Tuesday
Programme
8:30 Registration Opens Delegates Arrive – Refreshments and Light Breakfast - Browse Exhibitor Stands
Morning Session
9:15 Welcome
Karen Woolley, Host
9:20 Facilitated Speed Networking
10:10 Conference Commences
Meet the exhibitors
10.25 Simplifying your sales pitch in just 12 words
Bernie De Souza
10:45 Blink Confidence: Making your business magnetic, not loud
Mario Barba
11:05 Morning Refreshment Break
11:35
Data Without the Drama: How to organise your customer Data, stay GDPR-Safe and never miss a sales opportunity
Simon Washbrook
11:55 Fireside Chat: The do’s and don’ts of starting your own business
Jeevan Punj
12:15 Q&A from Morning Session
12:30 Lunch (provided free of charge) - Networking and browse exhibition stands
Afternoon Session
13:30 Welcome Back
13:35 Is your Business Safe from Cyber Criminals?
Michelle Ohren
13:55 How to minimise the risk of being paid late and keep your cashflow moving
Karen Woolley
14:15 How can the Growth Hub help your business
Stoke & Staffordshire Growth Hub
14:30 Helping you find clarity in the chaos
Karen Robinson
14:50 Q&A from Afternoon Session
15:00 Conference closes – informal networking & Browse exhibition stands
Host
Karen Woolley
FSB Regional Business & Stakeholder Manager –Staffordshire and West Midlands
Karen has been with FSB for over 20 years. She has a career spanning over 42 years and has experience gained in working as a Lloyds broker, with responsibility for high risks such as the Dubai Transport Corporation, before qualifying in Law and practicing commercial property law before joining FSB.
Speakers
Bernie De Souza
Bernie is a speaker, author and executive coach. His presentations are powerful, fast-moving and teach the attendees word-for-word exactly how to get more clients without paying for advertising. Immediately, the attendees can improve their results with simple, actionable phrases that bond people to them.
Jeevan Punj
Jeevan is the founder and owner of Elite Hampers, an award winning Shropshire based corporate gifting business.
She is also a local optician and whilst working in various practices, learnt that unless people felt valued in their position in a business (customer or employees), their loyalty wavered and they were less inclined to stay with the business.
Elite Hampers was created to add value to business relationships by showing appreciation through gifting.
Karen Robinson
Karen runs KR4HR and is a HR Consultant and Senior Leadership Coach.
Karen is a great believer that “Happy People are Productive People” and so helps ambitious SME Leaders to grow their business through their greatest asset - their people. With nearly 20 years’ experience as a HR generalist working with Senior Leadership teams and Boards, Karen is perfectly placed to support you with your HR and Coaching requirements, having lived and breathed the entire employee lifecycle; day-to-day transactional needs, people problems, one off speciality people projects and future planning people strategy.
As an accredited Coach, Karen has supported Senior Leaders and Boards with clarity, confidence and accountability. Helping put structure behind thought processes, supporting and challenging difficult decisions, and guiding personal and professional journeys.
Speakers
Karen Woolley
As well as hosting, Karen will also be discussing ‘How to minimise the risk of being paid late and keep your cashflow moving’
Late payment is one of the biggest barriers to small business growth and, in many cases, survival. Late payment is one of the FSB’s top 5 lobbying priorities with our research showing that late payments contribute to over 50,000 small business closures each year - this session will focus on helping to ensure you’re not one of them!
Mario Barba
Mario is the Creative Director of Barba Creative. He has over 20 years’ experience in the design industry, with a passion for solving creative challenges and transforming businesses through strategic branding, impactful websites, and digital marketing.
His team partners with entrepreneurs and business owners ready to elevate their brands to the next level. By focusing on the essence of each brand, Mario helps businesses connect authentically with their audiences, fostering trust and driving long-term growth.
Michelle Ohren
Is your Business Safe from Cyber Criminals?
Detective Chief Inspector Michelle Ohren, Director of The Cyber Resilience Centre for the West Midlands, has three decades of policing experience and will be providing an overview of the threat to organisations from cyber criminals, steps you can take to prevent this, and how the UK government are supporting organisations with fully funded support.
