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Join the Centre for the New Midlands for our Reimagining the Region Spring Reception, to be held at Arcadis, 103 Colmore Row, Birmingham on Thursday 19th March from 5pm – 8pm. This session has been generously sponsored and curated by Arcadis.

Powered with drinks and nibbles, this reception will provide our members with the opportunity to workshop ideas responding to the challenges and opportunities of the region – from a design perspective – and think about how we bring the recently launched West Midlands Growth Plan to life.

This event has been carefully created for all members of our network to engage with and enjoy – you do not need to have ANY design experience. What you do need to have is experience of what it is like to live, work, play or study in the West Midlands region – and a passion to explore what a ‘better’ West Midlands can look like.

‘Imagine a world where the built environment not only adapts to the challenges of climate change, urbanization, and technological disruption but thrives because of them.  A world where architecture and engineering are not just reactive disciplines but proactive forces shaping a sustainable, equitable, and innovative future’.

This is the vision that drove Arcadis to launch ‘The Design Perspective’, its inaugural design forecast.  Copies of the full report can be downloaded by clicking here.

This session will consider some of the key questions associated with how we design cities for the future, maximising the use of assets for communities and ensuring that our built environment solutions are both sustainable and economically viable.

Please note that this event is strictly for Members of our Reimagining the Region network (full and associate).

Bookings for this event can be made by visiting our event registration page

If your organisation is not yet a member of our network, please visit our membership pages to join.  Annual rates start from £450 + VAT – we look forward to welcoming you.  Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact chris@thenewmidlands.org.uk 

We are delighted to be co-hosting, with Weightmans LLP,  the launch of Spring Housing’s latest research report, The Benefits of Youth?

Funded by Commonweal Housing and authored by Thea Raisbeck (a Research Associate of the Centre for the New Midlands), this report tracked the progress of young people in commissioned supported housing who participated in a pilot scheme delivered by the Department of Work and Pensions and the West Midlands Combined Authority. The pilot sought to address the barriers and disincentives to entering employment for young people in supported housing.

We will be joined by a range of partners to discuss the challenges and opportunities for young people in supported housing, and what we can do as a region and as a nation to better link together housing and employment for both young people and wider supported housing populations.

Registration for this event is essential by visiting our event booking page.  Please note that this event has a limited capacity of 60.

Research partners:

Event partners;

The Centre for the New Midlands is delighted to be hosting a roundtable, in partnership with Talent Today, focussed on Skills to Success: Bridging Education and Employment.

The focus of our roundtable:

If your organisation is not yet a member of our Reimagining the Region network, please contact Chris Smith (Founder and CEO) via email – chris@thenewmidlands.org.uk .  Annual rates start from £475 + VAT – we look forward to welcoming you.  

To express your interest in attending, please email events@thenewmidlands.org.uk

We are delighted to invite our Reimagining the Region members to join the Centre for the New Midlands for our Summer Reception.  This event will be held on Thursday 4th June, 5pm-8.30pm at Chaophraya Birmingham. More information to follow – but for now, please hold the date in your diaries!

This event is strictly for members of our Reimagining the Region network – invites will be sent to members towards the end of April 2026.  For further information on our current members list, please visit our website.

If your organisation is not yet a member of our network, please click here for more information and to join!  Annual rates start from £450 + VAT – we look forward to welcoming you.  Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact chris@thenewmidlands.org.uk

We are delighted to be returning to Edgbaston Stadium for Connections for Prosperity 2026  – the conference for how we shape an ‘even’ better West Midlands for all. 

#CFP26 is the Centre for the New Midlands’ Annual Conference and will bring together 300 of the West Midlands’ key stakeholders including business and community leaders, politicians, policymakers and academics to discuss and debate the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the region.

Key themes will include housing, devolution, the digital environment, transport, infrastructure, the skills agenda and crucially, the focus is solely on how we build an even ‘better’ West Midlands region for all.

As the only not for profit, non partisan and independent think tank for the West Midlands, we can we can ask the questions that others can’t. We can set the agenda for discussion in such a way that others may find difficult to do. Tickets will go on sale for THE policy conference for the West Midlands on 1st April.

If you and your organisation are interested in sponsoring this key event for the region, please contact Chris Smith via email (chris@thenewmidlands.org.uk)

We are delighted to invite members of our Reimagining the Region network to Save the Date for our Winter Reception 2026, to be held in The Churchill Room at the Palace of Westminster on Monday 14th December, 6.30pm – 9.30pm.   

This event has been sponsored by Sarah Coombes MP (Member of Parliament for West Bromwich).

If your organisation is not yet a member of our network, please contact Chris Smith (Founder and CEO) via chris@thenewmidlands.org.uk to join.  Annual rates start from £475 + VAT – we look forward to welcoming you.  Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact chris@thenewmidlands.org.uk