Leaders of arts and business meet at summit

11 June 2015

Leaders and practitioners from the worlds of business and the arts will be meeting to examine critical issues affecting the future of business, community development and civic responsibility at a major conference on 26 June 2015.

The annual Birmingham CSR summit at Aston Business School brings together senior executives and CSR managers from the region’s business community with leaders from the public and voluntary sectors.

This year’s theme is “Reversing the Value Chain: what can the arts and creative sector bring to business and community.”

The keynote speaker is Ann Drew, director of Arts & Business at Business in the Community. Ann recently joined Arts & Business, having previously worked for over 16 years with UBS, handling the bank’s global arts and sports sponsorship programmes.

Carole Parkes, director of social responsibility and sustainability at Aston Business School said: “The conference will be challenging the perception that social responsibility is a one-way street down which corporate responsibility activity flows from corporates to the community, voluntary sector and arts organisations, with little flowing in the opposite direction.

“We will demonstrate how arts organisations actually have and bring immense value and social benefit to society, including the corporate sector.”

The summit programme also includes:

• a business sector panel debate chaired by Anita Bhalla OBE. Known to many during her time as Head of Public Space Broadcasting at the BBC, Anita is currently chair of the Creative City Partnership and is a director of the Greater Birmingham & Solihull LEP.
• arts in the community workshops featuring Geese Theatre Group and the Ikon Gallery.
• Birmingham art pop-up vignettes, including an update on the Birmingham Big Art Project and opportunities to learn about some of the international community art initiatives undertaken by Aston Business School students.

The fee for attending the conference is £45 including lunch. Visit the Aston Business School website for more information, contact Maria Podsiadly by email to m.podsiadly@aston.ac.uk or call Maria on 0121 204 3368.

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