Every business in the North East has to be ready to evolve and adapt to match its market.

Presuming that anything stays the same all the time is a dangerous stance - as the pandemic showed all too clearly. Businesses changed almost overnight and showed the full depth of their experience and resources.

BUSINESSiQ is the same - and our Level Up campaign is an example of putting that agility into practice to best reflect the audience we work with.

Our first live event was a round table with our partners, the second had a wider invitation to their colleagues and for the third just a few days ago we had an audience to get even more voices into the Level Up conversation.

We also had the chance to hear the views of Darlington MP Peter Gibson in an exclusive Q&A that covered Levelling Up, women in Parliament and his take on the national spotlight shining on Darlington.

That’s all part of the evolution the campaign has to go through as the region changes. We welcome more voices to raise the volume on our call for investment and jobs and more political firepower like Peter to take that message to Parliament.

Like so many of the businesses we work with - and as the Northern Echo has shown for 150 years - we know that change is essential and invigorating and we will continue to introduce new ideas and new ways to tell the world how remarkable this region is.