Eastern Promise - The Podcast
by Mike Rigby
’Eastern Promise’ showcases and celebrates the East of England and, each week, your host Mike Rigby brings you stories of opportunity, potential, success and support from England’s most diverse and exciting region! Whether Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, or ALL of the above; from the public sector to academia, charities and more! Eastern Promise is a uniquely positive voice for a uniquely wonderful region.
Episodes
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LEGACIES: The Last Maharaja Duleep Singh
Introducing LEGACIES - a new occasional mini-series looking at historical figures who've left their mark on the East of England, yet are often better known outside of the region... Deposed at 10 years old and separated from his mother, the last Maharaja of the Punjab, Duleep Singh, may seem a...
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Citizen Hub St. Neots: Redefining Community Action
Episode 184: Citizen Hub St Neots How belonging, community power and live local insight can transform a town What happens when a community stops waiting for solutions to arrive and starts building its own social infrastructure? In this episode of the Eastern Promise Podcast, Mike Rigby visits...
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The Future of Pharmacy at the University of Suffolk with Dr. Georgina Marsh
“Pharmacy is maybe a little bit like magic, in the sense that everything should happen behind the scenes and you don’t see it.” — Dr Georgina Marsh Pharmacy is changing fast. Once seen primarily as the profession that dispenses medicines, it is increasingly becoming a frontline clinical…
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Water Matters for the East of England
The Eastern Promise Podcast: Water Matters in the East of England Recorded at Grafham Water, Cambridgeshire | 10 July 2026 In this special episode, Mike Rigby is joined by three leading figures from the water sector to discuss one of the East of England's biggest strategic challenges: securing...
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Jimmy Doherty: Bears, Butterflies & Big Ambitions
Episode 181: Jimmy Doherty: Bears, Butterflies and Big Ambitions Quote of the Episode "Anyone can start a fight. Creating lasting friendships and partnerships takes work." In this episode of Eastern Promise, we visit award-winning wildlife park owner, farmer, conservationist and broadcaster Jimmy...
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Swaffham Prior - The Village That Took Control of Its Energy Future
What happens when an entire village decides to break free from fossil fuels? Mike Rigby travels to Swaffham Prior, a Cambridgeshire village near the Suffolk border that has become a pioneer in community-led, retrofitted sustainable energy. Through determination, collaboration and a shared vision,...
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Watatunga Wildlife Reserve
This week: With the Summer holidays upon us, what better time to explore Watatunga Wildlife Reserve in the company of Reserve Operations Manager, Molly Ruder! Join Molly and your host, Mike Rigby, as they head into Watatunga's 170 acres of breathtaking woodland, grassland and lakes - a stunning...
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Forest City One
This Week: I'm chatting to journalist-turned-visionary Shiv Malik, as Eastern Promise takes a look at Forest City 1. It's an exciting scheme that's certainly turning heads, as well as both asking big questions about how we want to live our lives in the future, and providing one possible answer.…
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Episode 177: The Beginner's Guide to PETERBOROUGH!
This week: Welcome you to the brickmakers' city, which sits across the main arteries of communication for all four points of the compass! This is the Beginner's Guide to PETERBOROUGH! Our panel of local and sector specialists are: ARU Peterborough's Assistant Principal (PFHEA) Professor Tom...
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Episode 176: 'Everything you ever wanted to know about Cambridge (but were afraid to ask)...' - CWOW 2026 Special
From the sun-kissed garden of O2H Group's UK HQ, Hauxton House, Eastern Promise brings you our contribution to Cambridge Wide Open Week 2026: 'Everything you ever wanted to know about Cambridge (but were afraid to ask)...' Your host Mike Rigby has the questions and we've assembled an incredible...
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Episode 175: How Norwich's research institutes communicate impact
In this second part of our mammoth two-part roundtable featuring the UKRI-funded institutes and partners on the Norwich Research Park, we look at how these institutes communicate the impact of research, the commercialisation of discovery and the way science and research influence the…
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Episode174: Norwich's Research Institutes at the Royal Norfolk Show 2026
This week: You join us for Part One of a mammoth two-part roundtable, taking in the UKRI-funded institutes and partners on the Norwich Research Park. In this opening episode, your host Mike Rigby finds out more about the all-new Innovation Zone at this year's Royal Norfolk Show. Joining us are…
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Episode 173: Solving the East of England's Skills Challenge
This episode is about one of the biggest barriers to growth in the East of England — skills. We're at the University of Cambridge’s Bennett School of Public Policy with a region-wide panel of experts from education, business and industry. We’re unpacking this recent report from the Bennett School...
