York Business Week Takes Shape
York businesses and special interest groups are stepping up to the mark to help York’s first ever business week take shape.
York Business Week takes place from November 15 to 19 with a series of events that aim to advise, inspire and celebrate York’s world-class environment for business.
The week features high profile speakers, is hosted by some of the city’s top companies and organisations, and many of the events are free to attend.
Claire Young, the former Apprentice TV show contestant and now serial entrepreneur, speaker and ambassador for enterprise to young people, will speak to more than two hundred 16 – 19 year old students from local schools and colleges at the Young & Enterprising event on Wednesday 17 November. Her aim is to inspire York’s future workforce to be as enterprising as they can be.
Allan Dunn, Chief Financial Officer of one of the city’s most successful companies Ioko, will describe at a breakfast seminar on Tuesday 16, how doing business in York has been at the heart of the company’s success. Ioko is a $100 million turnover company that specialises in designing, building and running world-class technology platforms for large telecommunications, media and entertainment companies.
A number of business networking organisations including The Leeds York & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, The Met Club and York Professionals are running networking events.
A key event for creative and cultural practitioners and students looking to develop their careers takes place on Monday 15 November. 'Create Your Future' is a free event offering collective expertise from Creative York, York Museums Trust, Business Link Yorkshire, NYBEP and Higher York, enabling attendees to meet up with the creative and cultural organisations, networks and support agencies in York and North Yorkshire and learn more about job opportunities and career progression.
Three members of York Professionals are joining forces to present “Marketing at the heart of business planning” on Tuesday 16 November at The Catalyst, the city's new incubation space for creative and digital businesses at the University of York's Heslington East campus. Partners PR, United By Design and Acute Marketing will be holding a surgery for small and medium sized businesses looking to market their organisation more effectively.
On Wednesday 17 November businesses spanning the IT and digital sectors will be able to attend a SCY event centred on 'Future Technologies and Knowledge Transfer" at the Park Inn Hotel. Presentations from leading public and private sector organisations will focus on issues such as inward investment, emerging markets, knowledge transfer and supporting infrastructure.
Businesses across York will be invited to take part in a great team building exercise and an opportunity to hone their business skills in a team based competition. SimVenture, the award winning business simulation game,allows teams to set up and run their own virtual company, making decisions that determine the success of the business. It provides an authentic and enjoyable learning and team building experience. Used in commercial training it helps people within an organisation understand business principles and how different parts of a business impact on one another. In educational settings it encourages enterprise and the development of entrepreneurial and business skills.
York Business Week is being spearheaded by the York Economic Partnership, SCY, Business Link Yorkshire, York Business Forum, the Leeds York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, York Professionals and City of York Council.
Two of the major events it will straddle will be the Tourism Futures Conference hosted by both the York St John Business School and Visit York on Wednesday November 17; and The Press Business Awards 2010 at York Racecourse on the following day.
Nick Eggleton, of York-based Acute Marketing, a co-ordinator for the event, said: “I am delighted with the level of enthusiasm and interest that York Business Week has generated within the city. We’ve got some great events planned and many more are yet to be confirmed. I am very grateful to everyone who has got involved and has been inspired to help make this a really successful week of enjoyable, informative and business-focused events.
“The message is that York is open for business and is an ideal place to set up, develop and sustain enterprise. That’s why we have planned it to coincide with Global Entrepreneurship Week run by Enterprise UK involving 88 countries, 32,000 events and 7.5 million participants.
“Economic opportunity is at the heart of the strategy for the future of York and York Business Week has set itself some ambitious objectives: increasing awareness of the support services of organisations, celebrating York’s success in business and inspiring positive attitudes towards enterprise in York’s population.”
For more information, email Nick Eggleton of Acute Marketing:
E nick [at] acutemarketing [dot] co [dot] uk
