It's been a slightly surreal day.
Got to see representatives from the cities of Manchester and Leeds standing shoulder to shoulder at a breakfast presentation and it wasn't to see who could nab the last croissant. Manchester's Sir Howard Bernstein and Jean Dent, director of development at Leeds City council were there to extol the virtues of working together as city regions.
But don't worry, a bit of champagne in the sunshine hasn't completely killed off old rivalries. Bernstein said: "There will be occasions where Leeds and Manchester have to compete."
Then it was off to the Birmingham stand for a quick interview with Leader of the Council Mike Whitby which was conducted in the back of the Jag that is on display there. It was the quietest place said the PR. You can listen to what Cllr Whitby had to say here.
Got to see representatives from the cities of Manchester and Leeds standing shoulder to shoulder at a breakfast presentation and it wasn't to see who could nab the last croissant. Manchester's Sir Howard Bernstein and Jean Dent, director of development at Leeds City council were there to extol the virtues of working together as city regions.
But don't worry, a bit of champagne in the sunshine hasn't completely killed off old rivalries. Bernstein said: "There will be occasions where Leeds and Manchester have to compete."
Then it was off to the Birmingham stand for a quick interview with Leader of the Council Mike Whitby which was conducted in the back of the Jag that is on display there. It was the quietest place said the PR. You can listen to what Cllr Whitby had to say here.
Newport Unlimited hosted a lunch and were naturally bigging up the Ryder Cup connections. They gave away a fancy looking golf club (well it looked fancy to a me, a non-golfer) but I don't envy the lucky winner trying to get it back on the plane. Leader of the council Matthew Evans told me that there has been interest from several developers in taking forward the stalled Friars Walk mixed use scheme in the city centre.
Oh and if anyone knows what dish the picture above was supposed to be then please do let me know. Still at least the colour matched the sunny weather.
And continuing the Midlands car theme, the Coventry Partnership gave one lucky guest was a ride in this Spyker sports car - Spyker is moving its car production from Holland to Coventry. Sadly my business card wasn't drawn out of the champagne bucket but good to see it go to another journalist, Mark Shepherd of Property Week.