Inaugural ICT Excellence Club meeting set to promote business growth in West Midlands

Dedicated networking forum for elite technology businesses is a success

12 April 2010 - The West Midlands ICT Cluster, held the inaugural meeting and networking session for its ICT Excellence Club at the end of March 2010.  The Club has been set up to encourage  award winning businesses to share knowledge, create business opportunities and accelerate growth in the region and beyond.

The exclusive club, which will meet bi-monthly, was established in response to feedback from the 2009 ICT Excellence Awards winners who requested a forum to network with other leading technology companies in the West Midlands.
Members include  winners and finalists of the ICT Excellence Awards, which annually celebrate the region's most innovative and successful technology SMEs. 

Currently, the West Midlands is one of the poorest performing business regions in the UK.  With the Midlands once strong manufacturing industry in decline, the ICT Excellence Club aims to bolster the positive steps already taken by the ICT Cluster to encourage innovation in the area and drive future employment opportunities.

“Our inaugural meeting was an overwhelming success with attendance from 34 founding member businesses, selected from the cream of West Midlands entrepreneurs.  The number of businesses is expected to grow. We are working with them to establish a programme of activities that will help all members grow,” said Mike Musson, ICT Cluster Manager.

“We established the ICT Excellence Club as part of a series of initiatives run by the West Midlands ICT Cluster to build a dynamic community of innovative and entrepreneurial organisations who will be the future vanguard of business innovation in the West Midlands. Judging by the momentum of the first meeting, we are optimistic that we will succeed”, he continued.

Members of the ICT Excellence Club will also have enhanced access to AWMist, the West Midlands online directory of IT companies to facilitate business opportunities, collaboration, innovation and partnerships.  Whist the directory is open to all ICT Cluster businesses who  can upload free of charge promotional videos onto the site, members of the ICT Excellence Club are denoted with a special logo. There are also plans to create a bespoke area on the current ICT Cluster LinkedIn group for the ICT Excellence Club members.

In addition to the networking element of the ICT Excellence Club, future scheduled meetings will include a programme of guest speakers and two or three guest organisations to inspire and provide practical advice to members.

For further information regarding the ICT Excellence Club, please contact Mike Musson, ICT Cluster Manager on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

For further information on the ICT Cluster, please visit www.wmictcluster.org