A Masterclass in British Business: Telegraph's Festival of Business

Last year, we were very privileged to be invited to The Telegraph Festival of Business and this year, we were even more privileged to be invited back!

Not only was the list of British business leaders and speakers positively mind boggling, but to have so many in one room for us to listen to, learn from and be inspired by was just incredible!

Kick off was 8am at London's The Brewery!

Photo: The Brewery

The day's keynote speakers were a phenomenal line up of inspirational leaders:

Caroyln McCall, CEO EasyJet

Jayne-Anne Gadhia, Chief Executive Virgin Money

Mark Price, MD Waitrose

  

The panellists were equally incredible individuals:

John Longworth, British Chambers of Commerce

Tony Pidgley, Chairman, Berkeley Group Holdings

John Timpson, Founder, Timpson

Chrissie Rucker, Founder, The White Company

Nick Wheeler, Founder, Charles Tyrwhitt

We got to listen to small panel sessions with the amazing:

Simon Belsham, CEO, notonthehighstreet

Simon Duffy, Founder, Bulldog Skincare

James McClure, UK & Ireland General Manager, Airbnb

Richard Joseph, Founder, Joseph Joseph

and many more...!

One of our stand out favourite's of the day was a conversation between power couple, Charles Trywhitt founder Nick Wheeler and his wife, Chrissie Rucker, founder of The White Company. Suitably discussing the 'Blueprint for a Successful Family Business' and my word do they do just that! We admire both hugely and are inspired by their ability to juggle it all!

Having a talk from Mark Price, about how Waitrose 'Put Happiness First' for its employees, customers, and people in their supply chain was inspiring and uplifting! He ended the day's conference with a quote from John Lewis founder, John Spedan Lewis: "The Partnership was created wholly and solely to make the world a bit happier and a bit more decent". 

All in all a terrific day's conference; we got to network with ridiculously talented business men and women, learn from them and listen to their advice for Attollo!



Thank you very much to The Telegraph for what was a wonderful event, we look forward to returning next year.

IoD Annual Convention 2015

It was an enormous honour to have received invites to such a prestigious event as the Institute of Directors 15th Annual Convention. The Director General, Simon Walker, an incredible man, very, very kindly invited us as his personal guests - it became a date in the diary that we've been looking forward to since all summer! 

At this point we had no idea who was on the line up. As soon as we heard that we'd be hearing from Anya Hindmarch, Sir Charlie Mayfield, Lord Mandelson, Lord Lawson, Sir Ranulph Fiennes OBE, Matt Brittin, Simon Stevens, Richard Scudamore, David Miliband, Josh Lewsey and Ian Ritchie, it's fair to say that our excitement went up a few notches! 

The event ran all day, with around 1,000 people attending in the glorious Royal Albert Hall.

The topics ranged from evolving business philosophies, the impact of technological change, how banks can regain trust, the future shape of boards, barriers to growth and future risks, and what the next era of growth and innovation will involve. 

The IoD's main mission for the day, was to leave us Directors feeling inspired, revitalised and passionate about our jobs and roles within the business community. IoD - you did just that, in spades!

After Simon's welcome speech, the day was kicked off with a political debate between Lord Lawson and Lord Mandelson: Are we best in or out of the EU!

Following with a different kind of politics was David Miliband, now President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee. His organisation's work was not only eye-opening but also very moving. 

As keen rugby fans, we were especially excited to hear what Josh Lewsey, former Rugby World Cup 2003 winner and Ian Ritchie, Chief Executive of the RFU, thought about what rugby and business can learn from each other. The answer - quite a lot!

The final speech before lunch was Matt Brittin from Google. He made us all think when he said: "The 'www.' is what we want, where we want, when we want". 

In between the incredible panels and discussions, we got the lunch box of all lunch boxes! 

The Albert Memorial in Hyde Park was turned into an IoD lunch box central, so uniformed it could have been a commercial! 

Topped up on food and wine, we took full advantage of BMW's showcase! May have climbed into a couple and got carried away...! 

Best of all, we got to spend our lunch break with one of our business dad's, the absolute babe and truly amazing Paul! 

Food and car time over, we couldn't wait to head back in where our favourite conversation of the day was waiting for us - a conversation with the one and only, incredible, amazing, role model, Anya Hindmarch! 

 

Lady Barbara Judge OBE, IoD Chairman spoke passionately about the role of women in the work place, something that both of us could strongly relate to, being in a very female industry!

  

Wrapping up, serial world record breaker and one of the world's greatest explorers Sir Ranulph Fiennes OBE, took to the stage. Who knew he was actually a stand up comedian! He had the entire Royal Albert Hall in stitches, recalling his many adventures, with incredible true British dry, sarcastic humour - his talk about 'Business beyond Boundaries' put many things into great perspective - what an honour it was to hear of his many, inspirational and courageous adventures! 

 

All in all, the day left us with a sense of British pride and pride in the people that lead us in terms of business, politics, retail, science and knowledge. We are truly lucky to have such leaders in their industries! Thank you, to Lady Barbara Judge OBE, Simon Walker, Jimmy Mcgloughlin and the whole team at the Institute of Directors and the Royal Albert Hall for such a memorable, and fantastic day. 

Building a British Brand

A couple of weeks ago, we were very lucky to attend Caxton Fx's 'Building a British Brand: Exporting Intangiables' event at The Caledonian Club.

Photo: Caldeonian Club

Not only were we spoiled with beautiful interiors and decorations, we were treated to a lovely breakfast.

Photo: Caldeonian Club

After a networking breakfast, the conference started with the first guest speaker, Tony Goodwin. As the founder of Antal International, he gave us a tale of two business models giving great advice about how he opened more than 100 offices in more than 30 countries. 

His advice to businesses, business owners and entrepreneurs was absolutely inspirational. A few of our favourite quotes from him:

“Give it a go. have a dream and do something about it:

"Often a business’ strength and weakness is the same."

“The more british businesses we get out there, the better our economy, and its fun!”

“The problems you encounter define you.”

“It's easy to be successful in business, but what happens when things go wrong? That defines you.”

“I've made more mistakes than anyone else I know, but I've had fun.”

Photo: CaxtonFX

Daniel Domberger, Partner at Livingstone Partners, gave us an insight into building your own brand and a distinctive identity and set of values which set you apart from competitors. His biggest advice was:

“Find people, trust, have good time with them, its at the heart of it all.”

Next up was Rupert Lee-Browne, CEO at Caxton FX and Brian Dent, and Business Advisor at the UKTI. This was actually the second time in the last month we heard him speak, last time at the London Stock Exchange. 

Rupert very simply was asking, 'how can we help?' 

After the speeches, we networked like crazy, making some excellent new contacts which will hopefully transform our online presence.

Photo: CaxtonFX