A series of global business summits will be held during the Olympics to give UK-based companies the opportunity to grow their business internationally. Each summit will focus on a different sector, including creative industries, healthcare and engineering.

The engineering summit at Lancaster House will be attended by international delegates from the aerospace and automotive sectors, government ministers, senior UKTI members and many UK companies including McLaren and JCB.

Neil Semple, UKTI head of automotive, said: “We are using the Olympics to raise the profile of UK advanced engineering.

“We want to remind the world how strong we still are in the sector and demonstrate the areas of technology that UK companies are developing to an international audience.”

The main body of the day will be the morning programme with speakers including CEO of Airbus Americas Barry Ecclestone, and managing director of McLaren Racing Jonathan Neale. There will also be a supply chain session looking at the UK strengths in that area, led by GKN.

The morning session will conclude with case studies for companies who are interested in new technologies in the market place with examples from Rolls-Royce and Jaguar Land Rover.

SMEs have been invited to attend an afternoon session for business networking and meetings between UK and international companies with workshops on the aerospace and automotive industries.

Mark Ridgway, managing director of Group Rhodes, specialist machine tools supplier, will be attending the afternoon session and said that the opportunity is key to their international developments.

“We are currently trying to set up a supply chain in India and so the summit is a great opportunity for us to make contact with the right people. It also allows us to develop our relationships with current customers,” Mark Ridgway said.

“It is important to latch yourself on to these high profile events and I think this kind of event has been unsold in the past Olympics in China and Greece. By being attached to such a day we hope that we can encourage foreign companies to invest in us.”

The success of the summit will initially be measured through questionnaires and then more intensively followed up with feedback from UK companies and international delegates.