Business experts got together to discuss the state of Swindon's economy and plan for the future.

Swindon Borough Council's economic development officer Chris Parsons gave a positive overview of the town's status in the business world as guest speaker at the most recent Swindon Business and Economy meeting.

Mr Parsons said: "Swindon receives three to four investment enquires per week, which is a healthy number that is testament to Swindon’s attractive location and workforce, and the reason why we have an impressive stable of high-profile employers based here.

"The council's business retention and expansion function proactively connects with existing businesses in Swindon to understand and respond to their needs."

Organised by Business West with the support of Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership, the meetings bring together key local businesses and decision makers to help shape Swindon’s economic development strategy.

Switch On To Swindon's Kris Talikowski demonstrated a virtual reality map of the town's regeneration projects. This has been developed by CartoConsult and was shown off during the launch of TechSwindon this year.

The VR tour has been commissioned as an interactive tool to attract inward investment.

SWLEP director Paddy Bradley spoke about the partnership's current work stream and covered topics including board diversity and the need to raise awareness of R&D funding among Swindon firms who lag behind regional competitors in terms of take-up.

Philanthropy director of the Wiltshire Community Foundation, Jo Brady, then spoke about the foundation’s expanded brief in Swindon. The independent charity gives grants and funding to the voluntary sector and charities across Wiltshire.

Jo said: "We are an expert on local need and disadvantage in communities and offer high quality advice and support for all types of donors who want to make a difference in their local area.

"While historically, emphasis has been on Wiltshire, in recent times there has been a shift of emphasis on supporting charities and disadvantaged communities in Swindon."

Young Enterprise Swindon co-founder and initiative manager Andrew Wells showed a short video from the recent launch event of the new networking group for 18 to 35 year olds where professional skateboarder and Broadcaster James Threlfall MBE was the guest speaker.

Finally, Business West director of policy Matt Griffith, discussed how the Swindon and Wiltshire Initiative team can offer local businesses advice and consultancy on a range of issues and advise around Brexit and routes into Whitehall. Director Ian Larrard covered some of the other work being undertaken, including engagement on the Honda Taskforce to the Local Plan review and some of the wide range of business support activities provided.