Create the Spark

Wednesday, 15 November

6.30pm–9pm at the Fusion Building, Talbot Campus 

Get insights from entrepreneurs who will share their business success stories - what prompted them, what they did, what worked, what didn’t and what lessons they learned along the way.

Simon Deverall

Co-founder, Crowdfunder

Simon is the co-founder of Crowdfunder, the UK’s best-known crowdfunding platform who are currently going through their second investment round as they gear up to growing even bigger. Prior to Crowdfunder he was Head of Creative at KEO Films, providing the creative solutions to a wide variety of TV-related projects. And he’s done all of this from his Bridport-based studio.

Mike Hawkyard

Founder, Amuzo

Mike is the founder of Amuzo, the Bournemouth-based agency who harness the power of play to engage, educate and inspire audiences. Their apps have been #1 on iOS stores in 150 countries around the world and have been played over a billion times. However before Amuzo, they were known as 4T2 Multimedia and their first ever piece of business was a website for Poole Borough Council.

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Sustain the Energy

Thursday, 16 November 

6.30pm–9pm at the Fusion Building, Talbot Campus

This evening is all about growth, branding and culture. Following on from Create the Spark, two more seasoned entrepreneurs will talk about how to build a sustainable business.

Dominic Monkhouse

Dominic is a business growth consultant. He’s been at the helm of or helped grow numerous businesses from minor revenue generators into multi-million turnover giants and he’s sold several businesses too. He’s also a coach and a great motivational speaker too.

Cathy White

Cathy has served as the marketeer for Seedcamp, Tech City UK, Geek Girl UK and Silicon Roundabout, which has given her unparalleled knowledge of how to successfully promote the launch of numerous start-up businesses. This has led to her being a mentor on Rocket Starter, one of Poland’s leading start-up accelerators as well as founding her own consultancy that works exclusively with start-ups.

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Fuel the Flames

Friday, 17 November

12.30–3pm at the Executive Business Centre, Lansdowne Campus

Partnering with Dorset Growth Hub, this event brings together SMEs from across sectors and research projects to help you identify new opportunities and innovations to use in your own business.

The speakers will focus on ways to fuel growth through investment and opportunities available in Dorset. You can also benefit from free one-to-one sessions with specialist advisers in these areas: pre-start and start-up, supporting growth, improving digital capabilities, accessing finance and mentoring.

Andrew Walker

Founder, ikooloo

Working in software since graduating in 1989, Andrew Walker is now on his fourth startup and has experienced the lows and highs of starting and growing software companies. His last startup, Clicktools was bootstrapped from 3 to over 50 people and was partly acquired by SurveyMonkey before being fully acquired by Callidus. Andrew is now on a new journey with ikooloo and also mentors new startups through Virgin Startups and Barclays Digital Eagle Labs.

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