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Dates have been announced for the sixth annual Leicestershire Innovation Festival, which will take place at venues across the city and county over two weeks in February.

The Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP), which runs the festival, has confirmed that the annual festival will be staged from Monday 5 February to Friday 16 February. Âéw¶¹´«Ã½ Leicester (Âéw¶¹´«Ã½) is a proud headline partner for the festival.

The fortnight will include the flagship LeicestershireLive Innovation Awards - run by festival media partner Reach PLC - on the evening of Thursday 15 February.

Organisers are already in talks with potential partners for both the festival and the awards.

Dr Nik Kotecha OBE DL, Chair of the LLEP Innovation Board, said: “We’re aiming to significantly build on the huge success of this year’s festival and our detailed planning is already underway.

“Discussions are advancing with representatives of Reach and a host of other public and private organisations for sponsorship.

“We’re actively developing ideas and growing our partnerships - to make the 2024 Leicestershire Innovation Festival our best and biggest yet.”

Last year’s festival was the biggest to date, attracting 1,200 registrations across the course of the festival fortnight.

Sixteen of the events were in-person at venues across city and county, including HQ Recording, Charnwood Campus, MIRA Technology Park, and the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC).

Event hosts included Innovate UK, Leicester Startups, British Business Bank, BeGreat Consulting, and Ruth Coalson Consulting.

Meanwhile, the Innovation Awards sold out the National Space Centre in February 2023 as Indro Mukerjee, Chief Executive of Innovate UK, delivered a memorable keynote speech.

Earlier in the day, Mr Mukerjee toured Space Park Leicester, met representatives of the University of Leicester, and attended a meeting of the LLEP Innovation Board in order to learn more about opportunities in the region.

Tom Pegden, Business Editor, BusinessLive East Midlands, said: “We are looking forward to working with our innovation partners to build on the sell-out success we saw at the awards earlier this year.”

Innovation is a key pillar of the LLEP’s Economic Growth Strategy through to 2030.

The LLEP Innovation Board is developing a Delivery Strategy to use innovation to increase regional productivity. It launched the Innovative Leicestershire brand as part of this year’s festival.

Anyone wanting to learn about sponsoring or participating in Leicestershire Innovation Festival 2024  LLEP Economic Strategy Manager Irshad Mulla.

To sponsor the LeicestershireLive Innovation Awards 2024, contact Alishia Read, Reach’s Key Account Partnerships Director, at alishia.read@reachplc.com