TechBlast UK

Today we can reveal our full line-up of experts for the growth masterclasses at FUEL Manchester 2024 next month. Supported by GM Business Growth Hub, Bruntwood SciTech and The University of Salford Business School, the event will see 25 startups and scaleups meet these experts in a series of ask-me-anything sessions across funding, growth planning, people & performance and technology. More than 100 people have already registered for the breakfast panel, hosted by Christopher Maguire, which precedes it. Funding experts: Guy Remond, founder, EHE Ventures David Levine, MD, Glenluna Ventures / principal, Manchester Angels Frazer Durris, founder, Trigpoint Ventures Technology experts: Dr Richard Whittle, #AI and dark patterns expert, The University of Salford Anna Dick, CTO, Capsule George Goudie, CTO, Dote (rebranded from Aibytech) & fractional CTO People & performance experts: Mehdi Kordi PhD, head of sprint performance for the Netherlands cycling team at the recent Paris 2024 Olympic Games Janine Smith, director, GM Business Growth Hub Beckie Taylor, co-founder, Tech Returners Isobelle Panton, director of student recruitment and international, University Academy 92 (UA92) Growth planning experts: Liz Ashall-Payne, founder & CEO, ORCHA Dez Derry, investor and founder of Blume Andrew Duckworth, co-founder, eComplete Group Adam Ward, founder & CEO, Airtime There are still places available for both the breakfast panel audience and on the cohort - sign up now 👇 https://lnkd.in/eKApyiq7

"If you choose the wrong investor, there's no going back." Frazer Durris sold the business he mapped out with Dean Cockett on a kitchen table in 2010 in a multi-million-pound deal three years ago. Now the founder of Trigpoint Ventures, he is set to pass on his knowledge at FUEL Manchester 2024 - a unique event on 16th October supported by GM Business Growth Hub, Bruntwood SciTech and Salford Business School at The University of Salford. Frazer will join Guy Remond and David Levine in giving a select group of growing businesses advice in funding masterclasses. Among other nuggets of wisdom, he tells us: “You have to meet investors, understand their values and investment objectives and be absolutely clear on what the impact or influence will be on you and the business. “Speak to other businesses they have invested in and get a good advisor. Take your time, ask lots of questions, get to know them." Places are still available for the breakfast audience and masterclasses. Register 👇 https://lnkd.in/ewbJjUQ6

Want to succeed in business? Be the purple cow. 🦙 Celia Gaze 🦙 MBA says businesses need to stand out from their rivals if they want to succeed. She’s the founder of The Wellbeing Farm : B Corp Certified venue experience in Edgeworth, near Blackburn, which employs 30 people and has a turnover of more than £1m. Asked for her advice to other entrepreneurs, she said: “You’ve got to stand out and differentiate your business from the crowd – be the purple cow." The venue is powered by a wind turbine and is famous for its llamas, alpacas and even a sheep called Sandra! Gaze praised the help she’s received from Boost; Lancashire's Business Growth Hub, which has included mentoring, guidance and support through Covid. https://lnkd.in/eQFpxUfH

GM Business Growth Hub has revealed the 25 businesses which will make up the first cohort for its ASCEND Scale Up Programme. The businesses – across multiple sectors including #AI & #robotics, #cybersecurity, fashion & beauty, #FinTech, renewable energy and #SaaS – will come together for a launch event this evening which kicks off six months of support delivered in partnership with KPMG UK. As part of the programme, they will attend Web Summit in Portugal in November. Congratulations to: 30Seconds Group Carrs Pasties Ltd CDD Services Circle of Trust CODE Beautiful Digitech Oasis MADE BY ZEN LONDON Flight Patrol H2Origin Refills Icon Sports Group Mercury Support MP&Co | B Corp™ NADINE MERABI Parker Neal Limited Perfect Sense Energy Pimberly Pixeltree Pet Trust Uk Shopblocks Specscart. Sticky The Creative Composite - Dental Marketing Agency Wolf Network Security LTD zally® ZAPT More details 👇 https://lnkd.in/eADsGetg

Whether you're into Oasis or not - or even into music - it's been hard to get away from the ticketing fiasco fallout this week. With the Competition and Markets Authority joining the government & European Commission in investigating the use of dynamic pricing, surely there is a better way? James Hough, firmware engineer and founder of Embedded Technologies Limited, spent several hours queueing only to see the price balloon at checkout. “The queueing system just doesn’t work in this scenario... but I can understand why some people, having finally got to the front of the queue, felt pressured into buying the tickets at that point.” Sylvia Rook, lead officer for fair trading at the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, says fluid pricing is not specifically prohibited by consumer protection law - but says "the important factor is that consumers are not misled by the indicated price". 🎟 Ben Sebborn, co-founder and CTO at event discovery platform Skiddle, agrees that ticket agents should be transparent over pricing throughout the customer journey - and says for the price to more than double in one moment "doesn’t sound very dynamic to me”. He explains how dynamic pricing works in other sectors and how it might be reasonably used with music gigs, where prices only ever go up. https://lnkd.in/eDNKci7K

