Leading entrepreneurs set for breakfast event
LEADING Greater Manchester entrepreneurs have been confirmed for next week’s M.E.N breakfast event, ‘ Taking Care of Business .’
Yorkshire Bank has teamed up with The Manchester Evening News and The Telegraph for the event looking at the key challenges facing SMEs in the region in 2019.
Panel members include Elizabeth Clark, CEO and founder of machine learning ad tech company, Dream Agility.
Clark is also a mentor for Manchester Tech Trust and Tech Manchester, as well as a member of the Bury Leadership Board; working with the council, university and local MPs to encourage more children into tech and to have more relevant courses to support the jobs of the future.
Charmaine O’Connor is the CEO of Manchester-based demolition and civil engineering specialist, P. P. O’Connor.
The firm was recognised in the M.E.N Business of the Year Awards 2018 having won in the turnover between £25m-£50m category.
In 2017, the Irlam business secured the demolition of the historic grandstand and integral Queens Room at the Curragh Racecourse in County Kildare, Eire. It has also worked on the £750m Circle Square development on Oxford Road in Manchester.
Also joining the panel is Liam Manton, co-founder of Didsbury Gin, which last month successfully secured £75,000 from Dragons’ Den judge Jenny Campbell.
Jenny has taken a 33.3 per cent stake in the business, with the promise of helping them to reduce costs and increase production, so they can offer the right price point to take their gin to bigger retailers and restaurant and bar chains.
The entrepreneurs will be joined by Liam Halligan from The Teleraph. A former economics editor of The Sunday Telegraph, he remains a columnist and commentator for the weekly and weekend paper.
Also on the panel is Graeme Sands from CYBG. Graeme was head of Business Banking from March 2016 until January this year when he took up his new role as corporate banking director.
BBC News presenter Nicholas Owen will host the breakfast event.
Our panel of experts will look at some of the trends and challenges that SMEs should expect to face in 2019 to be able to thrive and survive and how they can navigate the balance between tech and the ‘human touch.’ The event, on February 20, takes place at B Works, Yorkshire Bank’s new flagship SME and retail hub. The new store on Market Street, is helping to facilitate business growth across Manchester and the wider North West, and is a fitting venue to host a discussion to highlight the key difficulties and opportunities ahead for the region’s smaller enterprises.
To attend the free breakfast event, visit www.eventbrite.co.uk .