APEX Unveils ‘Vantage Communities’ A Bold New Platform Set to Transform Collaboration Across the North East

L-R Phil Gray Claire Pickersgill Julie Turnbull John Forth

A major shift in how businesses connect, collaborate and grow has been unveiled with the introduction of APEX Phase 2: Vantage Communities, a pioneering regional platform designed to transform the way organisations access opportunity and build meaningful partnerships.

Following the success of the APEX membership community, founders have revealed this next evolution as a response to a rapidly changing business landscape where collaboration, connectivity and access to wider ecosystems are becoming critical drivers of growth.

Launched in January 2026, APEX is a collaboration between The Collective founders Claire Pickersgill and Julie Turnbull alongside the team behind Is This You? John Forth, Phil Gray, David Beharall and Steve Beharall, bringing together deep expertise across leadership, founder wellbeing, PR, business growth and community infrastructure.

The initiative reflects a growing recognition that the traditional business interface is evolving. Networks, communities, investor groups and sector hubs can no longer operate in isolation and those that connect effectively have the opportunity to unlock disproportionate growth.

The unveiling comes during a period of strong momentum for the wider ecosystem. The Collective where recently named finalists in the prestigious Business IQ Awards for their impact on employee wellbeing and support for the North East business community, while Is This You? has secured a recent contract with FTSE 100 company Sage, reinforcing the growing credibility and reach of the organisations behind the platform.

Vantage Communities has been designed to sit above and across the existing business ecosystem, connecting networking groups, founder communities, investor networks, sector-specific organisations, innovation hubs and support programmes into one aligned infrastructure.

Claire Pickersgill said:

“We are seeing a fundamental shift in how businesses grow. It is no longer just about individual networks; it is about connected ecosystems. Vantage Communities creates the infrastructure for that shift, where collaboration becomes intentional, visible, and accessible across the entire region.

The North East has everything it needs to become one of the UK’s strongest collaborative business regions. The talent is already here, the ambition is already here, and Vantage Communities is about bringing those pieces together.”

Rather than replacing what already exists, the platform strengthens it, enabling each community to retain its identity while becoming part of a wider interconnected system.

This structure allows:

• Communities to continue operating independently with their own members and purpose

• Cross-community visibility and collaboration at scale

• Members to access a significantly wider network of opportunity

• Stronger pathways between founders, investors, corporates and support organisations

• Increased deal flow, partnership creation and regional connectivity

At its core, Vantage Communities is built on a simple but powerful principle: collaboration is now a primary driver of business growth.

Julie Turnbull added:

“We’ve built communities where people feel seen, supported, and connected and now we’re taking that to a regional level. Vantage Communities has the potential to completely reshape how businesses collaborate across the North East and beyond.

Growth now happens through access, relationships, and shared opportunity. This platform ensures that whether you are part of a small founder community or a large investor network, you are connected into something much bigger and that creates real, tangible opportunity.”

John Forth said:

“This is about removing fragmentation. Businesses don’t grow in isolation; they grow through connection. By linking communities together, we create more moments where the right people are in the same ‘room’ at the right time.”

Phil Gray added:

“This is for every part of the ecosystem — networking groups, investor communities, sector hubs, innovation programmes and established organisations. When these are connected, the region becomes far more powerful than the sum of its parts.”

The platform is being developed in liaison with strategic partners across the region, with a long-term ambition to roll out across multiple UK regions, creating a scalable model for interconnected business ecosystems, with the APEX team now seeking further strategic partnership and regional backing to support the next phase of development and expansion.

Rather than a traditional network, Vantage Communities is positioned as infrastructure, designed to sit across existing systems to enable greater flow of opportunity, collaboration and growth.

The long-term vision is bold say the founders – “to establish the North East as the blueprint for a new era of regional economic connectivity”.

The initiative aligns with core regional priorities including inclusive economic growth, innovation, entrepreneurship, leadership development, workforce wellbeing and cross-sector collaboration.

“This is a defining moment,” said David Beharall, “Unlike traditional networking models, Vantage Communities is designed to strengthen existing communities rather than compete with them.”

Julie added: “We have an opportunity to create something genuinely transformational, a connected ecosystem where no business is isolated from opportunity, and where access, collaboration and connection drive the next wave of growth in the North East.”