I HAVE read in the popular and not so popular press in the past few days that there has been a couple of seismic shifts in the very foundations of the nation and the world will never be the same again as Clarkson exits Top Gear and someone called Zayn has left a popular beat combo called One Direction, writes Rachel Anderson.

I’ve stockpiled marmite, bought the box set of Game of Thrones and plan to wait out the inevitable breakdown of society as we know it in my basement.

My Grandmother, who is 90 in a couple of weeks, is less shaken to her core and somewhat calmer, declaring “there is nowt new under the sun” and she’s seen it all before. She’s of the firm opinion that such upheavals will pass and there’s no need to up her caramel wafer order.

Of course she’s right, and studying the history of NECC an organisation which has been integral to the fabric of the North-East for 200 years it is brought home time and again.

In terms of developing the region and fighting for the best deal for business and attracting new investment, there is very little new.

A picture in the NECC archive from the 1930s shows an exhibition stand run by the then Teesside Chamber promoting inward investment. The key messages are around the plentiful supply of water, ample energy and the quality of the workforce.

Eighty Five years later, while the target sectors have changed and the area looks very different, the key messages in our current “50 Great Reasons” campaign highlight many fantastic reasons to invest in the North-East including water, power and skills.

This doesn’t of course mean that in 200 years of lobbying we have achieved nothing, far from it, NECC and its members have been integral to many key developments on the ports, airports, railways, communications and industrial development. While the region is unrecognisable from the industrial landscape of 1815 or even 1915, the principles of attracting new business and new industries remain the same – the right location, the right resources and the right skills.

For anyone interested, NECC is running two Rivers of Enterprise exhibitions on our history one at the Lit & Phil in Newcastle throughout April moving to the Heritage Gallery at Cargo Fleet, Middlesbrough in May.

There might be nowt new under the sun but in our 200 years experience that might not be a bad thing.