What is It Starts Here?

A shared story for the West Midlands

It Starts Here is the West Midlands’ market-facing promise. 

It gives the region a clear and consistent way to tell its story across investment, visitor economy, culture, major events, partnerships and place promotion – helping bring the ambitions of the West Midlands Growth Plan to life for external audiences. 

At its heart is a simple idea: the West Midlands is a place where ambition becomes action. 

Where ideas are brought to life. Where businesses grow. Where people create, collaborate and make things happen. And where what starts here can have an impact far beyond the region. 

That is the idea behind It Starts Here. 

The West Midlands as a catalyst 

The thinking behind It Starts Here comes from something we see repeatedly across the region. 

People, ideas, industries and cultures come together here in ways that create momentum. 

Businesses work alongside universities and researchers. Established industries connect with new technologies. Creators draw on the character and culture around them. People with different experiences and perspectives come together to make something new. 

We describe the West Midlands as a catalyst: a place that brings together ambition, talent, knowledge, collaboration and opportunity, creating the conditions for things to happen. 

It Starts Here gives us a way to tell those stories as part of one wider West Midlands story. 

One idea. Many different stories.

It Starts Here can be brought to life in different ways for different audiences. 

For businesses and investors, it can show how ideas are tested, developed and scaled here. 

For visitors, it can reveal the culture, creativity, people and experiences that make Birmingham and the West Midlands distinctive. 

For partners across the region, it provides a shared narrative we can use to tell the West Midlands story with greater consistency and confidence. 

Individual campaigns sit beneath It Starts Here and explore different parts of that story. 

Some may focus on businesses challenging established thinking. Others may focus on culture, creativity, experiences, people or place. 

Each gives people another reason to understand the West Midlands differently. 

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What makes an It Starts Here story?

The strongest It Starts Here stories help people understand why something is happening here, what has made it possible and why it matters. 

They are rooted in real people, places, businesses and experiences. 

They show what is happening rather than relying on broad claims about the region. 

And they connect something happening in the West Midlands to a bigger shift, opportunity or impact. 

A useful starting point is to ask: 

What is changing? 

Why is it happening here? 

Why does it matter beyond here? 

If a story can answer those questions, there is probably an It Starts Here story in it.