News / New Chair heralds new era for top entrepreneurs...
New Chair heralds new era for top entrepreneurs event
Venturefest Yorkshire - the entrepreneurial event hailed by Dragons’ Den’s Doug Richard as ‘the best in the country’ - is back in the region for a fifth successive year, with a new chairman at the helm and a top global businesswoman as keynote speaker.
Peter Claydon, a founder director of the Leeds-based YFM Group, takes over the Venturefest reins from Tony Robards, former Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of York. Professor Robards has overseen the free event since bringing it to the region five years ago with support from the York Professional Initiative.
Peter says he plans to ‘provide continuity with an agenda for expansion and development’. He’s particularly keen to build on the work that Professor Robards - and Venturefest Yorkshire - has done to help entrepreneurs find and secure crucial funding to get a business off the ground.
One of his first actions has been to secure the event’s first female keynote speaker who, he says, gives a clear indication of the direction in which Venturefest is heading:
“Julie Meyer, co-founder of the First Tuesday network and chief executive of global investment and advisory venture, Ariadne Capital, will be drawing on her experience of global operations and raising millions of pounds of start-up capital to challenge Venturefest delegates to think big.
“Julie is probably best known for founding First Tuesday, but she has also raised over $100 million for start-ups and overseen a further $150 million of seed capital over the last 17 years.
“She has been voted a trailblazer and one of today’s most influential businesswomen in a series of national and international polls and listed in Channel 4’s PowerList, The Guardian Top 50 new economy entrepreneurs and Time Magazine’s Digital 25 - to name but a few!
“In her current role Julie has financial responsibility for Ariadne Capital, the group she founded in 2000 following the sale of First Tuesday, and I believe that anyone preparing to get a technology business off the ground will benefit greatly from what she has to say at Venturefest.”
Peter says the event in February 2008 will be streamlined to focus on what the organisers know entrepreneurs are looking for. “We’ll have two themed seminar ‘tracks’; one looking at securing investment and the other providing more general support and guidance for entrepreneurs.
“Combining these advice sessions with a multitude of opportunities for people to talk to advisers, support groups, potential investors and their peers will help ensure they get maximum value out of the day. Our aim is to put together an event that gets right to the heart of what entrepreneurs really need, and delivers it.”
Venturefest Yorkshire will take place on 6 February 2008 at York Racecourse. For more information about this free event or to book an exhibition stand visit www.venturefestyorkshire.net.
