Eastern Promise - The Podcast

Episode 101: The Rising Network & Cambridge Wide Open Day (Part II)

This Week: It's another packed edition this week, as we look back at Cambridge Wide Open Day 2024, and ahead to The Rising Festival this September.  
I'm joined by Lily Cheng, founder of The Rising Network and creator of The Rising Festival.  We'll be chatting about the genesis of the network and we'll preview the forthcoming festival along with two of the event's highly distinguished panel moderators, Mary Hockaday and Professor Dame Carol Black.  
 
Then! Join me on the 6th floor of Botanic House as I meet some of the businesses exhibiting for Cambridge Wide Open Day, from contracting AI to an unbelievably accurate speech-to-text engine, lab equipment, chemical processes, analysis and lightweight circuits on plastic. Yes, it's a packed episode but why wait?!
 
That's all on episode 101 of...Eastern Promise!
For more information, visit our website at https://easternpromise.org.uk.
Eastern Promise is proud to be sponsored by Mills & Reeve.   

Episode 100 - Prashant Shah on Cambridge Wide Open Day 2024; & the Tech East/Aviva Fintech Hackathon

This Week: Episode 100 arrives at last, and WHAT a bumper show we have for you!
 
First, recorded at UKREiiF 2024, O2H Co-founder Prashant Shah previews Cambridge Wide Open Day and tells us more about O2H before we're joined by special surprise guest, Dr Andy Williams, Chair of the Oxford Cambridge Supercluster Board.   Find out more about Cambridge Wide Open Day here: https://cambridgewideopenday.com 
 
Then! We dip into the Aviva/Tech East Fintech Hackathon to hear some snippets of the pitches, get the results and chat to the teams and judges.  It confirms the city's fintech sector is good to grow!
 
Visit our website: https://easternpromise.org.uk.
 
Eastern Promise is proud to be sponsored by Mills & Reeve.

Episode 99: St George's Guildhall, King's Lynn - Shakespeare Woz 'Ere!

This week: We journey to King's Lynn in West Norfolk to see the Bard's Boards - the very stage upon which Shakespeare performed, recently discovered under the floor of St George's Guildhall in the town.
 
We'll also be discussing how the Guildhall is the centrepiece of the £25m Town Deal project, and taking to the streets of King's Lynn to find out more about the town, visiting historic streets and buildings, and hearing some incredible tall tales about the history of the town.
 
Host Mike Rigby chats to Councillors Alistair Beales and Simon Ring, now Leader and Deputy Leader of the Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk*; interim Chair of the Town Deal Board, Vicky Etheridge; and Creative Director of St George's Guildhall, cultural officer at the Borough Council - as well as an actor and comedian - Tim Fitzhigham to find out the amazing history that's not just underpinning Norfolk's largest town, it's setting the stage for its future renaissance.  
* Cllrs Beales and Ring were Cabinet Members for Business and Culture respectively at the time of recording. 
Find out more at: https://easternpromise.org.uk. 
 
Eastern Promise is proud to be sponsored by Mills & Reeve.   

Episode 98: How Guilden Mordern saved 'The Three Tuns' pub, w. help from Plunkett UK & the Cambs & Peterborough CA

This Week: We journey out to the magnificent public house in Guilden Mordern, near Royston in Cambs to visit 'The Three Tuns', a magnificent pub that is in community hands thanks to the efforts of some very dedicated residents, along with help from Plunkett UK and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.  We're joined at the pub by CPCA Mayor, Dr Nik Johnson and Susie Middleton of Plunkett UK, alongside representative of the community John Harrison to hear the tale of the Three Tuns unfold...
For more information, visit https://easternpromise.org.uk.
We are proud to be supported by Mills & Reeve.

CROWDSOURCERY! Coming Home...

Welcome to Crowdsourcery, an audience participation spectacular rooted in the East of England, where we use LinkedIn to root out the best the region has to offer!
This time, our focus is the landmarks that welcome you back to the East of England, and let you know your doorstep is not far away.  And your choices range from roundabouts to racecourses...
...to squeeze all this and more into the show, your host Mike Rigby, converses with pachyderms, engages in filthy, FILTHY wordplay, and fends off demons from the Orwell Bridge for some reason!?
All this and more, thanks to a little bit of...CROWDSOURCERY!
Find out more at https://easternpromise.org.uk 
Eastern Promise is proud to be supported by Mills & Reeve. 

Episode 97: UEA & CTW East of England Collaboration Event

This week: We join the audience at the East of England Tech Collaboration event at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia, sponsored by Mills & Reeve.  
We hear from Dr Soraya Jones, UEA VC Prof. David Maguire, Cambridge Tech Week Chair Chris Bruce, and a panel consisting of Dr Jerry Wu of Tus Park UK, Prof. Sheng Qi of the UEA, Hannah Smith of Anglia Capital Group and Martin Frost CBE. Oh, and Eastern Promise host Mike Rigby, too...
Join us for the event as recorded on the evening of Tuesday 23rd April 2024!
For more information, visit: https://easternpromise.org.uk

Episode 96: Peter Cowley

This Week: We hear from one of the East of England's foremost Angel Investors, Peter Cowley.  Host Mike Rigby chats to Peter about his career, the highs and lows of being an angel investor and puts some submitted questions to the man himself.
We also learn about the tumultuous life experiences that have shaped his path, leaving him with many valuable life lessons.  Plus!  A look ahead to what's in this jam-packed run of six episodes...
Peter's book, 'Public Success, Private Grief' is available here.
Find out more at: https://easternpromise.org.uk 

CROWDSOURCERY! Happy Places...

We investigate your happy places in the East of England, where you go to rest and recalibrate.  A lot of our contributors choose water, some pick pooch walking, long countryside ambles ofwhich we have many.  And coffee shops are ever a popular place to watch your fellow humans and enjoy the benefits of a well-crushed Arabica bean.. 
The makers of this podcast apologise to Scotland for shooting bagpipes out of season, and BBC East for...everything, really.
Yes, we're very sorry - BUT!  It's time for a spell of CROWDSOURCERY!

Episode 95: Rachel Hales & East of England Tech Collaboration Event Preview!

This Week: We preview the forthcoming East of England Tech Collaboration Event at the Sainsbury Centre on the University of East Anglia's campus, itself a curtain-raiser to Cambridge Tech Week!  
 
And then, for the main event, I chat to Rachel Hales, founder of Get Synergised and the With Purpose platform, along with Hannah Chapman of the Cambridge Acorn Project and Nick Finlayson-Brown, partner and Head of the Cambridge office of Mills & Reeve.
 
And then and then!  We tell you what's happened to your favourite CrowdSourcing feature...(Spoiler alert - not much).
For more info, visit: https//easternpromise.org.uk. 

CROWDSOURCERY! Unsung Heroes...

This Week: We celebrate your Unsung Heroes in another star-spangled CROWDSOURCERY!
For More Information, please go to https://easternpromise.org.uk.
We are proud to be supported by Mills & Reeve.