The campaign was launched at a dedicated event at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, during Birmingham Tech Week, the UK’s largest regional technology festival.

Developed by WMGC in collaboration with organizations across the region, It Starts Here seeks to strengthen and reinvigorate the region’s brand by making it dynamic and confident within a highly competitive international market.

With a focus on demonstrating the region’s innovation strengths, the campaign narrative positions the West Midlands as the place where “disruptive minds meet” and “breakthroughs begin”, with the aim to inspire a common mantra of trust and an assertive “new era” for the region.

It Starts Here will span a number of sub-campaigns focused on key growth sectors in the region, including The Green Energy Revolution Starts Here; Life-changing science starts here; Game-changing technology starts here; and Next Generation Services begins here, with further phases planned to cover broader placemaking themes.

The campaign aims to stimulate foreign investment from target markets, including India, North America and Germany, to ultimately create high-value jobs across the region.

In February, WMGC will also take its campaign to the international market for the first time through a regional trade mission to India, led by West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker.

The West Midlands has bucked the UK’s overall trend of falling FDI, recording a 72% increase in foreign direct investment projects in 2023, according to EY’s latest UK Attractiveness Survey. (127 projects). Birmingham was at the forefront of this growth, leading the West Midlands and outperforming all other British cities apart from London. By securing 67 projects, it sets the record for the most projects managed by a regional city in the last decade.

Neil Rami, chief executive of the West Midlands Growth Company, said: “International competition for investment is fierce; with global investors citing access to innovation capabilities as their number one priority. In response to this, we have developed a campaign that asserts our past and present ingenuity in a distinct and compelling way – and that speaks to every corner of our region.

“Emerging technologies are growing rapidly in the West Midlands. It is the golden thread of our economy, with the technology sector now valued at £15.3 billion and growing. We are therefore incredibly well placed to collaborate with organizations around the world to develop pioneering technologies, thanks to our talented people and cutting-edge university-led R&D.

“Foreign investment is fundamentally linked to growth and job creation, but we must be clear and convinced of our strengths to achieve this. That’s why I’m calling on organizations across the West Midlands to work with us and come together to confidently convey that it all starts here.

As part of the campaign launch event, innovation thought leaders from across the region participated in a panel discussion on the region’s strengths in disruption, chaired by Courtney Fingar, Director at Fingar Direct Investment. These included Joanne Roney CBE, chief executive of Birmingham City Council; Professor Stuart Croft, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick; Murray Paul, Director of Public Affairs at JLR and Melissa Snover, Founder and Owner of Nourished. The event was opened by West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker.

Mr Parker said: “The West Midlands has always been the home of entrepreneurs and inventors. We are now rapidly becoming a driver for new sectors such as clean and green industries, cybersecurity and advanced technology.

“There has never been a better time for businesses to invest, grow and succeed here in the West Midlands. I want us to seize this opportunity to become the best place in the UK to do business, creating new jobs, new opportunities and improving thousands of lives across the region.