Speakers
Rachel Wood
Rachel is the Growth Hub Manager for the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Growth Hub.
Discover what Business Support is available across Stoke & Staffordshire.
There are a vast number of business support programmes running across Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire and Rachel will outline what’s on offer.
Simon Washbrook
Simon Washbrook is the founder of the multi-award-winning popcorn CRM, he also has 20+ years of experience in Sales and Marketing, specifically for SMEs. Simon started his corporate career at Anglepoise Lamps and by the end was working at a division of BMW group which implemented CRM systems into large organisations.
He then went on to form his own Design and Marketing agency that specifically worked with small businesses. During this time, he came to realise that most SMEs don’t join up their sales and marketing activities, which was losing them thousands of pounds in lost sales and missed opportunities every single month.
This is why he built popcorn CRM, designed to join up all this activity in a simple and highly visual way, allowing small businesses to understand exactly where all their prospects were, when they should be contacting them, and more importantly why.
Exhibitors
Cyber Aware World
Federation of Small Businesses (FSB)
Our mission is to help smaller businesses survive through these difficult times and ultimately achieve their ambitions. We’ve over 150,000 members across the UK. Members get an exclusive package of great value business services including advice, financial products, and support. These cover a wide range of benefits such as tax, legal and HR, local network groups and business banking. We don’t only provide fantastic membership benefits - FSB is also the UK’s leading small business campaigner. Come and join us at our stand.
www.fsb.org.uk
Keele Hall
From the Grade II listed historic mansion, Keele Hall, to the state of the art, high tech facilities across campus, our venues will cater for any large or small meeting, conference or exhibition.
www.keele.ac.uk
BCRS
BCRS Business Loans is a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and provide loans to businesses who are unable to access finance from traditional sources such as banks. We provide business loans from £10,000 to £250,000 to growing small and medium sized businesses based in the West Midlands and Wales. bcrs.org.uk
Cyber Aware World is a people-focused, gamified cyber security awareness training app for SMEs. It tackles human error through 15 interactive stages, employees play and learn. Progress tracking, certificates, and real-world scenarios build confidence, resilience, and safer cyber behaviour. Available on Google Play and the App Store.
cyberaware.world
Elite Hampers
Elite Hampers adds value to business relationships by showing appreciation through gifting. We provide luxurious food & drink hampers ranging from letterbox gifts to large wicker baskets. You can add your own merchandise to each hamper and we offer nationwide delivery. We help improve your employee retention and repeat client business.
www.elitehampers.co.uk
KR 4 HR
Karen Robinson of KR4HR is an HR Consultant and Senior Leadership Coach. She’s a great believer that “Happy People are Productive People” and helps ambitious SME Leaders to grow their business through their greatest asset - their people. With nearly 20 years’ experience as an HR generalist, working with Senior Leadership teams and Boards, she is perfectly placed to support you with your HR and Coaching requirements and to support with clarity, confidence and accountability. Helping put structure behind thought processes, supporting and challenging difficult decisions and guiding personal and professional journeys.
popcorn CRM
popcorn is a really simple-to-use CRM that is designed specifically for small businesses. It has just the essential marketing tools you need to be able to manage, nurture and convert your prospects faster. www.popcorncrm.co.uk
Spectacular Selfies
A magic mirror photobooth with a constantly growing collection of props including traditional, fun, nostalgic and some famous faces from the big and small screen. Available for birthdays, corporate, weddings, school parties and many other events. spectacularselfies.com
techplus
Techplus Solutions Ltd is a UK-based Odoo Silver Partner helping SMEs and mid-sized businesses replace spreadsheets and disconnected systems with one integrated platform — built around Odoo ERP and AI-driven automation. We work with manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and e-commerce businesses, delivering implementation, custom development, and long-term support that scales with growth. techplus-digital.com
WMCRC
WMCRC is a police-led, business focussed network supporting small and medium enterprises with fully funded government support, training and technical services. The support is completely free and provides easy to understand guidance, 121 discussions, and other support.
Please speak to Detective Chief Inspector Michelle Ohren, email: enquiries@wmcrc.co.uk
www.wmcrc.co.uk
Frank Jay Chilli Shop Ltd