The Sheffield city region is powering forward, thanks to innovation and history.

As the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce celebrates its 150th anniversary, the UK’s fourth largest city is in a remarkable position whereby it is maximising its profile and reputation by bringing together a wealth of experience and knowledge. It is a melting-pot of expertise and ideas with a focal point of development company Creative Sheffield – embracing Sheffield First for Investment and Sheffield One – and an energetic local authority seeking to transform Sheffield’s economy and enable the city to take its place among Europe’s leading “creative producer” cities.

Backed by positive working relationships with various agencies, including Yorkshire Forward, Sheffield has a resurgent economy – reflected in this special Yorkshire Post business supplement. Moving forward, the delivery vehicle for continued economic transformation, Creative Sheffield, will be the first City Development Company in the UK, and with the potential to become the UK Government’s model for future economic regeneration of cities.

It will be the lead marketing agency for Sheffield, developing initiatives that will promote the growth of the city’s scientific, creative and cultural knowledge base building on the successes of the topranked Sheffield First for Investment, in
the attraction of quality inward investment into the city, and Sheffield One in developing the city’s physical infrastructure to internationally competitive standards.

There is no reason whatsoever why Creative Sheffield’s momentum shouldn’t eventually put the city region in the same league as European cities such as Milan, Stuttgart and Lyon. Not only has Sheffield the commercial potential of a major UK city, but when you ask Sheffielders why they enjoy living in the city they’re most likely to talk about the friendliness of the place and its people. The fact that it’s the safest, greenest city in the country helps, too.

In fact, so much of the city’s success is down to its diversity. There are 50 public parks and 150 tranquil woodlands to enjoy, a wide range of nightlife and entertainment venues, the peace of the Winter Garden, the showpiece Millennium
Galleries, the great outdoors of the Peak District, and, the World Snooker Championships at the Crucible Theatre, part of the largest theatre complex outside of London.

The Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, of course, will continue to be involved in many of the initiatives that are propelling the city region forward – as it has been for much of the last 150 years. It has been sufficiently flexible to accommodate change in line with the requirements of membership over the years but, in terms of representation, nothing has altered very much because it has always been on the front line and worked with partners in different spheres to bring about beneficial transformations to Sheffield’s fortunes.

So, in its 150th year, the Chamber is celebrating the progress that the process of change provides while retaining the values and standards that come from adhering to those traditional qualities that remain unfailingly immutable. And this is a policy that we will be carried forward. Over the next 15 years, as Creative Sheffield develops and forges ahead and the Chamber continues to represent and strengthen the voice of city business, expect invention, creativity, innovation and quality to continue as the cornerstone of success as Sheffield seeks to expand its position in the modern world.