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Episode 172: The East of England Energy Group's Southern North Sea Conference 2026
This Week: We join the East of England Energy Group (EEEGR) at the Norfolk Showground and Events Centre for the 2026 Southern North Sea conference. It's the second day of this two-day event, and you get to come along as we visit stands in the exhibition hall, chatting to EEEGR members and...
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Episode 171: 'Beyond Entertainment' - The Games Growth Plan for the East
This week: We're at the Norwich University of the Arts to discuss their recent report -'Beyond Entertainment' - on powering up the East of England's cutting-edge gaming industry. Your host Mike Rigby is joined by Professor Mark Wickham, lead gaming lecturer and an advisor to TIGA, the Independent...
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Episode 170: Day 2 at UKREiiF 2026
The second day of the UK Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum 2026 (aka #UKREiiF) was, contrary to expectations, packed with awesome, timely, and thought provoking panels and the opportunity to chat to key figures from the East of England and beyond. That's why our Day Two round-up is…
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Episode 169: Yesterday at UKREiiF (Day 1)
This week: Eastern Promise is at UKREiiF 2026 at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, bringing you the best of the East of England here at the show! We begin in the Norfolk & Suffolk pavilion with key members of both counties' Business Boards, before hotfooting it to the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor...
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Episode 168 - Previewing UKREiiF 2026!
This week: The Eastern Promise podcast is your guide to the week ahead in Leeds for #UKREiiF 2026! Host Mike Rigby chats to three key players in the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority's (CPCA) programme for the UK's Real Estate, Investment and Infrastructure Forum: Martin Woodhouse,...
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Episode 167: Babraham Research Campus
This week: It's a privilege for Eastern Promise to bring you our visit to the Babraham Research Campus to the south of Cambridge, at the invitation of Chief Scientific and Innovation Officer, Dr Louise Jopling! Our own Mike Rigby, will be chatting to Lou about innovation the Babraham way, looking...
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Episode 166: The Norwich Financial Industry Group Annual Conference 2026
This Week: We take you inside Aviva's iconic Marble Hall, where the Norwich Financial Industry Group (FIG) is meeting for its 2026 Annual Conference. This year's theme is 'People': an especially prescient theme as the AI revolution gathers pace. Host Mike Rigby talks to keynote speakers Gautam...
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Episode 165: Abbey People
This week: Eastern Promise's own Mike Rigby heads for Barnwell Road, on Cambridge's Abbey estate, where hyperlocal charity, Abbey People, are working incredibly hard to help residents move from surviving to thriving. Mike joins Chief Executive Nicky Shepard and her team - Food Hub Coordinator...
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Episode 164: Stephen Crocker, Norwich Theatre CEO
This week: We drop in on Stephen Crocker, CEO and Creative Director of Norwich Theatre. We ask Stephen about his career, whether behind or in front of the curtain; the three stages across the City of Stories that make up the Norwich Theatre; how Norwich Theatre lives and breathes its values and…
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Episode 163: Cllr Cameron Holloway, Leader of Cambridge City Council
This Week: Your host Mike Rigby chats to Councillor Cameron Holloway, Leader of Cambridge City Council. We discuss his ward, the side of Cambridge many people seldom see, and also the impact of the Cambridge x Manchester Innovation Partnership. Not only that, Cameron also discusses the hugely...
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Episode 162: The Beginner's Guide to IPSWICH!
This Week: We return to our special series of 'Beginner's Guides' with a deep dive into the East of England's town & city ecosystems. And in this episode, we take on Suffolk's county town - IPSWICH! You join your host, Mike Rigby, at the University of Suffolk with an extraordinary panel: Provost…
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Episode 161: Establishing a Greater Cambridge Development Corporation
This week: We're taking a closer look at Government proposals to establish a centrally-led Urban Development Corporation (UDC) for Greater Cambridge. Taking us through the proposals, including what exactly is being proposed, the powers a UDC will have, the difference a UDC can make and the size…
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Episode 160: Paul Bristow, Mayor of the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority
This week: Eastern Promise host Mike Rigby sits down to chat with Mayor of the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority, Paul Bristow. We discuss Paul's hometown of Peterborough, the Cambridge x Manchester Partnership, the difference between being a mayor and his previous role as an MP…
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Episode 159: The Norfolk Farming Conference
This Week: With a packed hall of farmers, agronomists, scientists and agricultural luminaries old and young, we're glad Mike Rigby dropped in on the 2026 Norfolk Farming Conference! Calling in first on the Food and Farming Discovery Trust's splendid mobile classroom, we hear from Trust Manager...
