More than 200 delegates attended the launch of the 2025-26 issue of This Is Tees Valley, held at Teesside University’ s stunning new £ 41m Digital Life building in Middlesbrough.
POSITIVE VIBES
200 + delegates attend This Is Tees Valley magazine launch
“
The Tees Valley is open for business!” That was the upbeat message at a flagship launch for the new edition of This Is Tees
Valley magazine.
The glossy 92-page magazine, published by Aycliffe Business sister publication Tees Business, aims to tell the rest of the UK and beyond why the Tees region is a brilliant place to do business.
The magazine’ s 10,000 copies have been distributed across the country, targeting the UK’ s business movers and shakers and telling them exactly why they should consider investing in the Tees Valley.
And the launch event, held in Teesside University’ s stunning new £ 41m Digital Life building, proved a suitably inspiring occasion for the more than 200 delegates who attended. Sponsored by leading digital marketing agency Outrank, the launch shone a spotlight on the strength and ambition of the Tees Valley.
The fifth annual issue of This Is Tees Valley has been another huge success.
The event included two Q & A panel discussions featuring influential voices from the region’ s business, public and education sectors.
It also heard from Helen Staples of Outrank, and Teesside University’ s head of partnerships and businesss development Emma Barron, who spoke of the magnificent Digital Life building and the university’ s ambitious plans.
Resolution Media and Publishing director Dave Allan, who co-hosted the event with fellow director and founder Martin Walker, said the launch – and This Is Tees Valley magazine – was an antidote to traditional Teesside negativity.
He said:“ Talking ourselves down seems to be part of our DNA on Teesside. But today is about the very antithesis to Teesside negativity.
“ Let’ s park our natural cynicism and replace it with the power of positivity.
“ Just as we were when William Gladstone made his famous speech about our region 150 years ago, here in 2025, once again we’ re an infant.
“ But, once again, we’ re an infant Hercules – the BEST is yet to come!”
It was a message echoed time and again by the launch’ s expert panelists – all wellknown figures in the Tees Valley business and education scenes.
A discussion about the region’ s thriving
Aycliffe delegates Paul Hind and Ian Proctor( centre) joined other attendees at the launch of the This Is Tees Valley publication.
tech scene featured operations director at event sponsor Outrank, Francesca Kosina, communications and PR specialist for games developer Double Eleven, Kirsten Donkin, reigning Tees Business Leader of the Year, Alt Labs’ Imran Anwar, and Helen Stewart, MD of Colewood Digital MD and the first woman to be named Tees Tech Business Leader of the Year.
A separate panel, which discussed what makes Tees Valley an investment powerhouse, included the CEO of Wilton Group and recently voted the region’ s most inspiring business leader for the second year running, Bill Scott OBE DL, Tees Valley Combined Authority’ s director of inward investment, Craig Peacock, Teesside University head of professional apprenticeships, Joanna Burgess, and Stockton Council’ s assistant director of inclusive growth and development, Chris Renahan.
More coverage from the event is available at teesbusiness. co. uk / news
26 | Aycliffe Business