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We have an announcement.....☔ 👀 The agenda is now live for 2025's Rainmakers Conference, take a look whilst you sip on your morning coffee 👉 https://lnkd.in/eghX4HFz Featuring more opportunities to network, amazing speakers, and inspiring entrepreneurs. Be a part of the biggest corporate finance event outside of London in Q1. 🗓 26 March 2025 📍 The Point, Manchester We’re expecting another sell-out event, so don't wait around to grab your ticket for yourself or your team. twisted loop are excited to come on board as our headline partner. They join partners BGF, Dow Schofield Watts, KPMG, NorthEdge, Palatine, Shawbrook, Squire Patton Boggs & TDC. And we have our breakout room partner PHD Industrial Holdings, drinks reception sponsor Marks Sattin, lanyard sponsor Gilbanks, table sponsor Datasite and umbrella sponsor T3C Group Ltd. #rainmakersconference25

💸 It's Cyber Monday! TheBusinessDesk.com has a large, regional audience of senior executives and decision-makers for you to promote your business, brand and expert opinion to. Here are the discounts and opportunities we're offering this December... 🖥️ Business Profiles | 50% off Promote your business to your region's business community. ☔️ Exhibit at the Rainmakers Conference | Discounted offer Present your business to the corporate finance community. 📢 Advertising | 30% off packages Our range of banner adverts on our website and email newsletters can help you reach your desired target audience. Email 📧 sales@thebusinessdesk.com to claim.

On Wednesday morning at 📍Eighteen in Birmingham, we held our latest with The IFT. Thank you to our panel Milly Camley from The IFT, Helen Dale from Grant Thornton UK LLP, Daniel French from Gateley, Ian Parker from IFT Independent and Fellow and James Friar from NatWest. The panel covered key business challenges, early action, sources of support and strategies to address challenging periods and remain agile and effective.

We heard from a brilliant panel yesterday for our Birmingham breakfast event with TheBusinessDesk.com. Chaired by our CEO Milly Camley, Helen Dale, Daniel French, James Friar and Ian Parker covered topics including the general market outlook for businesses, the impact of the recent Budget, international factors and early warning signs, strategies and priorities for businesses to adapt, transform and succeed. Thanks to Grant Thornton UK LLP for hosting, to our panel and to attendees. #adapt #transform #succeed

Yesterday was so much fun 🍬 A huge thankyou to TheBusinessDesk.com and Rebecca Wilson for having me at the Business of Yorkshire Conference. It was an amazing day and made me so proud to be a part of such an amazing community here in the north! Lots of exciting things happening up here to get excited about and I think we all felt the energy in the room when Tracy Brabin had finished her speech! Learning the history of Haribo whilst eating sweets from my childhood was a personal highlight and catching up with Lisa Shepherd and Saskia Roskam 🍪 from The Biskery! Can’t wait for the next one! 🫶🏻 Little note to all my followers to mix it up sometimes and get out the office to meet people, you cannot beat the face to face connection ☺️

🟢 🔵 The final theme of our Business of Yorkshire Conference was ‘Regional Investment’. This was started with a keynote from HARIBO UK managing director Jon Hughes. Hughes pointed out the food and drink industry is the largest manufacturing sector in the UK, with a Gross Value Added (GVA) worth £381bn. But he warned successive governments have not recognised the value of this industry. "Governments have made it harder for food and drinks companies to operate in our region," he said. "Despite good intentions, financial and bureaucratic costs have been added to our businesses. "Sometimes, when you're based in this part of the world it feels like we're not at the table in terms of the policy decisions being taken at Whitehall." We then heard from David Skaith, the first-ever mayor for York and North Yorkshire. Skaith stressed how having mayors with devolved powers can give regions such as Yorkshire a new, powerful voice to make its case to Government. "We've seen how much mayors have been able to deliver in places such as Manchester and Liverpool - having that same power in Yorkshire is going to be incredible going forward," he said. He said his own region isn't automatically thought of as being a hub for business innovation, which masks the many excellent projects taking place within its borders. "I think it's a real hidden gem," he added. "We want to attract businesses into our region - Yorkshire has so much more to offer than what people probably think." ‘Transformational Investments’ session followed with 👤 Furqan Alamgir the Founder and CEO of Connexin 👤 Catherine Darby-Roberts the Associate Director of Arup 👤 Richard Davis (FCILT) the VP Supply Chain, UK & Ireland of Metsä Tissue and 👤 Cllr Anne Handley, leader of East Riding of Yorkshire Council Up next was the session “Housing and infrastructure” with 👤 Angela Barnicle from Leeds City Council 👤 Cllr Sarah Courtney from Calderdale Council / WYCA Place committee 👤 Lisa Littlefair the Cities Lead - Buildings and Cities Unit from Mott MacDonald and 👤 Simon Warburton the executive director of transport from West Yorkshire Combined Authority. Finishing up the theme and the day was the Poet Laureate: Simon Armitage CBE who discussed the plans for the UK’s first national poetry centre to be based in Leeds. Thank you to everyone who joined us! The conference is backed by British Business Bank / NPIF II, Leeds Trinity University, Lloyds Banking Group, Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP and event partner Campaigner. #BOYC24 #conference #yorkshire

