More than 3,000 tickets have already been booked for the events, making it one of the region's biggest and most influential annual business-to-business events.
The festival has been organised by Business Growth West Midlands (BGWM), which is part of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).
The Mayor said:"I am delighted to launch the West Midlands’ first ever business festival. And with 3,000 businesses and entrepreneurs booked to attend, it promises to be an unmissable event.
“Our SMEs are the lifeblood of our economy and that’s why I’m backing thousands of them with expert support and more than £10m in grants awarded in less than a year.
“The next two weeks are packed with even more incredible opportunities for businesses to connect and collaborate with each other and help drive our economy to the next level.”
The West Midlands Business Festival is being backed by all three of the region’s Chambers of Commerce, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), universities, and many other business organisations.
Today’s opening event heard from Giles Atwell and Steve Russell, founders of Birmingham-based chocolatiers Russell & Attwell, BBC’s The Apprentice finalist Scarlett Allen-Horton, Mattie Yeta, chief sustainability officer for CGI, an IT and business consulting services firm with an office in Solihull.
They all shared their inspirational accounts of how they navigated the business world in their journeys to success.
Also among the speakers were festival event hosts Rob Harrison, from Midlands-based Glued Marketing, Anthony Tattum, co-founder and chief marketing officer for Leopard Co, a marketing and communications agency based in Birmingham, and Rosvaldas Povilionis, from Innovation Alliance West Midlands.
The packed programme of events over the coming fortnight includes free-to-attend workshops, masterclasses, how-to sessions, summits, networking opportunities, and other events for start-ups, executives, entrepreneurs, and people at the beginning of their careers.
Place can still be booked online at www.wmbf.org.uk.
