Organisers of the sixth annual have welcomed the easing of lockdown as they announced their 2020 plans.
Applications have now opened for events to be included in almost two weeks of activities, which this year runs from November 2 to 13.
As the regional, national and global economies deal with a huge hit from the pandemic, festival directors have said they want it to play a part in getting business moving forwards again.
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And they said arrangements will be in place to allow the festival to be adaptable depending on the Government guidelines in five month’s time.
Previous years have featured more than 100 events.
This year there will be options to run digital events as well as physical ones, depending on the nature of the lockdown at the time, or a combination of the two with the physical events live-streamed.
Alister de Ternant is managing director of Associate Events, the Leicester agency managing the LBF programme.
He said: “We feel that now is the right time to open up the applications to host events in the festival.
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“People will be looking for an injection of optimism and the LBF is the perfect medium for this.
“Without knowing exactly how the land will lie in November, we have adapted the LBF to accommodate different eventualities.
“We know that digital events have the capacity to work very well for seminars and presentations, but this format could also lend itself very well to events such as ‘behind the scenes’ factory tours, where companies can demonstrate and promote their capabilities, for example.
“The LBF is embracing new ways of working and we would like to encourage businesses to do this same, capitalising on what the Leicester Business Festival can offer to re-engage, re-activate and promote themselves.”
Helen Donnellan, director of business engagement at festival headline partner De Montfort University, said: “The LBF has been a brilliant resource that has been a part of the Leicestershire businesses community for the past five years and I am pleased it will remain as a compelling feature in the business calendar.
“Here at DMU we absolutely recognise the potential of the festival in helping to revitalise and re-unify the business community.
“We are proud to be a part of such an important initiative that is supporting, re-igniting and driving re-engagement amongst businesses across Leicester and Leicestershire as we emerge from this incredibly difficult period.”
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To run an event, businesses should by September 1 and fill in an application form.
The first Leicester Business Festival was organised by the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership in 2015 and management was handed over to the Leicester Business Festival Community Interest Company in 2017.