The Hull and East Yorkshire Growth Hub’s Business Growth Scheme will provide four local digital SMEs (small and medium businesses) with the opportunity to exhibit at a flagship business expo during Tech Week Humber.
Taking place on Tuesday 8 November at the MKM Stadium, the Tech Expo will see a range of organisations and speakers come together to exhibit their organisations and to present on a range of digital topics. The expo will also showcase the strength of the region’s digital sector and examine key issues such as digital skills, innovation, exporting and business growth.

The Growth Hub’s Business Growth Scheme is a gold partner of Tech Week Humber, after previously sponsoring the week in 2021. Having launched in 2019, Tech Week Humber is now a key part of Hull and East Yorkshire’s business calendar and attracts some of the world’s most influential tech companies such as IBM, Google, Oracle, Twitter, Facebook, and Apple.

The Growth Hub’s Business Growth Scheme provides support to enable SMEs to overcome barriers to growth, such as support to improve sales and marketing, support to identify and access new customers and markets, and advice to become more productive, efficient, and competitive. The scheme also helps businesses within certain key sectors to grow and to thrive, including the social enterprise sector, the visitor economy sector, and the digital sector amongst others.

The four SMEs exhibiting alongside the Growth Hub at the Tech Expo are Devine Marketing, a Hull-based digital marketing agency; IT Recycle Hub, a North Lincolnshire based start-up; RedFez, an IT support services provider in Hull; and Voittaa Ltd, a Smart technology developer, also based in Hull who will be launching their new Veribil product at the Expo, which uses smart RFID technology to enable a sustainable circular economy.

All four businesses have accessed the support of the Business Growth Scheme over recent weeks and attendance at the Tech Expo will further help them on their growth journeys. By exhibiting at the prestigious Tech Expo, it is hoped that the four SMEs will develop networking contacts, meet potential new clients and customers, and ultimate, win more work and generate more sales.

James Newman, Chair of the Hull and East Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “We are delighted to once again be sponsoring Tech Week Humber via our Growth Hub. The digital sector is a key sector in the Hull and East Yorkshire region and is a priority for further support and investment to enable its continued growth.

“The HEY LEP’s Economic Growth and Workforce Wellbeing strategy identifies the need to support, promote and nurture the ever-growing digital sector and ensure that digital skills are embedded throughout our workforce. Tech Week Humber provides a fantastic forum for key stakeholders to come together to examine the onward development of the sector in the region”.

Jon Brunton, HEY LEP Growth Hub Manager, said: “Our Business Growth Scheme has always set out to support SMEs to explore new customer groups and new market opportunities, and enabling four local digital firms to exhibit at the Tech Week Humber Expo exemplifies that.

“By helping our digital SMEs to become more effective at marketing their services, we can ensure that our digital sector wins more work which in turn will create business growth, create jobs, and further helps develop the digital sector in Hull and East Yorkshire.”

Further information on the HEY Growth Hub’s Business Growth Scheme can be found online: www.growmysme.co.uk/business-growth-scheme/.

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For all media enquiries, including interview opportunities, please contact with email to lucy.bannister@hullcc.gov.uk


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Notes to editors:
Growth Hubs and the Growth Hub Network
Get all the latest news from the HEY Growth Hub via the twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/HEY_Growth

The 38 Local Enterprise Partnership led Growth Hubs across England bring together and simplify access to national and local business support. Supported by government, Growth Hubs ensure that no matter the size, sector, or maturity of a business they provide locally tailored business support and advice to direct businesses to the most appropriate organisations to assist with their specific requests.

Some additional key facts:
• There are 38 Growth Hubs covering the whole of England – one in each Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) area
• LEPs have self-reported that in the 12 months from April 2020 to end March 2021 their Growth Hubs: engaged with some 2.4m businesses and individuals (including via digital channels). Provided direct support, including face-to-face, to over 288,000 businesses; high intensity support to over 18,000 businesses and helped more than 10,600 individuals start a business.

GrowMySME Programme

The project is receiving up to £6,200,000 of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 to deliver the #GrowMySME Programme. The Ministry of
Housing, Communities and Local Government (and in London the intermediate body Greater London Authority) is the Managing Authority for the European Regional Development Fund. Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding.