Pictured above: Lord Digby Jones

Lord Digby Jones has been announced as the keynote speaker at a major conference being held later this year in Birmingham. The former Director General of the CBI will be addressing leaders and academics within the plant and equipment business sector.

The Plant and Equipment Management Innovation Conference (PEMIC-11), which is being held at Birmingham City University, is an annual event to celebrate, promote and showcase industrial innovation within the sector.

The conference is also host to the Off-highway Plant and Equipment Research Centre (OPERC) International Awards for Excellence. These honours are given to celebrate outstanding contributions made by professionals throughout the sector in recognition of particular industrial, professional or scientific endeavour. Additional awards are also made to leading academics who have consistently demonstrated sustained leadership and research output of international standing.

The annual PEMIC conference is organised by Professor David Edwards and Professor Gary Holt from The Centre for Business Innovation and Enterprise (CBIE), which is based within Birmingham City Business School, in partnership with OPERC. Professor David Edwards, who is Director of CBIE said: "We are absolutely delighted that Lord Jones will be speaking at this year's prestigious Plant and Equipment Management Innovation Conference (PEMIC-11) event. As a highly successful business adviser, and originating from the West Midlands, he was an ideal choice as our keynote speaker and we are confident that conference delegates will find his respected views and opinions enlightening and informative, and his renowned banter entertaining. Last year's event, PEMIC-10, was also held at the University and proved to be a great success - this year we're expecting it to be even bigger and better given the support of an impressive list of industrial sponsors which spans across industrial sectors within this country and abroad."

The conference will take place on Wednesday 16 November at the University's City North campus in Perry Barr. Further details about the event can be found at www.operc.com/pemic.