It’s good to talk and listening to someone speak about paint drying can be interesting. These are the two main learning points for the Switch On To Swindon team in the last week.

We finally held our Switch On To Swindon event last Thursday, after postponing due to the snow a couple of weeks ago and narrowly avoiding the mini beast from the east that hit over the weekend. Hosted by Danielle Mottram and the team at Rombourne Serviced Offices, the event was themed on business expansion and growth in Swindon.

Damian Stokes, chief executive of Rombourne Serviced Offices, welcomed ambassadors and talked about the history of the company and the exciting plans to look at further expansion in Swindon, based on the success of their current offering in Lydiard Business Park. Gavin Calthrop, who is responsible for economic growth at Swindon Borough Council, provided a whistlestop tour of the growth and regeneration plans around the borough, including the large housing development to the east at New Eastern Villages, as well as plans for the Seven Capital regional leisure destination including ski slope in the Town Centre.

Last but not least was Neill Benham, strategy manager at Mitie, who have recently taken space with Rombourne, to establish a Swindon office. Neill shared details of some of the revolutionary Mitie Akzo Nobel products in development, including paint that is self-cleaning and able to absorb contaminates, therefore contributing to reducing CO2 emissions. Swindon has a long history as a test bed for innovation and Mitie are working with organisations like the Great Western Hospital to further test and roll out these products.

Thank you to all the ambassadors who came along and helped to make the evening a success.

The team were also invited along by one of our ambassadors to have a coffee and talk to staff at the town centre Santander branch. It proved to be a really interesting discussion and a good reminder that while people want to be positive about the place they work and live they don’t necessarily have enough information to be so.

There was no shortage of passion about Swindon from people in the room along with some frustration about progress in certain areas. A quick run through about some of the milestones for projects in the town centre certainly helped everyone get a better understanding of what is coming up.

Making links between works that may well be causing some disruption at the moment such as the junction 16 improvements and why it is important for future growth in Swindon also proved useful.

The Switch On To Swindon campaign is built on mobilising the business, organisations and people who are already here to promote the place.

While we have made significant progress it is clear that we have only really scratched the surface. If we want people to be Swindon’s extended ‘sales force’ then we have to provide the information, facts, updates and materials to help them.

Swindon is growing both physically with the number of houses being built in the next 20 years and economically through business growth and new investment. We will work harder than ever through Switch on to Swindon to make sure that in every presentation, event, discussion and talk we engage people effectively so they feel part of the growth and success.