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Episode 158: Form the Future's Annual Conference 2026
This Week: Form the Future is one-of-a-kind; a unique bridge between the worlds of education and work. This Cambridge-based CIC is rightly praised for its work in lifting the horizons of young people in the #EastofEngland and beyond, so Eastern Promise didn't hesitate to send Mike Rigby along to...
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Episode 157: Cambridge Science Centre
This Week: As the magnificent Cambridge Science Centre publishes its new Strategic Plan for 2026-2031, Eastern Promise's own Mike Rigby chats with the centre's CEO on the intent behind the Strategic Plan, their outreach strategy and the drive to not only make the centre 'best in class', but also…
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Episode 156: The Beginner's Guide to CAMBRIDGE!
This Week: Confused by Cambridge? Well, Eastern Promise has your back and help is at hand! We bid you welcome to this first in our occasional series exploring our region's main urban ecosystems, the BEGINNER'S GUIDES! In this first of our special episodes, Mike Rigby is joined by local experts to...
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Episode 155: Norfolk's Ambassadors
This Week: We meet three of Norfolk's incredible coterie of AMBASSADORS! Meet Matt Smith of Place UK, Candy Richards of the Federation of Small Businesses, and Chris Spinks of Westcotec, who will be sharing with you: Their love for Norfolk; What makes the county unique; and Why families,...
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Episode 154: The Oxford-Cambridge Supercluster Board!
This Week! We're kicking off 2026 in style, and focussed on what's currently the most important economic development project in the UK - The Oxford Cambridge Corridor. Our navigators to this galactic-scale potential are the Oxford-Cambridge Supercluster Board, ably represented by Chair Andy...
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Episode 153: Looking back at 2025 & ahead to 2026! (PLUS more Xmas Charity Appeals)
This Week: We round off our Christmas Charity Appeal open mic with the Big C Cancer Charity and the MedCan Foundation! Find out more about our 2025 featured charities here: Abbey People The Big C - Norfolk's Cancer Charity The Cambridge Acorn Project The MedCan Foundation Then! We take a long,...
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Episode 152: Playlist Power! How AI is empowering Music in the Fight Against Dementia! (PLUS Christmas Appeal Open Mic!)
This Week: We find out how, for dementia patients and their families, the hits of their youth have now become a critical bridge, especially when communication falters. We'll meet Music for My Mind's Dimana Georgieva at Cambridge Consultant's HQ on Cambridge Science Park, along with CC's AI…
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Episode 151: LIVE EVENT! Skills, Careers & Policy
This Week: On 21st November 2025, Eastern Promise held a live event at Mills & Reeve's Cambridge office, focussed around skills, careers and creating better policy on both. However, this recording, in front of a live audience set out to do something different: to talk to a group of young people...
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Episode 150: Haverhill's EpiCentre is Five!
This Week: Mike Rigby joins the fun and frolics (there were frolics, weren't there?) to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the opening of Haverhill's very own innovation hub, the EpiCentre! Eastern Promise's own Grand Fromage, Mike Rigby, joins the jamboree and, at the invitation of Centre…
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Episode 149: 'High Streets Matter' in North Walsham
This Week: High Streets Matter! They matter across our region and they matter in North Walsham, where your host, Mike Rigby, finds himself this week. In the company of Alexandra Hemen of New Anglia Growth Hub, visits the magnificent Black Swan Pub and Theatre to chat with landlord, actor and...
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Episode 148: Cambridge Consultants
This Week: 'Ahead of the Curve' could well be Cambridge Consultant's business address. Indeed, these global professional problem solvers, part of Capgemini Invent, thrive on getting out in front and staying there. After an illuminating press day, host Mike Rigby is joined by Head of Biotechnology...
