Arrival & Networking

@festivalofinnov #InnovateMalvern #entrepreneurship #startup

Welcome

Dr Adrian Burden, Festival Founder & Managing Director of Innovate Malvern CIC

@apburden

19:10

Starting up without costing the earth

Over the years, Mike has interacted with numerous students and budding entrepreneurs as they develop their business plans. He has also started new companies and initiatives to reduce environmental impact and promote sustainability. This varied experience has enabled him to gain useful insights into how networks develop and can lead to unlikely and valuable connections in the future.

Mike Goodfellow-Smith is a serial entrepreneur with a keen interest in the environment and helping businesses with sustainability at their heart. He is currently director of Quest for Future Solutions, and founder of Malvern's Marvellous Trees social enterprise. He was also the past Chair of the charity Malvern Community Forest. He has worked as an international trainer and consultant on numerous climate and environment programmes and is currently a guest lecturer and PhD researcher at the University of Birmingham.

We are very grateful to Mike for standing in at the last minute because unfortunately our scheduled speaker Claire Cockerton was unwell and unable to join us.

19:40

Sowing small seeds and reaping big businesses

A fantastic and rare opportunity to hear highlights of the story of Seedrs, a leading online crowd-funding platform for investing in the equity of startups and other growth companies. Not only that, but what about some of the startup successes that Seedrs itself has catalysed?

Jeff Lynn is Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Seedrs. He started the company back in 2009, whilst studying for an MBA at the Said Business School, University of Oxford. Jeff originally trained as a corporate lawyer, working at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York. He has since been named one of the top ten coolest people in UK tech by Business Insider. 

@jeffseedrs

20:10

Entrepreneurship in a social whirl

Social media is a fantastic enabler for business success, allowing entrepreneurs to reach a global network of potential customers and to connect with like-minded individuals around the planet. Executed well and the world is your oyster. This is the story of a local teenager leaving her full-time job to strike out and leverage the online world, growing a global following of 100,000, developing multiple income streams, and getting up each morning to work she simply loves. 

Ella Stearn is an Entrepreneur, Author, Speaker & Social Media Influencer with a passion for business, people & personal development. Director of Blue Monkey Social Media and Founder of A World Within Reach, Ella travels the world whilst working for herself; teaching others how to do the same too. When she’s not busy with business, she does talks in schools, supports non-profit / charity campaigns and helps as many people as she possibly can.

@ellastearn

20:30

Q&A panel, networking & refreshments

Once again, Malvern's very own crowdfunded brewery startup, The Friday Beer Co, will be serving bottles of their latest ales.

@FridayBeerCo

Find out more about WINN, the initiative that brings innovators together, acting as a catalyst to create connections and collaborations across the diverse business landscape of Worcestershire. They aim to foster a vibrant innovation culture through events and programmes that celebrate the Worcestershire’s successes. WINN believes that great things can happen when people come together.

@winnweds #WINN

Worcester Enteprise is run by the Worcester Business School at the University of Worcester to support students’ entrepreneurial development through curricular programmes and extra-curricular activities. All students are offered enterprise electives in both their first and second years. Through their student incubator, media lab, training programmes, competitions and pop-up retail units, they connect students with networks, resources and know-how that allow them to succeed.

@Worc_Enterprise

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