It’s been just over a month since we published the first TCIO Impact Report and asked for suggestions as to what our priorities should be going forward. Since then, we’ve heard from a wide range of community members – entrepreneurs, investors, small businesses and people who work in the area via email, Twitter, and in person at the first TCIO Town Hall.

Some clear themes emerged in the suggestions we received, and in particular, we were asked to focus on:

• Introducing more VCs and angels to the cluster
• Helping businesses understand and benefit from Government policies like the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme
• Developing talent in the community by improving connections with both schools and universities, as well as providing mentoring for both start-ups and larger businesses
• Continuing to raise the profile of the companies in the cluster nationally and internationally

Today, we’re publishing our priorities for 2012-2013, which have been directly influenced by the input that we’ve received from the community. In the coming year, our priorities will be to:

1. Secure foreign direct investment to Tech City
2. Help overseas investors access deal-flow in Tech City
3. Support the cluster and raise its profile, through:

• Business support
• Talent development
• Profile raising for the local companies and the cluster as a whole
• Improving connections within the cluster

You can see the full priorities document here. We’ve included our targets for each of these priorities. Our delivery against these targets will be the benchmark for our performance as an organisation in the coming year.

Thank you to all those who attended the Town Hall and made suggestions – hearing from you is incredibly important to us. Everything we do is informed by what we hear from entrepreneurs, investors and businesses already in Tech City and those who want to set up here, so we will be making Town Halls regular events where you can share your thoughts on the work we do. And, you can always contact us directly, through [email protected] or on Twitter via @techcityuk.