The Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire has declared that securing investment for the region will be the benchmark for success following the county's Great Exhibition.
The gathering took place at Lincolnshire Showground, situated just north of Lincoln, on Wednesday.
Numerous enterprises and organisations from across the county showcased their operations through dedicated stands. Northern Lincolnshire was represented by British Steel, Alfred Enderby from Grimsby, and Humber Freeport.
The Great Exhibition featured not only an extensive range of business displays, including several culinary specialists, but also speaking sessions, an RAF Typhoon flypast and even a fashion presentation courtesy of Hunt and Hall. The speaker lineup included diplomatic representatives from nations such as Israel and Qatar, Conservative peer Baroness Sandip Verma, Reform º£½ÇÊÓƵ's policy chief Zia Yusuf, and via virtual connection, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham (Labour).
The Great Exhibition formed part of Dame Andrea Jenkyns' electoral pledges. In her opening address to attendees, she emphasised that her mayoral position involved long-term strategic planning to "futureproof our economy".
"Today is more than just plans, it's about investment and innovation," she declared. "We speak today with one voice and Lincolnshire is open for business. It's time to unleash the spirit of Lincolnshire.", reports .
When questioned about measuring the event's effectiveness, particularly regarding northern Lincolnshire, Dame Andrea stated: "Success to me is getting investment into our area.
"I've been working in the background with our chief exec, meeting the embassies over a number of months, and this is to really showcase what our county is about. This is about inward investment and ensuring for future generations our county can thrive."
Dame Andrea drew inspiration from the Great Exhibition of 1851, the international showcase held in London that celebrated industrial breakthroughs, for her vision of the event. "I'm very proud of the history of Lincolnshire and I wanted to showcase this," she said.
Lincolnshire's Great Exhibition featured a comprehensive poster display celebrating engineering and technological breakthroughs the county has contributed to over the past two centuries. "We are still inventing amazing things," said Dame Andrea.
"Today, we unveiled a new ag-tech robot, for example."
When questioned about the possibility of future events, she remarked: "It's that return of investment. We've had some great sponsors sponsor our event, which was wonderful. But success to me is actually getting investment into the area."
Northern Lincolnshire council leaders' views on the event.
"I have to say I'm very impressed," said North East Lincolnshire Council leader Cllr Philip Jackson on the event. "It's great that we're showcasing Greater Lincolnshire as a whole, I think everybody's done very well to pull this exhibition together in a relatively short amount of time.
"We've got a good showing here from the various industries in North East Lincolnshire," he added, with the likes of ABP, Orsted, and the seafood sector represented.
"From our perspective as a council, we'd never get round to all of the opportunities that there are without doing hundreds of miles of travelling, and maybe going to London, which I absolutely do not like to do," said North Lincolnshire Council leader, Cllr Rob Waltham. "It's good because you get to see lots of people under one roof and it's just about seizing the opportunity," he said, adding he had met commercial connections who intend to bring jobs to the area, which he intended to follow up and deliver on.
The Great Exhibition witnessed Dame Andrea warmly presenting her Greater Manchester colleague, Mr Burnham, as "a fantastic mayor" whom she admired as "outspoken". Mr Burnham committed that he and Liverpool's Mayor, Steve Rotheram, were prepared to assist Greater Lincolnshire on its "devolution journey".
"We will strongly support whatever it is that the Greater Lincolnshire Combined Authority want to argue for. We would support you having the same powers as Greater Manchester."