FUEL Manchester 2024 - register for free! Join an array of entrepreneurs & experts to learn the secrets of successful business growth & network with key figures from the Greater Manchester technology & business ecosystem. The event at Bruntwood SciTech's No.1 Circle Square on 16th October is also supported by GM Business Growth Hub & The University of Salford Business School. Full details of the 10 speakers confirmed so far & link for registering 👇

TechBlast has rebranded to the events specialist arm of BusinessCloud. Our first newsletter urges Greater Manchester's scaleups to apply for GM Business Growth Hub's ASCEND programme, where they can join us on a fully funded trip to the world's biggest tech conference Web Summit

“The power of a cohort programme is in the relationships it cements.” Business is about relationships – and Janine Smith has seen the ‘value of the cohort’ across many programmes over the years. Now the GM Business Growth Hub director is taking the approach up a notch with its new flagship ASCEND Scale Up Programme. Aimed at Greater Manchester’s ambitious founders, ASCEND is a dynamic, six-month development initiative starting in mid-September 2024 and curated for each individual participant. Its first cohort will comprise 25 founders poised for exponential growth. This November the cohort will attend Web Summit in Lisbon, joining more than 70,000 attendees at the world’s biggest tech conference. BusinessCloud will be among the media outlets reporting directly from the event. Alongside programme mentors such as Apadmi co-founder Dr Howard Simms, the cohort will have access to specialist advisors from both GM Business Growth Hub and KPMG. Smith is keen to stress that businesses across all sectors are welcome to apply before the deadline of Friday 26th July 2024, with shortlisted applicants invited for an interview between 5-16th August. “Any business with the potential to grow quickly is eligible for ASCEND. We’ve already had an application from a well-known traditional family business which is not in the pure tech sector. If you are forward-thinking in technology and looking to harness it, get in touch.” https://lnkd.in/ejkqYjat

George Lees, on work experience with editor Jonathan Symcox last week, visited Gary Neville's University Academy 92 (UA92) to find out how its apprenticeships are igniting the passion of students. George spoke with apprenticeships and bootcamps engagement manager Daniel Russell, who says the university is "making a dent in the educational predicament" alongside the likes of THG & Microsoft. He also quizzed Amaan Sakaria, a student apprentice who also works within the university: “Microsoft came in and spoke to us about a ‘day in the life’ in #DevOps at their company... they also showed us how they separate into groups and, if one person is struggling, they come together to help." Farida U., a DevOps apprentice at THG, was honoured with the DevOps Special Recognition Award at the BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT Digital Apprenticeship Awards 2024. Citing himself as an example, former football scout Russell explains how the apprenticeship pathway could appeal to certain people: “They may potentially have no work experience; be college dropouts; had a job for 20-30 years and feel like a complete change. “We feel that we’re ahead of the game with our programmes… and expanding to meet customer and market demands." Read more from George 👇 https://lnkd.in/erHxz9Rj

TechBlast UK has today unveiled an exciting new rebrand as it repositions itself as an events partner. TechBlast, which was founded in 2021 and is the sister title of BusinessCloud, will now focus exclusively on events and producing articles and insights for growing businesses. Headed up by executive editor Christopher Maguire, TechBlast is offering three event hosting packages – bronze, silver and gold – beginning with basic hosting, all the way up to managing all aspects of your event. The award-winning journalist, who has hosted nearly 2,000 events, said the decision was taken in response to customer feedback. He said: “As well as holding our own bespoke events, like FUEL, we increasingly partner with our clients to leverage our expertise and experience to help showcase what they do. “We also recognise that not every company has the same budget so we’ve produced three different packages – bronze, silver and gold.” The cost of the bronze package starts from £1,000 (plus VAT) and covers the cost of hosting an event and includes basic advice on the best format for the event and potential speakers. Silver packages start from £2,500 and includes a full support package including help with planning, hosting, sourcing of speakers and some promotion. The cost of the gold package begins at £5,000 and includes everything from event planning, hosting, sourcing speakers, finding a venue and catering, full website listing, attracting an audience; promotion from newsletter, pre and post-event coverage. Events include roundtables; business breakfasts; training sessions; conferences; and award ceremonies. For more information email [email protected] or [email protected] https://lnkd.in/eykYYT7u