Downtown Manchester in Business recently hosted an exclusive event at Innside by Melia, Manchester. The event entitled ‘In Conversation with Joanne Roney’ discussed the past year and looked ahead at bringing Manchester, a city that’s had its struggles fighting COVID, out of the pandemic stronger than before. Joanne spoke about putting a focus on the business community and how the city council are going to support the regions businesses and ensure Manchester keeps its title as the Second City.
Joanne Roney stated that ‘15,000 people are still furloughed, so there are bits of business support still hanging around for people to utilise. The emergency of the pandemic isn’t formally declared as being ‘over’ but we are looking at what businesses need support and prioritising.’
Joanne continued that ‘It is great to see that construction is flying in the city, with certain other sectors in the city thriving, too. However, in seeing 7,900 jobs advertised in Manchester at the moment, we are seeing an increased need for digital training, so this is no longer now a financial discussion in funding jobs, this is a discussion around increasing digital training and helping people into work.’
Joanne rounded off the evenings lively discussion answering questions from our guests, primarily around transport and the clean air agenda, and lastly, increasing attraction into the city centre, more so with young people. Joanne stated ‘We need the help of the people and businesses within the city to help us pull together resources we can and help young people and welcome them into the city, but also help to develop their skills for the future.’
Thank you to Innside by Melia for hosting our wonderful evening, In Conversation with Joanne Roney, and to our evenings sponsors, Sutcliffe.
For information about future downtown event contact heather.thornton@downtowninbusiness.com
