Issue 346 – Sunday Times enterprise editor to open three-day business festival

Sunday Times’ enterprise editor, Rachel Bridge, will be coming to Frome as part of a three-day business festival being organised in the town this month.
Rachel, who is also the author of four self-help books on how to become a successful entrepreneur, will be spending the day in Frome on the first day of the Discuss and Do festival, Thursday 23rd February, where she will be co-hosting a Women in Business Lunch with fashion designer Pearl Lowe.
During the afternoon she will join local businessman and angel investor Gavin Eddy, from the Old Church School, to run a two-hour hands-on session called ‘Making it as an Entrepreneur’ offering advice to budding entrepreneurs and more seasoned business people, to help them test out their ideas and take the next step to success. In the evening she will then deliver her one-woman Edinburgh Festival show based on her most recent bestseller ‘How to Make a Million before Lunch’ at the Merlin Theatre.

Diverse and
creative industries

Rachel Bridge is looking forward to visiting the town later this month. She said, “It’s great to see a small market town like Frome celebrating its exceptionally diverse creative industries. Small businesses are built on progressive, brave and enterprising ideas and run by hardworking individuals who deserve our support. I’m delighted to be bringing my workshop to the town’s creative business festival, Discuss and Do. It’s always refreshing to work with the small businesses which are at the heart of our regional economy.”
Nigel Harris, from Burton Sweet Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers which is supporting the Thursday events said, “We’re delighted to be supporting the Discuss and Do Business Festival in Frome. These are challenging economic times and this festival will help new and growing businesses to be more entrepreneurial and offer them a fresh take on how they plan, market and operate to achieve success. This matches our focus when working with clients, so it seemed natural for us to support this venture which we believe will help many local businesses and artists find new avenues for their work.”

Help for budding entrepreneurs

Rachel’s visit kicks off a packed three-day programme of workshops and sessions aimed at budding entrepreneurs with ideas to set up their own business, creative industries, artists and small businesses looking for new ways to connect with customers in 2012.
On Friday 24 February Frome businesses have the chance to show off what they do for the town in the FromFrome Exhibition taking place in the Cheese and Grain between 9.00am and 2.00pm. Entry will be free for people to drop into the exhibition and find out about the local businesses in town. There will also be the chance to chat to experts who are part of an ongoing mentoring scheme being launched as part of the Discuss and Do Festival in the Lunchtime Launchpad sessions taking place between 1.00 and 2.00pm, which are also free.
In the afternoon young bands are being given the chance to show off their talents and get some valuable feedback from music industry insiders at the Music Surgery Showcase. And fans are encouraged to come along and show their support at the Cheese and Grain between 3.30 and 5.30pm. The band which gives the most outstanding performance will then play at the evening Acoustic Plus session at the Cheese and Grain at 8.00pm that evening.
Also on Friday afternoon, people interested in improving their websites can come along to the Getting to the Top of Google workshop with web consultancy Noisy Little Monkey. This session takes place in the Round Tower at Black Swan Arts between 2.30 and 5.00pm.
The first of two sessions showing how to use social media like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn will be offer at the Sign Up to Social Media for Beginners session on Friday afternoon in Frome Library between 4.30pm and 6.30pm. There’s also another session on Saturday afternoon from 3.30pm to 5.30pm if you can’t make the Friday workshop.
A special evening fringe event is taking place out in Nunney at The Salthouse at 7.00pm called Love to Learn where people can find out how learning to be a brilliant learner will help make their business a success.
Saturday 25th February is full of practical workshops to help people get things done and move their business to the next level.
Editor of Angel News and a funding expert Modwenna Rees-Mogg is offering a workshop called Raising Business Finance – a rainbow of opportunities which aims to take the fear out of funding and help businesses to get the most from current opportunities, such as angel investment and crowdfunding. This is taking place from 10.00am to 11.30 at the Archangel’s Naval Room.
Numbers Coach Johnny Martin’s session Create your business, in Frome Library from 9.30am to 12.30, will help people to feel familiar with business finance in a three-hour workshop so they understand the essentials and can make sense of the numbers need to make an enterprise a success.
Foreground director and freelance curator Simon Morrissey’s talk on How gallery exhibitions are curated should interest both artists and art-lovers keen to get a behind-the-scene look at the choices and decisions made by curators when they put on an exhibition. His session takes place at Frome Library from 1.30pm to 3.30pm.
The last session of the festival is aimed at unlocking the creativity in business people. Patrick Dunn’s Creative tune up for your business promises a fun, interactive – and melodious – session aimed at tuning up business creativity. Building on his many years working with professional creatives and successful business people, he’ll lead people through the four key aspects of creativity that most influence business success, and demonstrate simple ways of adjusting these. It takes place between 2.00 and 4.00pm at The Cornerhouse in Frome.
Tickets for all sessions are available to book at www.discussanddo.co.uk