Mayor to be at Level Up event in Newcastle on June 27

Kim McGuinness, the newly-elected Mayor of the North East Combined Authority, is to be the keynote guest at a Northern Echo event.

The Echo's Level Up campaign, which works with some of the region's most influential businesses to call for more jobs and investment across the North East, holds a number of live events each year, discussing key themes.

On June 27 Kim McGuinness will be joining us in Newcastle to discuss the first 50 days of her leadership and talk to businesses about what they hope to see from the new administration.

As well as Kim's own unique insight, we will be discussing the issue of devolution more widely with our panel, drawn from the Level Up partners bp, believe housing, Cummins, Darlington Building Society, Durham County Council, North East Chamber of Commerce, Tees Valley Combined Authority, Teesside Airport, razorblue and our hosts Womble Bond Dickinson.

Devolution is the biggest gamechanger for UK politics in a generation – true power being given to the regions who know how to best use it.

In the North East we already have Tees Valley Combined Authority with Ben Houchen returning for a third term, and now there are new leaders and new potential with Kim in the North East and David Skaith at the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority.

So much change, but what does it mean for our businesses?

We will be at WBD's stunning Spark offices for the morning, followed by a networking lunch. Details of the event and how to get your ticket are at bit.ly/levelupkimmcguinness.

The BUSINESSiQ Eventbrite page at bit.ly/echoeventbrite also has details of other Level Up events still to come, including September 26 when we will be at Cummins in Darlington looking at the North East as a global capital of technology and December 12 when we visit the new Hopetown railway heritage attraction in Darlington to look back at the 2024 business year and reveal some highlights coming up in 2025.