Bournemouth is renowned as a town sitting beside one of Britain’s most beautiful beaches. It is also, however, a growing centre for financial and health services and a burgeoning university town, with graduates leading the way in areas like CGI graphics used in the movie industry.

The recent 2020Plus Civic and Business Leaders Event in Bournemouth brought together significant leaders from a range of sectors within the regional community.

The event focused on lifting the levels of innovation in the town and engaging the young adult Millennial generation in its future plans for growth. The event was hosted by a new social enterprise group called Destiny Enterprises, under the leadership of Keith Chapman-Burnett.

Mal Fletcher, who is Chairman of the 2020Plus think tank as well as director of Next Wave International, presented two keynote sessions.

Responses from leaders after the event were overwhelmingly positive and people are, by all reports, looking forward to the follow up event, which is planned for early 2015.

After the event, Mal said: ‘The Bournemouth-Poole conurbation represents an exciting area of potential growth over the next decade – if leaders in government, education, health, business and other areas are willing to seriously engage the future shape of innovation.’

‘Speaking to and meeting this impressive group of leaders, showed me that innovation is near the top of their list of priorities. However, I was also pleased to hear that our research and presentations gave them valuable food for thought.’

The local team running the event did an outstanding job, both in the logistics of the event day itself and in formulating the list of invitees, working alongside Mal.

‘The 2020Plus Project, now running in various cities in the UK (and Australia) is seeing good success in bringing cross-sector leaders together for discussions about the future of the city.’

‘We’re always sharpening the “package” so that it best serves the particular cities involved.’