STEPPING up to the podium to speak at a major conference can be intimidating for even the most hardened speaker, but thankfully I managed to calm Lord Heseltine down as he filled the role of my warm-up act at the Annual Global B2B Conference, in London, writes Brian Dakers, North East Chamber of Commerce international trade manager.

I’m joking, but it was fantastic to address a packed hall in London to not only outline the great work being done in the North-East to support exporters, but also sample the appetite for overseas sales across the rest of the country.

Lord Heseltine outlined once again the ambition wrapped up in his “No Stone Unturned” report, and it was my pleasure to demonstrate how the North East Chamber of Commerce and other chambers are aligned with the Government’s aims to boost Britain’s exports.

More than 100 trade specialists, overseas business network representatives and policymakers attended an event hosted by the British Chambers of Commerce in London earlier this month, to review the progress made in enhancing the support available on the ground in key export markets for UK SME’s.

My role was to outline how NECC is working with the British Chambers of Commerce and colleagues within UKTI to work with the network, and inform North-East exporters of the range of services available.

The buzzterm is “creating soft landings” for business in foreign markets and this boots on the ground approach offers a seamless journey from a business’s local Chamber of Commerce to fully accredited British Business Centres overseas.

The North-East is already the only region with a positive balance of trade in exports, but NECC wants to further enhance our reputation.

We appointed a regional co-ordinator to link North-East businesses with overseas networks earlier in the year.

Gary Roe is a spoke in the global B2B network wheel and is connecting the new overseas British Business Networks to NECC and other UK Chambers.

The conference audience included people from 41 different countries, including Colombia, China, India, Poland, Singapore, UAE and Turkey – all key markets that hundreds of North East Chamber members are currently doing great business with.

The opportunities mentioned by colleagues within these markets left me even more convinced there’s a huge amount of untapped potential in these and other countries, and determined to ensure our region capitalises.

It was great to catch up with reps from many overseas countries eager to establish links within our region.

Now that we’re a year into this exciting project, the conference offered us the opportunity to discuss progress, share best practice and examine the new tools and programmes created to help exporters.

The NECC is a lead chamber in this movement.

We are seen as the region setting the pace in overseas trade and people are keen to learn our secret.

I had great pleasure in telling them there was no great secret – our businesses are just excellent at making things and then selling them…particularly overseas.

We’re good, but we could be so much better.

Thankfully, we have a growing number of North-East export evangelists like me who are only too happy to help firms explore the untapped potential of overseas markets.

With a full programme of visits and events planned between now and the end of the year, I would welcome any enquiries from North-East businesses looking to expand their exporting horizons and make the most of this new, and incredibly impressive sales force being developed for UK plc.