On 21st February 2012 we held our bi-annual 'Turbo Charge Your Business' forum at the Royal Institute to an incredible reception of attendees and keynote speakers. The day was a huge success, providing a rare opportunity for entrepreneurs across Britain to gather together and hear how they can boost the performance of their businesses.
With a turn out that included a broad mix of CEO's and Director's to start-up business owners and investors, guests arrived and the day kicked off with the busy exchange of business cards and non-stop networking. After an introduction from Entrepreneur Country's Julie Meyer, Martha Lane Fox of Lastminute.com began the proceedings with an account of being a part of the original boom in internet business and a 'dot com dinosaur,' discussing the important of having a vision and selling it, as well as hiring the best. Kanya King MBE was one of the attendees and Tweeted how glad she was that Fox had 'spoken about diversity in business and the important of reflecting upon the make up of society.'
Russ Shaw took over the lead next, with an inspirational speech that included the lines "dare to be different...aim for the breakthrough...find the opening." As former Vice President of Skype, Russ shared a dialogue of digital know-how that allowed an effortless flow into the next speech from Jed Simmons of YouTube glory. With a positive approach directed at start-ups, Jed reiterated the importance of belief in your business and getting clued up on the details early on, as well as speaking on the rise of YouTube and the part he played as original programmer.
After a brief break for morning tea and coffee, Peter Cunningham of INPUT provided a genuine example of a British entrepreneur who has reaped success in the US, promoting a real life, sobering account of his business journey. David Willbe represented Crowell and Moring's Law Firm and listed key legal rules for start ups along with engaging case studies that lifted an often dry subject. Our December magazine cover star, Paul Lindley, was up next and retold the Ella's Kitchen Story of Fast Growth, including within his speech the engagement of the children's market by inspiring emotion with your brand. Allinbox and Screenreach concluded with a pitch session and Enterprise Ireland released a melody of statistics on the huge business opportunities opening up within our neighbour country.
Once the first batch of speeches were complete, guests moved to the dining hall for a lavish buffet lunch with more opportunity to network. Keynote speakers moved around attendees and answered questions and the room was brimming with conversation on the days proceedings. Delegates then began to move back to the theatre in time for an Olympic themed double act in the form of Kulveer Ranger and Caroline Rowland, who have both capitalised on the London games. Director to the Mayor for Environment and Digital, Kulveer brought forth a flurry of exciting facts, including WIFI availability at 120 tube stations and that digital will become the new currency. Caroline Rowland sent tingles up spines with a viewing of the video that won her the Olympic bid and IBM concluded with a digital themed session on the benefits of cloud computing, followed by Microsoft discussing businesses thriving through digital developments.
After a comfort break, Marcelle Speller OBE made a point to social business on not relying on government and to stick in there, because 'the darkest hour is just before dawn.' A panel discussion proceeded, providing valuable advice on securing funding before Ashley Faull of Postgoldforcash.com fame discussed selling up and moving on to BIDUPTV.com, reiterating the importance of not being mediocre and 'not getting screwed on your way out.' Concluding the day was Linda Cheung, CEO of Cube Social, who provided an intriguing example of 'Twitter is a cocktail party and Facebook is a house party' to highlight the corporate use of social media.
As the day came to a close, the response from our attendees was magnificent and the corridors were alive with discussion on how well the event went. The day was a complete success and guests noted that they left feeling inspired, invigorated and bursting with ideas.
We thank all Entrepreneur Country Citizens who were able to attend the event and we look forward to seeing you at our next Forum!
To see video interviews with our keynote speakers, please scroll down
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Category: Past Events
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