth achievable
Our Partners
Lead Partners
Supporting Partners
Want to partner with the Midlands Economic Summit 2026?
Partner With UsWhat People Say
"A genuinely important summit. The quality of the conversations, and the calibre of the room, is unlike anything else I attend in the region. This is where the real agenda gets set."
Senior Business Leader
FTSE 250 Company, West Midlands
"Finally, a pan-regional event that takes the Midlands seriously as an economic entity in its own right. The data, the speakers, the policy discussions: it is all at a genuinely high level."
Policy Director
Public Sector, East Midlands
"I’ve left every Midlands Economic Summit with at least three conversations I could not have had anywhere else. The networking alone justifies the day. The keynotes are a genuine bonus."
Founder & CEO
Scale-up, Midlands Tech Sector
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15 June 2026
The venue holds 550 people. The 2025 summit sold out. Tickets for 2026 are available now.
Lunch and refreshments included · The Vox Conference Centre, B40 1PU · 08:30–17:00
Midlands Economic Summit 2026
15 June · The Vox, Birmingham · Places are limited