🟢 🔵 Next up is the second theme of the day ‘People Investment’ - starting off with the ‘Investing in Leadership’ panel with 👤 Nicky Chance-Thompson the CEO of The Piece Hall Trust 👤 Nick Glynne the CEO & Founder of Buy It Direct Group 👤 Gemma Smith the Chief Executive of Strata and 👤 Dr Jonathan Straight FRSA the Founder of Planet Straight Advisory. Jonathan said "Leadership makes or breaks an organisation, it's one of the most important factors in whether an organisation succeeds or fails" and that "a leader is like a compass in a storm, it guides and stays level headed." The CEO of ReKindle School & trustee of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture Ruth Ibegbuna followed with a keynote speech. Ruth talked about how we need to give young people from less advantaged backgrounds a stake in the future. "There is lots of educational inequality that exists in Yorkshire, when people think about diversity they think about women and POC but we need to be thinking about class as well." Wrapping up the theme was our session ‘Creating the skilled workforce of the future’ with 👤 Jessica Armstrong the Head of Professional Services at Lloyds Banking Group 👤 Jo Glover the Director of Organisational Development at EMIS 👤 Professor Catherine O'Connor the Pro Vice-Chancellor at Leeds Trinity University 👤 Katrina Ritchie the Group People & Culture Director of Gripple UK & Ireland and 👤 Andy Sykes the plant director at Siemens Gamesa. One of the main talking points of the panel was remote working. Katrina said "We banned working from home, we wanted everyone back. We're an innovative business and you can't innovate if you're sitting at home on your computer at your kitchen table, you're not meeting other people." Jo said "We do offer home working but one downside is that it makes it harder to identify talent. We like to make an effort to make our managers spend more time with staff and get to know them because you don't know what talent you have unless you spend time with them." The conference is backed by British Business Bank / NPIF II, Leeds Trinity University, Lloyds Banking Group, Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP and event partner Campaigner.

🟢 🔵 Almost 200 members of the Yorkshire business community have joined us at the Leeds Marriott Hotel today for 2024’s Business of Yorkshire Conference. We’ve split the conference into three themes: Business investment, People investment and Regional investment. The first theme ‘Business investment’ kicked off with West Yorkshire metro-mayor Tracy Brabin on how she is an ally to businesses in the region and how devolution has helped us be more agile and responsive to what businesses need. Followed by a keynote speech from John Tordoff, the Executive Chairman of JCT600 Ltd. John talked about how the 100% family-owned business expanded to be a £1.4bn turnover company today in nearly 80 years. Next up we heard from our ‘Investment in business’ panel with 👤 Natalie Boswell the Regional Development Director of Lloyds Banking Group 👤Melissa Chambers the CEO & Co-Founder of Sitehop 👤 John Connor a Partner at Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP 👤 Simon Cunnington the Director of British Business Bank & NPIF II and 👤 Zandra Moore the Co-founder and CEO of Panintelligence. One of the main takeaways from the panel is the need to shout more about what The North has to offer and to move away from the idea that businesses can only expand if they're based in London. Zandra touched on the inequality in investment and how we need to do more to change these stats. The morning finished with the founder of Crisp Adam Hildreth telling us about his successful funding journey. The conference is backed by British Business Bank / NPIF II, Leeds Trinity University, Lloyds Banking Group, Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP and event partner Campaigner. #BOYC24 #yorkshire #conference

Fancy some relaxed networking next Wednesday (December 4)? Are you Manchester based? We have our young professionals mixer at the Black Cat Club. Play some darts, eat some canapes and mingle 👉 https://lnkd.in/eNRj9yRt 🤫 Comment any emoji of your choice to receive a discount code...

What a start to our ‘The Bold and the Brave’ series with Kuits last night in Manchester. In a fireside chat, Jo Sellick chatted with North West editor Michael Taylor on a variety of topics from timing an exit to mental health. Thank you to everyone who joined us - make sure you're subscribed to TheBusinessDesk.com for the next event in the series announcement.