2020 has certainly made us all stop and think.  Whether that’s think about how precious (or frustrating) isolated time with family can be ..... how much we’ve missed loved ones...  how we’ve all realised a fresh new business plan is overdue, or that we need to completely find a new direction in life, one thing we’ve all shared, is the brakes being put on life, forcing us to rethink.

As the counties digital business sharing platform, we find ourselves on the receiving end of lots of interesting pieces of intel.  Your combined statistics tell us some interesting facts about our county.  For instance, we saw all the jobs and events, awards and spend drop off our sites quickly, at the start of lockdown.  A week or so later, you innovators started to transform them into online events.  Soon the demand for jobs & funding shifted towards the digital sector and requests for suppliers of PPE and health products rose.  And so it continued....

Our shared activity helps paint a picture of supply & demand, and the counties each differ in terms of their current needs.  That is what we use that collective data for.  We watch it to help you and that intel allows us to respond.  After watching events dip, awards be postponed and expos be cancelled we wanted to try to find solutions.

This week saw us in Edinburgh, in Black Lights’ virtual studio Powered by Lucid Technologies.  What an experience that was.  We were keen to explore the possibilities of combining online meetings into a virtual environment.  Our aim, to use the power of our share sites and you as businesses, experienced in a vast cross section of sectors, together to develop solutions to help move us all forward.

GB Shared founder, Lisa Edge said, ‘we have to keep pushing forward, to keep finding more innovations and ways to embed them in society for all to benefit from.  By finding businesses with synergies, making those connections, linking in the funding etc, we can really make things happen, that’s why the share sites and pooling our resources is so critical, without them, without collaboration, we are flying separately (and blind)!’

GB Shared held their bi weekly member meet up in the virtual studio for members from across Lancashire, Manchester & Cumbria to gather feedback on virtual events & key needs.  This was later followed by a demonstration of virtual possibilities to key businesses from the public & private sectors. GB Shared Intends to continue working with Lucid Technologies in supporting the development of a solution. 

Take a peak into the virtual video here (remember to show your support for business around you by subscribing!) ?

https://youtu.be/QTZxBQOO81c