Our 2013 Conference 'Building an Entrepreneurial Scotland'

Published by Admin on 27 May 2013

Our 2013 conference took place on the 23rd of May at Dynamic Earth?where we welcomed 73 attendees to what was an inspiring, motivational and enjoyable day.

From the start of the day there was a fantastic buzz with delegates making many new contacts which is what we love to see.

We were delighted to have some of Scotland’s most distinguished speakers join us – Bill Jamieson, founder of Scot-Buzz and formerly Executive Editor of the Scotsman newspaper, David Sole?OBE, co-founder of the School for CEOs in London and former Scotland rugby captain and winner of our Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2012, Gavin Oattes, Managing Director of Tree of Knowledge.

Bill Jamieson of Scot-Buzz

Bill was our first speaker and he gave us a fantastic overview of the the economy and businesses in Scotland interspersed with great humour. ?The facts and figures that he manages to commit to memory are nothing short of miraculous. We were delighted to hear that there are?39,000 SMEs in Scotland employing around 1 million people which is a record high.? His key message was that?micro businesses can trump macro businesses, 95% of UK businesses have less than 10 employees and that?helping each other will drive economic recovery, we couldn’t agree more.

David Sole of the School for CEOs

David followed on from Bill and again kept the audience engaged with a witty and candid overview of leadership. ?Key messages from David were that to it’s the how of leadership that makes the difference between good and great leaders. ?It’s essential to ?create a vision that engages your team and that great?leaders attribute success to others rather than themselves, ?driving performance is key. ?We loved his ‘May the force of ?leadership be with you’ JEDI approach?

J -?judgement
E –?execution, edge, emotional intelligence
D -?drive, decision-making, development
I -?influence, inspire, innovate

Expert Panel

After a break for coffee and networking, we welcomed our Expert Panel to the stage – Paul Atkinson of Par Equity, Graham Langley of GL Capital, Jack Ogston of Davidson Chalmers, Maven Capital Partners?and Kingdom Taverns, Michelle Quance of Quanderson Solutions and Russell Dalgleish of Exolta Capital Partners. ?Bill Jamieson was Chair and as always, carried out this role perfectly.

The panel took questions from the audience on ‘Funding Sources to Grow an Entrepreneurial Business’ and shared many valuable tips and expertise including how to approach angel syndicates, what banks and investors are looking for in terms of information & key considerations and advice they would give to SMEs who are keen to be selected to join the Scottish Enterprise High Growth pipeline.

Dave Young of Larosco – Winner of the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award

We then moved on to the presentation of our inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award. ?We were delighted to announce that the winner was Dave Young of Larosco. ?Larosco is?a software development company specialising in disruptive online marketing technologies using other people?s social networks to reach a more diverse, receptive and passive audience.

Dave is without doubt one of Scotland?s most successful entrepreneurs having sold a number of businesses and his innovative and inspiring approach to business not to mention his immense talent in software development hugely impressed our judging panel. ? This is made all the more remarkable given that Dave was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease 5 years ago and despite this, he has continued to approach life with his trademark positivity and commitment to building the business.

After lunch we moved on to the workshops, there were 8 in total and each attendee was able to select the three they felt would be of most benefit to them. ?Our workshop sessions were as follows:

Customer Service & Social Media Marketing: ?the blurring lines with Gordon White of fatbuzz
Selecting & Getting the Most from Non-Executive Directors with Jack Ogston and Luke Rodwell of Talent Focus
Getting Your Business Plan & Investment Memorandum Investor Ready with Malcolm Kpedekpo of Panoramic Equity Growth
From Business Owner to Business Leader with Gillian Brown from Full Circle Development
Effective Marketing that Drives Business Growth with Justin Hutton-Penman from Flock Creative
Going for Gold in Sales with Iain Swanston of Invixo
Improve your Chances of Business Success through Effective Employee Relations with Diane Miller of RBS Mentor
Protecting Your Business in the Digital Age with Professor Stewart Brymer of Brymer Legal

Gavin Oattes of Tree of Knowledge

Our final speaker for the day was Gavin Oattes who is one of the UK’s leading motivational speakers and motivate us he certainly did! ?With hilarious anecdotes and in his usual inspiring and engaging manner, Gav kept us entertained whilst the room was filled with laughter. ?His key messages were that?business leaders need to share their knowledge not keep it to themselves, they should?always want to succeed and to be enthusiastic … ?you can always find opportunities in every situation so look for them. ?He also talked about ‘silly’ stress and encouraged us to re-live our childhoods by rolling ourselves up in our duvets and shouting “I’m a sausage roll!” and playing with cardboard boxes, maybe even climbing into one and sliding down the stairs ?shouting ‘weeeeee’!

Our thanks go to our sponsors, Santander and Webit Technologies. ?Also to all of our speakers, panel members and workshop hosts without whom the event would not have been possible. ?Thank you also to all of the attendees for joining us and making the event such a success as well as Dynamic Earth who were a pleasure to work with in the lead up to and during the event. ?Additionally, thank you to Aimable, Jason, Alex and Alison from Napier University who helped us on the day and ensured that everything ran smoothly. ?Final thanks go to Fraser Purdie of Beaten Track who did a fantastic job with all the photography on the day and also filmed the event for us, you can see more about the event in the video below.