Employer Engagement Manager Stephanie Schiaffonati (representing Lincoln    University Business  School ) also added that everyone is really excited about the Lincolnshire Leadership & Management Centre, which is being created within the Lincolnshire Echo’s former offices in Brayford Wharf East.

“This is due to open in January 2011 and the vision is that it will become a hub for leadership and management training,” she said. Colleague, business incubation and centre manager, Vicky Addison gave BWL members and guests a tour of Sparkhouse Studios, and explained how it provides cost-effective  space for fledgling media enterprises and related businesses.

The party also looked around Enterprise@Lincoln, which also provides rentable space, as well as a careers service for students and a range of expert support for growing firms.

Business  School placement co-ordinator Caroline Hodgson said the University is also working hard to bring undergraduates, postgraduates and local business people together, through the Access Innovation programme, which is partly-financed the European Regional Development Fund.

She said this highly-flexible initiative allows businesses to tap into the University’s skills and knowledge. Students are matched with individual businesses,  to great effect, to work on anything from one-day to much-longer projects

The idea is that this is a “two-way street”, with the student gaining valuable workplace experience, while the business benefits from an injection of fresh talent and the chance to get something, which might otherwise have had to be put on ice, completed.