What are you doing on the 16th of November?
I’m going to be in Edinburgh City Chambers hanging out with entrepreneurs.
I don’t know about you, but finding time to network is tricky for me. I can’t do early mornings due to family commitments and evening events usually start too early for me to manage the logistics. I prefer attending one-off conferences and following up with calls and coffees.
This is why Global Entrepreneur Week, from Business Gateway, appeals to me. The Business Conference on the Thursday has a great line up of speakers, including Karen Knowles of Bon Accord, Lynn Mann of Super Nature, Fiona Ogg of Lead a Bright Future and Bill Lees of JBT FoodTech Ltd.
Incidentally, isn’t it nice to see so many women on the bill?
I’m also interested to hear what Keynote Speaker Josiah Lockhart has to say. He’s the outgoing CEO of Gorgie City Farm (a big hit with my kids) and ran a successful crowdfunding campaign to raise £100,000 in less than six weeks. Given that my client GlenWyvis is in the middle of a similar initiative, I’m very keen to hear about his experience.
The rest of the week has a programme of workshops, including Doing Business in China, where Chinese qualified lawyers can give advice on IP protection and other practical tips.
I think the video creation workshop will be popular and I see the SEO and Networking events are already fully booked.
All the events are free, so I think it’s worth taking the time away from the office. I know a lot of the growing companies I speak to are so focused on the day to day business that events like these are seen as a bit of a luxury.
An editor of a rival magazine once said to me “you always get something from being out and about” when I complained that a launch event hadn’t yielded the story I’d expected – and she was right. Someone I’d met there moved jobs and became a very valuable contact.
Check it out, and if you’re going to the Conference I hope we can say hello in real life.
Kim McAllister is a Journalist & Communications Consultant and director of Impact Online