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Episode 147: EI Innovate 2025 at the Earlham Institute
This Week: We start a new 6-week run of the Eastern Promise podcast at the Earlham Institute on Norwich Research Park! This event looks at the latest developments in genomics and brings together industry, academia, and Knowledge Transfer Partnership experts from Innovate UK. Your host, Mike…
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Episode 146: The Cambridge Tech Podcast
This Week: We welcome the two leading lights of the Cambridge Tech Podcast, all-round ecosystem lynchpin Faye Holland and MD of the iconic Bradfield Centre and NFL fan, James Parton! We'll discuss how they do what they do, the importance of Faye's rolodex and what drives their pod forward! Host...
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Episode 145: Cambridge Tech Week's Innovation Alley
This Week: You didn't think we'd forgotten about Cambridge Tech Week, did you? Certainly not! In fact your own (and you're welcome to him) Mike Rigby hits the anything-but-mean streets of the Cambridge Guildhall for 'Innovation Alley', and what an incredible experience it is... We chat to some of...
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Episode 144: The John Innes Centre
This Week: We peek behind the scenes at one of the most consequential research institutes in the world, let alone the UK or the East of England! Nestling at the heart of the Norwich Research Park, the John Innes Centre is home to the UK's greatest concentration of plant and microbial science and...
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Episode 143: The Cambridge Innovation Story
This Week: When Innovate Cambridge call and say "we'd like to talk about the HUGE week ahead for the city and both the tech and life science ecosystems", you drop EVERYTHING! And so, dear listener, we did... So it was that your host, Mike Rigby, dropped in on The Glasshouse - home of Innovate...
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Episode 142: Health Innovation East, with Piers Ricketts
This Week: We are at one of the most important locations in the East of England for furthering, supporting and unleashing our region's innovative and entrepreneurial spirits in all manners health-related. Yes! Mike Rigby is heading to Health Innovation East! The key reason Health Innovation East...
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Episode 141: King's Lynn Enterprise Park
This Week: Eastern Promise roars back from our Summer hiatus, with a trip to the new King's Lynn Enterprise Park! Your host (with, if not the most, then at least a bit), Mike Rigby, headed over to the Enterprise Park to meet Cllr Simon Ring, Deputy Leader of the Borough Council of King's Lynn and...
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Episode 140: Well:O - a new approach to dental wellness!
This Week: We pay a visit to the Cambridge Independent Business Awards' Start-Up of the Year 2024 - oral wellbeing experts Well:O! We sent our own Mike Rigby to meet co-founder Felix von Nathusius and Clinical Director Shelley Belgrove to chat about the Well:O story, the beautiful and decidedly...
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Episode 139: University of Suffolk research into hybrid working (PLUS! online meeting app, YakBit)
This Week: Dr Laura Reeves of the University of Suffolk takes us through her research on hybrid (AKA agile) working and its emphasis on belonging. Laura takes us through her findings and conclusions of the research, before asking 'what next'? But that's not all by ANY means! Still on the hybrid...
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Episode 138: Cambridge Wireless CEO Michaela Eschbach
This Week: We chat to Cambridge Wireless CEO Michaela Eschbach about her career path to the top of this global connections community. We ask her what exactly IS Cambridge Wireless - aka CW - and how does it leverage the world-famous name in its title? We'll also look at what's to come during...
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Episode 137: The Royal Norfolk Show 2025
This week: It's the Royal Norfolk Show 2025! What more needs be said? Only that regular host Mike Rigby is again joined by show co-host Dr Penny Hundleby of the John Innes Centre to tour the avenues and boulevards and winkle out the best bits for our Eastern Promise podcast audience! Thank you...
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Episode 136: King's Lynn Festival & On Set with 'Chicken Town'
This Week: It's arts and culture a-go-go, as first we travel to King's Lynn to chat with Anna Pool, Festival Manager for the King's Lynn Festival, about the exciting programme of classical music concerts, talks and tours! Then, we go behind the camera and 'on set' of the new Norfolk-set comedy...
About this show
’Eastern Promise’ showcases and celebrates the East of England and, each week, your host Mike Rigby brings you stories of opportunity, potential, success and support from England’s most diverse and exciting region! Whether Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, or ALL of the above; from the public sector to academia, charities and more! Eastern Promise is a uniquely positive voice for a uniquely wonderful region.
Hosted by
Mike Rigby
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