Sport and health to take centre stage at Leicester Business Festival

One of the biggest growth sectors in Leicester & Leicestershire – sport and health – is to be given top billing at this year's Leicester Business Festival.

Running from 24 October to 4 November, the festival is organised by the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP), which has identified sport and health as having the highest level of growth opportunity in the region and making a major contribution to the nation's economy.

Leicestershire and Leicester are among the most premier locations for sport and physical activity in England and can even lay claim to being England's 'county and city' sporting capital. Because the market for sport and physical activity in England is expected to grow more rapidly than the overall economy, this puts Leicester and Leicestershire in pole position for driving inward investment and economic growth through its sport and health sector.

The festival's 'headline event' in this sector, called 'Better workplace health – direct from the experts', will enable businesses of all sizes and sectors to learn about improving the wellbeing of their workforce. With advice provided by specialists from the National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine East Midlands (NCSEM-EM), this breakfast event will allow attendees to try out such state-of-the-art health-related equipment as standing desks, treadmill stations and wearable technology.

Sector lead John Byrne, Director of Leicester-Shire & Rutland Sport, says: "Sport and physical activity are part of Leicester and Leicestershire's psyche, DNA and culture – generating just over £500m of goods and services in the region and employing around 17,500 people. This is why the sector will play such a major part in the Leicester Business Festival in 2016."

Leicester City Football Club's historic Premier League success attracted media attention from all over the world and boosted the region's economy with inward investment – hospitality and tourism benefiting the most. This has clearly shown the significance that sport can play on a local economy and at the 'Better workplace health' event the true impact of this will be made clear.

As well as football, the Leicestershire and Leicester region is renowned internationally for its other elite sports clubs, the Leicester Tigers Premiership rugby team, Leicestershire County Cricket Club, Leicester Racecourse, the National Scuba Diving Centre, Leicester Riders basketball, Leicester Lions speedway and Leicester Women's Hockey.

The area's reputation in this area is strengthened further by being home to several world class venues (including the King Power Stadium and Donington Park), world-leading university research and training facilities, various national governing bodies and sports organisations based at Loughborough University's SportPark and a host of innovative businesses operating across the sector.

Little wonder then that event organisers at the Leicester Business Festival have given pride of place to sport and health as part of this year's programme.

Unsurprisingly, this year the festival will see the addition of the Sport & Health sector, with associated Events available to attend:

• 2nd November - Sports-led Place Marketing, Growth and Place-Making (Free)
• 4th November - Better workplace health - direct from the experts (Free)
• 4th November - Breaking the mould in delivering a community sports arena (Free)