SIX hundred invitations have gone out for the seventh annual Bolton Business Lecture.

Sir David Trippier will be speaking at Bolton Town Hall on July10 on "Marketing Manchester."

This is a new private and public sector partnership launched in April to encourage investment, job creation, tourism and trade, academic exchange and cultural/sporting events in the Greater Manchester area.

Sir David is chairman of the campaign, which was established by Manchester Airport, Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Greater Manchester Visitor and Convention Bureau.

It has a first-year budget of £2.5m.

The objective is to establish Manchester's place as a major international city and regional capital. Sir David, a former Bury Grammar School pupil, who was Conservative MP for Rossendale and Darwen from 1983 to 1992, has pledged that towns like Bolton will not lose out.

Bolton Business Ventures invited him to give the prestigious lecture after an Evening News article which carried his rebuttal of criticism by Cllr Bob Howarth, the leader of Bolton Council, who believed from previous experience that the "Greater" would soon disappear and the campaign would concentrate solely on Manchester.

Subsequently Sir David met Cllr Howarth and convinced him that he was sincere in his wish to see that Bolton and other Greater Manchester towns do not miss out during the Marketing Manchester campaign.

The lecture, which is sponsored by Barclays Bank and the Bolton Evening News, will be in the Festival Suite at Bolton Town Hall from 5.30pm to 8pm.

Anybody interested in attending is asked to contact BBV in Lower Bridgeman Street, Bolton as soon as possible.

Sir David is also speaking about "Marketing Manchester" at the Manchester Publicity Association's Lunch on Wednesday, June 12 at Manchester United's Old Trafford ground.

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