With the weekly if not daily bombardment of news about the global economic slowdown, now seems a good time for a different narrative of businesses expanding and growing. Hence the title and theme of the third Meon Valley Enterprise Forum being held this coming Wednesday 10th September in the Barn at Shedfield Grange Farm Business Park.
The Forum brings together companies, government and academics to discuss issues relating to small, medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Meon Valley and south Hampshire area.
We have got three great speakers - all female - so Shedfield could witness the Sarah Palin effect. No seriously, as I have blogged before, female entrepreneurship is a growing feature we have noticed with businesses based on the Estate and is an increasing feature of SME business development. Although not the focus of the event it undoubtedly provides a sub-text.
The three speakers are: Carmen Evans
– Pan’s Lodge. She is introducing a new range of exclusively
designed own label
fabric and border collections to a successful interior design
business. She is building on her current business but developing a new potentially global marketplace with a different range of skills required. How is she tackling it, what partnerships is she building? Carmen is based on the Estate. www.panslodge.com Chloe Carey –
HR Handover. Chloe and her team have built one of the area's most successful SMEs winning a number of awards. She is going to talk about managing the rapid growth of a successful HR outsourcing
and consultancy business. Chloe used to be based on the Estate but she grew so quickly we did not have the space to support her and is now based nearby at Bishops Waltham. www.handoverhr.co.uk Liz Leffman –
Clothesource. Liz runs a successful consultancy advising companies on global outsourcing. She is talking on the importance to growing businesses of finding the right suppliers,
with particular reference to offshore sourcing. She brings a different regional perspective as her business is based in Oxford while at the same time having a good understanding of local business issues being the Liberal
Democrat Prospective MP for the new Meon Valley constituency.
Emphasising the local dimension and local sourcing, the catering is being handled by Ace Catering which is based on the Estate while the wine comes from Wickham Vineyard, one of Hampshire's very successful vineyards and only 500 yards from the Estate.
If you read the blog over the next few days and want to come along please get in touch. We will be putting up the presentations at the event later in the week.
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