6th December 2004
Hexagon Room, The Lowry, Salford [map]

		Sailing into the future With devolution dead and businesses in decline, the north-east of England is in need of a boost. Could broadband be the answer? Alex Greenwood reports Summary of the roundtable [view] Roundtable supplement [view PDF]
		Key speaker Richard Leese is Leader of Manchester City Council. He is a member of the board of the North West Development Agency and vicepresident of Eurocities. He is heavily involved in regeneration activity, and is on the board of the East Manchester Urban Regeneration Company. He is also chair of Manchester Airport Group's Shareholders' Committee.
		Key speaker Angie Robinson is chief executive of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce. Prior to the creation of the Greater Manchester Chamber, Angie was CEO of the Manchester Chamber for four years. Angie is also a director of North West Chambers Ltd, and is a member of the British Chambers of Commerce Accreditation Board. She holds a variety of board level positions in Manchester organisations and is the chair of Third Sector Enterprises.
		Facilitator With a career in journalism spanning thirty-five years, Trevor Green is an accomplished writer and broadcaster that currently appears regularly on Granada Television in the North West, and on the international satellite news channel Sky News. He is also a well-known presenter of Granada's flagship regional news programme Granada Reports.
		Participants Keith Barnes - Regional director, Government Office for the North-west Peter Connor - North-west regional manager, BT Brian Crouch - North-west regional director, BT Philip Dewhurst - Group director of corporate affairs, BNFL Barry Forde - Deputy director of information systems, Lancaster University Ben Hatton - Managing director, Rippleffect David Higham - Director of business, Government Office for the North-West Hugh Logan - Managing director, Your Communications Geoff Muirhead - Group chief executive, Manchester Airports Group Spencer Neal - Publisher, New Statesman Chris Newby - President, Knowledge Society Forum - TeleCities John O'Brien - Regional director, Business in the Community Gerry Pennell - ICT director, Co-operative Financial Services Ltd Geoffrey Robinson - Chairman, New Statesman Allison Seidlar - Head of broadband marketing, BT Wholesale Peter White - Director of strategy, North-west Development Agency