Yesterday we held our Enterprise Ignition – Inclusive Growth event in the centre of Newcastle, in the only elliptical church in England near our prestigious Quayside. The All Saints Church became the ideal venue for all of our attendees yesterday bringing together a mixed cohort of local fresh faced businesses and start-up leaders.
A venue we may well revisit and highly recommend for any future business or network events.
The event, in collaboration with NatWest Group, SME Centre of Excellence and Tees Valley Business Hub, was a chance to provide some inspiration, guidance and support from some very special guests and speakers to those struggling to get their ideas off the ground or even moving further forward with their operations.
A big thanks to those guests and speakers including:
Ammar Mirza CBE, Enterprise & Innovation Leader in the North East, Asian Business Connexions Founder and Chair.
Jordan Dargue, Women Angel of the North, Investor & Business Growth Consultant, Director at Tees Valley Business Hub.
Jalf Ali, Award Winning Restaurateur & Entrepreneur (Khai Khai and Dabbawal).
Helen Lee, Programme Manager at the North East Local Enterprise Partnership.
Rachel Morris, Associate Director at Academic Health Science Network for the North East and North Cumbria.
Victoria Strassheim, Pain Workstream Project Lead for the Pain Pathway at the AHSN NENC.
Amjid Khazir, Founder and Director of Media Cultured CIC.
Kumareswaradas Ramanathas, Executive Manager at Young Asian Voices.
Asian Inspired Tea
Our guests were given the opportunity to network with others before enjoying a fantastic Asian-inspired tea.
It seemed like everyone enjoyed the food provided, which is always a good thing at our events!
In Conversation with...
Our guests then joined 'in conversation with Jalf Ali' including a Q & A section which was closely followed by a panel session focusing on how to maximise support across the ecosystem, hosted by Jordan Dargue. The panellists included:
Yohlar Inclusion Framework - an Interactive Session
The next section of the event included Amjid Khazir, Founder and Director of Media Cultured CIC, Victoria Strassheim from the AHSN and Ammar Mirza CBE, our own Founder and Chair at ABC.
They discussed how developing an Inclusive Culture can help start and scale businesses. One of the ways that businesses can do this, is by using the Yohlar inclusive innovation framework.
Yohlar is a suite of interactive learning and engagement experiences that helps you unlock your potential and achieve sustainable inclusion through innovation. Through embedding a unique innovation toolset, skillset and mindset that drives personal and organisational transformation, the Yohlar Power of Three equips to explore opportunities, overcome challenges and find solutions.
Business Networking
Of course when you get a number of mixed businesses and leaders in a venue like this, there is always an opportunity for networking. We ended with guests being able to network with others and discuss their experiences not only at the event, but in their everyday lives when starting or thinking about starting a business.
We always feel that being able to network together is invaluable, sharing ideas and experiences, especially when starting a business.
It seemed like our guests maximised this opportunity.
Take a look at how it unfolded...
Did you attend? Let us know what you thought, drop a comment on our social media channel - we always enjoy feedback, it helps us fix things and make them better 😉
We would like to say a huge thank you to all our guests, speakers, partners and facilitators for making this event possible.
It has been an incredibly inspiring and thought-provoking experience while gaining valuable business insights from our expert speakers!
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