This Week: In our last show of 2024, Mike Rigby chats to Nick Steven-Jones, Chief Executive of the Jarrold Group, which includes logistics, facilities management and training companies as well as the iconic Jarrolds department store in central Norwich.

We'll hear from Nick: how his career path's taken him through some of Norfolk's biggest names; what it means to have a 250-year old independent, family-run store under his watchful gaze; the brand evolution working with The Cl!ck; and also his chairmanship of the Norfolk Business Board.  

You can visit the Jarrold Group website here.

More details about the Norfolk Business Board are available here.

Eastern Promise is proud to be supported by Mills & Reeve.

This Week: We're so pleased so many of you Love the CrowdSourcery feature (no, really; the data says so) and this time you've outdone yourselves, sharing your tallest tales, strangest stories and craziest chronicles from across the East of England, and here they are, recounted by a man who can't even act his age.

So prepare to...COWER from the wrath of the Ludham Wyrm!

Look out for our next call for some CrowdSourcery on LinkedIn and listen to more instalments at https://easternpromise.org.uk.

Eastern Promise is proud to be sponsored by Mills & Reeve.

This Week: Your host, Mike Rigby, chats with EdiForm founders John Farley and Prof. Sheng Qi about their revolutionary approach to dementia care: using specialised 3D printers to deliver more nutritious, palatable food - a huge leap forward in material science spinning out from the University of East Anglia.  We also share news of Newmarket's 'Presents Galore' festive shopping experience this coming weekend (29/11/24 - 1/12/24).

Find out more about EdiForm here, and click here to visit the Eastern Promise website.  To contact the show, simply  write to [email protected]/.

Eastern Promise is proud to be supported by Mills & Reeve.

This week: I chat with a Cambridge-based charity which supports patient groups formed by those who have a family member diagnosed with a rare condition.

We'll hear from Beacon CEO Rick Thompson and Digital Resources Manager Blayne Baker-Garwood, as well as co-founder of the Timothy Syndrome Alliance - which has been supported by Beacon - Sophie Muir.  It's a truly wonderful charity who provide hope and lift up those who are lifting up each other.

Find out more about Beacon for Rare Diseases here.

You can find out about the Timothy Syndrome Alliance here.

Contact Eastern Promise at [email protected] or visit easternpromise.org.uk.

Eastern Promise is proud to be supported by Mills & Reeve.    

This Week: Mike Rigby visits Co-Labs by Journey and meets Laura Grimwood, along with Adam Pead of Inuti, to look at a fresh new model for delivering lab space for scientific startups.  Laura encountered this model - where high-quality lab space is provided without the unnecessary fripperies that can drive up costs - in the USA and, on finding nothing like it in the UK, resolved to bring the model back to Britain.

And, dear listener, she did.

Laura and Adam, from lab property specialists Inuti, describe the steps taken to bring this 14,700 square feet of affordable startup space across the Pond, and describe just what makes this model so competitive.   

To find out more, visit: https://journeyre.io/spaces/colabs-niab-cambridge/

You can contact Eastern Promise at: [email protected].

Eastern Promise would not be possible without the support of Mills & Reeve. 

This week: We begin our new six-week run of episodes with a very special guest: Professor David Maguire, Vice Chancellor of the University of East Anglia (UEA).  I chat with David about the UEA's huge breadth of offer, its peerless position as an engine of sustainable economic growth and David's own varied career, how a new Vice-Chancellor goes about bringing change to the institution they lead.

We also chat about David's time as Principal of the Dyson Institute, and what we can learn from that unique facility.  

We also make mention of the Civic UEA team (to declare an interest, I produce their podcast) and you can click here to read their recent excellent report, 'Unlocking Norfolk's Potential'.     

To contact Eastern Promise, email [email protected] or visit easternpromise.org.uk.

Eastern Promise is proud to be supported by Mills & Reeve.

This Week: At the inaugural Innovate Cambridge summit in 2023, a partnership between Innovate Cambridge and the University of Manchester was unveiled.  Now, with the 2024 Innovate Cambridge summit less than a week away, Eastern Promise is on the ground in Manchester, talking to Lou Cordwell OBE and John Holden of the University of Manchester.

Lou and John will be sharing their view of the opportunities and potential contained within this collaboration.  They'll also demonstrate that the two cities' differences on paper are dwarfed by the commonalities.  It's a must-listen if you want tot understand the scope and the potential bound within this project, and special thanks must go to: Lou & John, Lisa Gledhill & Kelly Burnham for all their help with logistics; to Kathryn Chapman, Executive Director of Innovate Cambridge for her help and the guest appearance; and to Cambridge Ahead CEO Dan Thorp, and Milner Therapeutics Institute and Connect:Health-Tech's Paula Rogers-Brown for assisting with my preparations and their general encouragement. 

To find out more about Eastern Promise, click here, or email us by clicking here.

Eastern Promise is proud to be supported by Mills & Reeve.

This Week: Your host Mike Rigby chats with University of East Anglia academic, Dr Aram Saeed, about the revolution in ophthalmology that will use 3D printing to update treamtents dating back to WWII pilots and generic 'one-size-fits-all' ocular implants with bespoke, made-to-measure lenses.   

To find out more about Eastern Promise and listen to more episodes, visit: https://easternpromise.org.uk, or contact us at [email protected].  

Eastern Promise is proud to be supported by Mills & Reeve.     

We take a listen to your summertime activities across the mighty East of England, especially from those heading from Cambridgeshire to the Norfolk & Suffolk Coast.  Packed with our trademark...levity(?) if not brevity, take a listen to what our listeners have been doing across the region this Summer!  And make sure you listen all the way through for a special message.

Wanna get in touch?  Click here.  For more info about Eastern Promise, click here.  

Eastern Promise is proud to be supported by Mills & Reeve.

This Week: Your host Mike Rigby drops in on the Cambridge Acorn Project.

Now in its tenth anniversary year, the Cambridge Acorn Project works to provide meaningful, individual support to children and families who have lived through adverse experiences, including abuse, and financial hardship. It’s hard to understate the crucial importance of their work, helping disadvantaged families heal and grow post-trauma.  Mike Rigby joins Matt Edge, Hannah Chapman and Hannah Golding to find out more. 

For more information on the Cambridge Acorn Project click here.

And why not also visit the Eastern Promise website too?  

Eastern Promise is proud to be supported by Mills & Reeve.