Festival of Female Entrepreneurs [Write-up]
Attending conferences can be a great way to raise your profile and network with your target audience and peers.
Earlier this year I attended the Festival of Female Entrepreneurs which returned to Bristol for its sixth year on 20 October and was held at the Bristol Harbour Hotel. I have not attended FFE for a few years, so it was great to attend again this year. I arrived promptly and was lucky to get a seat near the front and had coffee and a chat with the people sitting near me. It was great to see that people had travelled from all over the UK (not just from London and Bristol).
We were treated with a great line-up for the day kicking off with a welcome from Emma Jones, the founder of Enterprise Nation who was joined by Bristol’s own Deputy mayor Asher Craig (who also announced that she’s launching her own business!). Asher Craig talked about the importance of inspiring the next generation of young women with inspiring female role models. A theme that was to repeat itself through the day.
Festival of Female Entrepreneurs – The Talks
The first talk of the day was entitled ‘Why I turned down the Dragons’ interviewed by ‘the one that got away’ which featured Rob Law, CEO and founder of kids travel accessories company Trunki (whose HQ is in Bristol I should add in case you don’t know), who was turned down for investment on TV’s Dragons’ Den but went on to achieve massive success, interviews Julianne Ponan, founder of Creative Nature, who secured investment on the show but turned it down.
Creative Nature is a superfoods snack business. Julianne Ponan was used to making her own snacks, from bars to baking mixes due to her allergies, this expertise was used to create a range of allergen free foods and her products are available in most supermarkets in the UK. She told of us the challenges in growing the business, getting funding and getting publicity. Both Rob and Julianne talked about the experience of Dragon’s den and the publicity that appearing on Dragon’s den brought them. Great interview.
Next up we had “Square up to your brand sales” and Sarah Harvey, head of UK for payments company Square interviewed a panel of retailers for top tips on how to grow your sales including one of my personal favourites Rebecca Jay, founder, Dodo Pad, Paula Field, manager, South Street Kitchen and Carrie Hyndman, founder, Junkbox Couture. We heard their stories on how they started and grow their business and the role that technology plays in this. POS systems like Square have changed the way in which small businesses sell. Rebecca Jay demonstrated that payments really can be taken anyway by showing us that she had her Square in her pocket.
This was followed by a interesting talk on “Sourcing celebrities as brand ambassadors” and businesses owners Geeta Sidhu-Robb, CEO & founder, Nosh Detox, Tricia Cusden, founder, Look Fabulous Forever and Caroline Jackson, founder, Little Women Bras who have used celebrities as brand ambassadors. Perhaps more importantly we also learned that “Yes, you’re never too young to start a business. But you’re also never too old!” which was met with cheers of approval. Tricia Cusden shared that she was 65 when she started her business. However, all three ladies in this panel were very inspiring.
After the coffee break Aron Gelbard, founder of online success story Bloom & Wild told us about his letter box Christmas Trees (you can read more about these here) and emphasised the importance of customer experience and the need for strong values which should be decided early on in your business.
Then we had Alison Battisby from Avocado Social share with us some practical social media tips including the importance of having a voice and being yourself. She talked us through example of what other brands are doing on social media and the type of content they are producing and sharing. My favourite tip was not everything on social media has to be perfect. show your imperfections.
After lunch we had Edwina Dunn serial entrepreneur and inventor of Tesco Clubcard, sharing her thoughts on loyalty and why it’s key to business success. She also talked about some of her other fantastic and inspiring project such as Your Life and The Female Lead (find out more about these here).
Next Emma Jones interviews Daniel Korski CBE, a former special adviser to prime minister David Cameron and co-founder and CEO of Public, a venture firm focused on helping technology start-ups transform public services and asks “Could the UK become the Silicon Valley of government technology?” Daniel Korski shared some great advice including “It’s not about people you know, but people who know you”. The public sector often goes unnoticed in the world of entrepreneurs however more and more people are doing work for and with the public sector and the public sector is not as resistant to change as we might think. So if you are a tech co and want to work with public services – this might be an investment option for you.
On the topic “Digital Disruptors: What’s next for digital?” Jamie Middleton, editor of TechSpark then interviewed Jazz Gakhal, director, Direct Line For Business, Zoe Hominick, head of business marketing, O2 Business and Helen Smyth, head of SMB community engagement, Facebook. Helen Smyth from Facebook shared her knowledge about how to make the most of Facebook’s 40 million active users and the importance of mobile. After all the average person checks their phone 80 times a day. Interesting insights from all of the interviewees on mobile, data and customer experience, being global and protecting your business. Lots of food for thought.
Female Start-Up of the Year Competition
The Return of the Female Start-up of the Year meant that last year’s winner Mel Bounds, founder of This Mum Runs returned (in her amazing yellow shoes) to discuss the past 12 months since being crowned Female Start-up of the Year 2016 was interviewed by Dan Martin. This included insight such as “Taking time out of the business is just as important as time spent working on the business.” A fantastic story which led nicely into the 2017 competition and a quick interview with 14yo India & Sienna founders of Eat Me App who went on to win at Pitch at the Palace.
Female Start-up of the Year 2017 saw Three Enterprise Nation members will pitch live on stage with the chance of winning the title of Female Start-up of the Year 2017. The judges were Helen Smyth, head of SMB community engagement, Facebook; Last year’s winner Mel Bound, founder, This Mum Runs; Mike Jackson, investor, entrepreneur & director of scale-ups at Shaw & Co; Sharron Gunn, executive director, ICAEW; Alison Edgar, The Entrepreneur’s Godmother and Carolyn Radford, serial entrepreneur and CEO of Mansfield Town FC. We saw three fantastic pitches: Sarah Stenhouse, founder of Pixey.io; Joy Foster from TechPixies; and Rebecca of The Country Dog Hotel. I really enjoyed all three pitches and all of them handled the pressure and the questions from the judges very well.
The final talk of the day was Challenging the norm: Carolyn Radford, serial entrepreneur and CEO of Mansfield Town FC. Carolyn accepted the position of chief executive officer at Mansfield Town at the age of just 29, becoming the youngest football CEO in the country, a title she still holds. Since then, she has helped mastermind the club’s return to the English Football League and has transformed the club’s previously plummeting finances, to become a business that is now expected to become profitable this financial year. She talked about the challenges of being a women in a male dominated world – it was an interesting talk from a unique perspective.
After we had the final talk from Carolyn we had the annnoucement of the winner of the Female Start-up of the Year 2017 Competition. Joy Foster the founder of Techpixies was crowned the winner for her amazing business for helping upskill women with tech skills with the aim of helping them return to work and creating a supportive community. Well-deserved!
Overall a fantastic event with lots of insights and inspiration. Looking forward to the next one.
