When people ask, ‘where are you from?’ and you say, ‘Wigan.’ How do they respond?

‘You’re a pie eater then?’

Or...

‘How are the Warriors/Latics team doing?’

Or...

‘That’s the place with the pier isn’t it?’

Yes...Wigan is known for a few stereotypical things...

but what about everything else? Think about it...

Wigan has a rich industrial heritage from coal mines and cotton mills to now being home to some of the leading food production companies in the world and successful entrepreneurs who are often celebrated on the Sunday Times Rich List. Not forgetting Wigan is the birthplace of Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls!

But it’s not all work! Wigan was the epicentre of Northern Soul music with the famous Wigan Casino attracting dancers and lovers of the music from all over the country.

The town also has great foundations for the future generation with most of our schools receiving high praise from Oftsed inspections, some of the best colleges in the country on our doorstep and the hugely celebrated Wigan Youth Zone, providing young people with unparalleled resources and support as they develop into adulthood.

There is so much potential and opportunity to tap into this town – Wigan has been proven to have ‘higher production rates than Manchester’ (inews.co.uk) and yet we do not have the investment or reputation like our neighbour.

Metstrategy think it’s time to celebrate everything positive about our town and establish ourselves as the key driver within the Northern powerhouse! To do this, we are going to #engagewigan!

The North West is ranked as the lowest region in employee engagement in the UK but we believe Wigan has all the components to become the most engaged town in the UK attracting further investment into the town and positively impacting every aspect of the community!

#engagewigan aims to do this by connecting businesses, organisations and people together within the area to positively impact business growth, employee engagement and community support.

As a training company specialising in employee engagement we would understand if you thought that this works in our interest which is why we have selected Queen’s Hall Action on Poverty group as our charity of the year where profit generated from training for #engagewigan will go.

Queen’s Hall is a Wigan based charity focused on eradicating poverty and homelessness in the town which we feel is perfectly aligned with what we are trying to achieve with #engagewigan.