Sunderland businesses invited to City Hall's Mussels Club meeting

The club will hold its next gathering at Sunderland City Hall on Friday, February 3, 9am-11am. More than 250 people have signed up so far for the event, called What’s Happening in Sunderland, after the success of a similar event in 2022.

Guest speakers include Neil Guthrie, development director at Riverside Sunderland, Chris Healy, senior manager at Land and Investment at Sunderland City Council and Laura Kerry, assistant manager at City Hall.

The Mussels Club is based in Sunderland and has over 3,000 members. Founded in 2006, it is one of the largest networks within the North East business community.

It hosts a variety of networking events in prestigious venues across the region. The club is free to join.

The City Hall meeting will be in the Council Chamber which can accommodate up to 300 people, but more than 250 people have already signed up.

Club member John Longford, a financial advisor at Northern Spire Ltd, will host the meeting.

He said: “Places are going amazingly quickly for our City Hall meeting. It’s not surprising really as our guest speakers have unique knowledge of ongoing and upcoming riverside and city centre developments.

“If local business people want to know what’s going on Neil, Chris and Laura have the answers in terms of what the future holds for the city.

“It will be our biggest event in Sunderland so far and shows the interest there is in what’s happening in the city at the moment. People are signing up as new members in order to attend, which is really encouraging.

“Attendees will also have the chance to ask questions of our panel of experts – there is so much rumour and conjecture about what might and might not be happening, but these are the people who know what’s really happening.”

Laura added: “Neil and Chris are at the heart of developments here on the riverside, the city centre, the seafront and further afield and they’ll be focusing on what’s happening in Sunderland in 2023 and over the next few years.

“I’ll be talking about City Hall and the opportunities for businesses and organisations to use our brilliant spaces.”