ACUMEN BUSINESS CONVENTION 2015

DATE: 3rd June 2015

VENUE: The Grand Hotel, Brighton;

TIME: 12.00 to 7.00pm starting with a three course lunch and ending with drinks and canapés reception);

Price: £79+VAT

2015 marks the sixth year of the prestigious ACUMEN BUSINESS CONVENTION and we're proud to announce a truly stellar line-up of speakers. Starting the event with a three course lunch, followed by outstanding speakers with fascinating topics, two interactive workshops and ample networking opportunities with over 250 CEOs, MDs and other decision makers. As always, there will be surprises along the way, all spiced up with a touch of Acumen’s magic.

As if that wasn't enough we also have the Business Acumen Award, last year won by Brandon Harris of Active4Less - could you be the one to take centre stage and put your Business Acumen in the spotlight?

Click here to see a 3 minute film of last year's Convention.

Click here to reserve your space

Speakers

Sir Tim Smit KBE Executive Vice-Chairman and Co-Founder, the Eden Project

"Suffering from 'no' blindness"

My entire career is built on denying the existence of the word no in certain situations. When people call me visionary I laugh. Every 12 year old in the world dreams of building magic kingdoms, castles and dams. My vision was to believe I could change hundreds of people from being naysayers to yaysayers. I will discuss risk and the need to protect yourself from people who mistake realism for maturity and to drive the world towards mediocrity.

Josephine Fairley co-founder of Green & Black’s chocolate

"A Chocolate Empire"

I want to inspire you with my story of growing an global brand into an ethical multi- million dollar success. This is achieved by being willing to take the risk and believing in your product with the motto “if you don’t try it you will never know what it would have been like” My story will cover the very humble beginnings and outline the absolute confidence in my product and never wavering from the belief it would succeed and going on to created the leading brand in chocolate from something that I truly love and incorporating the motto of “doing good while you are doing business” by creating an ethical business strategy.

Darren Shirlaw Founder & CEO of Shirlaws Group

"Scaling your business – Creating your JUMP"

How to create jumps, profit and equity uplift expectations and how jumping impacts the entrepreneur’s lifestyle. Businesses that create big jumps often have their owner/manager position themselves in the market away from their product. Discover this clever strategy that is so powerful for ‘jumping’. When an owner is willing to scale their personal role then the business experiences a big jump. This fulfils entrepreneur’s life dreams and not just business goals. We’ll demonstrate industry plays and shifts and highlight why so few businesses follow this path. Why 70% who do, fail, and how you could do it and achieve hyper-growth.

Penina Shepherd Founder & Managing Director, ACUMEN BUSINESS LAW

"Maybe just maybe"

‘Maybe just maybe’… is the mantra of the luck chasers. So maybe, just maybe it will be you this time, but it will most likely be ‘just this time’ because luck is not a strategy for success. As crazy as it may sound, failure is. Failure is not the aim, but every rejection along the way is a gift and a part of the path to success.

Penina’s talk will look at the fruitless pursuit of luck and the benefit of resilience, tenacity and passion in this era in particular, the era where the gatekeepers are no more.

We are going social

Workshops

Social media and your Business's reputation: “If he calls me a TWITter will he have the FaceBOOK thrown at him??

Social media is becoming ever more important in promoting your business, but it also provides a forum for feedback, both good and bad. This workshop will focus on the extent to which you are able to prevent malicious and damaging posts on your social media sites and provide you with practical tips to address such issues.

Who’s the Daddy? –New Shared Parental leave rules.

The New Shared Parental rules apply to all births and adoptions from 5 April 2015 and mean that both men and woman are entitled to take leave to care for a child. Whilst some existing maternity/paternity rules will remain others will significantly change. This workshop will explain the new rules, how they apply to your business, what considerations employers should take into account before implementing a policy and best practice guidelines and top tips for employers to understand and implement the new rules. This workshop is for anyone who has staff, and if you previously didn’t think that maternity rules affected your business – think again!

Terms and conditions may apply…or will they?

T&Cs are key to any business. Whilst most businesses will have T&Cs, many businesses fail to ensure they are updated, compliant and/or relevant. It is fundamental to review your T&Cs to ensure they work for and protect your business especially given the key changes to consumer contracts that came into force last June. This workshop will cover the key considerations for robust and efficient T&Cs, including: Ensuring your T&Cs are incorporated and enforceable; Key provisions for business and consumer customers; Changes to consumer legislation; Confidentiality and Intellectual Property rights; and User friendly terms.

Balancing Yin and Yang – the nitty gritty of business transfers

Aligning the interests of the two parties in a business transaction can be torturous but it is too easy to forget they share a common goal – completing the sale and getting on with their lives. For whatever reason a business is being sold (whether personal or technical) it's often overlooked how important these issues are to the seller….. Along comes a buyer with grand plans for the business that are unlikely to feature satisfying the objectives of the seller. It is not uncommon for us all as business people and professionals to be involved in a transaction where parties collide and using a familiar scenario we will look at the key commercial and property issues and highlight some helpful hints and tips from heads of terms to exchange to achieve some harmony.