• The Good Business Festival reveals first details of Act 1 on 8^th October 2020, with Act 2 taking place in March 2021
• British Fashion Council, Greenpeace, Iceland, Liverpool Football Club, Mastercard and Coca-Cola among its partners
• Ambassadors include Athian Akec, Member for Camden Youth Parliament, Ann Cairns, Executive Vice Chair of Mastercard, Holly Tucker, UK Ambassador for Creative Small Businesses and Lord Bilimoria, President of the CBI

The Good Business Festival, today announces the first details of its Act 1, taking place on 8^th October with partners, content and ambassadors unveiled for the first time.

The Good Business Festival is part of a global movement that believes in the power of business to affect positive change. The Covid-19 pandemic has placed a sharp focus on the role and responsibility of business in broader society, in the face of great societal and economic upheaval, and in response, The Good Business Festival is determined to show leadership and continuity during this global challenge.

In light of recent events, the festival will take place in two parts:

October will form Act 1 of the festival, focused on Covid-19 response and recovery, uniting giants in the fields of finance, tech, sport, and retail in their support of the festival. The initial list of partners announced today include: ARUP, B Lab UK, British Council, British Fashion Council, Centre for Cities, Coca-Cola, DCMS, Eden Project, Greenpeace, IBM, Iceland, International Fashion Academy Paris, Ipsos MORI, LFC, Mastercard, Met Office, Nesta, Royal College of Physicians.

The Good Business festival will use Act 1 to enable, support and galvanise its network and its audience to develop real, change-making initiatives and pledges in the aftermath of the crisis, and then leverage Act 2 in 2021 to bring everyone together to openly discuss those commitments. Acknowledging the need for real and tangible change out of the pandemic, The Liverpool City Region will be the backdrop for this “build back better” initiative, while simultaneously providing a blueprint for cities around the world to emulate.

This is an international festival curated by Culture Liverpool and Hemingway Design, on behalf of the Liverpool City Region and Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram. An event that captures the global zeitgeist as more and more people get switched on to the idea of conscious capitalism and purposeful business. With a clear aim to be honest and disruptive, to tackle difficult subject matter head on, and to provide a platform for people to talk openly about issues, frustrations and opportunities within good business, there is significant ambition to drive tangible change for the future.

While October will be a hybrid of live, digital and broadcast content, the objective for March, one year on from lockdown, will be to present the festival in its original vision: a mix of hard-hitting talks, workshops, knowledge sessions, fringe events and social experiences, hosting content you wouldn’t expect in places you haven’t been; by fully leveraging all that the Liverpool City Region has to offer, the festival will take place across workplaces and warehouses, temporary pop-ups to heritage sites – an imaginative mix of arts, culture and business.

Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region said: “The Coronavirus crisis has given us the opportunity to think about the kind of world we want to live in and there can be no return to business as usual. In the Liverpool City Region we’re looking to build the UK’s fairest, greenest and most inclusive local economy, with a particular focus on inclusive growth and community wealth building. That means ensuring that local communities really feel the benefit from investment, with good-quality jobs and fair wages. We’ll need to do things differently, and the Good Business Festival is a fantastic way to showcase our region as a radical leader for ethical, values-driven businesses. I look forward to sharing ideas both on-line and then together in person about how we can be an exemplar to build back better with business as we start to recover.”

Liverpool Football Club CEO Peter Moore said: “We are living through a period of unprecedented times during this global pandemic and the way businesses adapt to new environments is critical to their future success. At Liverpool Football Club our priority has, and always will be, the health and wellbeing of our people, the local community and supporters. We have a local heart with a global pulse and our values remain strong throughout and beyond the pandemic. The ambitions of the Good Business Festival align with ours, and we are excited to be a part of something which is focused on generating more for business by doing the right thing.”

Ann Cairns, the Executive Vice Chair of Mastercard, commented: “At Mastercard we believe in doing well, by doing good, for the people, markets and society we work with. The power of partnerships across the public and private sector is essential to affect positive and impactful change which is why we are delighted to work with The Good Business Festival. We look forward to working together to build a visionary and purposeful future.”

Sir Tim Smit KBE, Executive Vice Chair of The Eden Project, said: “The Good Business Festival looks like it is about genuine provocation, not in the sense of socialist vs capitalist, but insightful in horizon scanning what adaptations we need to make to protect the planet and the people on it.”