DIGITAL content developers and designers in Birmingham could be amongst those exhibiting their services at an international expo event.

UK Trade & Investment has billed the Milan Expo 2015, which has the theme 'Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life', as a major opportunity for British creative firms to showcase their work and improve their export potential.

The UK has already booked its place at the Milan Expo by signing a participation agreement and committing to build the pavilion which will showcase the best of UK research, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Highlighting opportunities offered by participation at the expo, Trade Minister Lord Livingston said: "Through the UK Pavilion we will reach millions of people around the globe and build on the positive perception established by the UK Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010 and the London 2012 Olympic Games." 

He said that as one of the most creative countries in the world, UKTI was looking for memorable designers that would help the UK stand head and shoulders above our international competitors

The UK plans to deliver a high-impact participation in Milan under the theme: Grown in Britain: Shared Globally. It will influence perceptions of the UK globally; stimulate domestic entrepreneurship and innovation; and increase British trade and inward investment.

Expo 2015 will raise awareness of how food production and consumption impacts on lives around the world - how food choices contribute to individual health and well-being and can have significant consequences for food supply in the developing world. Sustainability is a key component of the design brief which is currently open to competition.

142 countries worldwide are expected to take part. Sustainable development themes under discussion will include:
•    Improving food quality and security: the security of having enough food to live on, and an assurance that the food is healthy and the water drinkable;
•    Ensuring healthy and high-quality nutrition for all human beings, doing away with the hunger, drought, infantile mortality, and malnutrition that still afflict 850m people, and eradicating famine and pandemic disease;
•    Preventing new epidemics and diseases, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, by championing practices that have proven to be effective;
•    Promoting innovation in research, technology, and business practices along the entire food supply chain to improve the nutritional value, conservation, and distribution of foods;
•    Providing education in proper nutrition and encouraging more healthy lifestyles, especially among children, adolescents, the disabled, and the elderly;
•    Enhancing the value of cultural and ethnic heritage as expressed in culinary traditions.

The Milan Expo takes place between May and October next year.