Lifelong Leeds resident Joanne Cutt, General Manager of Holiday Inn Express Leeds City Centre Armouries, talks about her favourite parts of living and working in Leeds City Centre:
Living and working here may make me biased but I really do believe Leeds is one of the UK’s best cities for a long weekend break.
Think about what makes a good city break; you’re looking for plenty of shopping opportunities, great places to eat, a busy nightlife and a good choice of hotels to rest your weary head after a long day! Leeds has all this and what’s great is that it’s all in a compact area which makes getting around easy.
SHOPS
For some retail therapy it’s the independent stores and vintage fairs that make Leeds a great destination, offering you the opportunity to buy things that can’t be found in any other shop or city.
Will LONDON be closed for conferencing business across the Olympic period?… How will your delegates cope with the (sheer) volume of people coming to London?
Tired – Frustrated – Delayed – Queued-Out – Locked-Out – Blocked–Out…and angry…NOT A GOOD start for your delegates.
There is another option…COME TO LEEDS Conference at the Royal Armouries Museum (and adjacent Saviles Hall and) see what success looks like!
To find out more see Theo Paphitis live at SAVILES with our video highlights from the UKs favourite Dragon who provided some excellent entertainment and gave some enormously encouraging business advice…Follow the link below to see the video.
Disney Institute is coming to Yorkshire and Humber, offering an exclusive opportunity for you and your team to learn from one of the world’s most respected brands on your doorstep. Disney Institute is here to deliver world-class training to enhance leadership, service and business skills; appealing to senior executives, managers and entrepreneurs from established enterprises in Yorkshire and Humber, especially those in the tourism industry.
These training workshops will consist of showcasing the powerful strategies and business models that are the cornerstones of Disney’s long-term success; you will learn how to apply Disney’s innovative approach to your own organisation for immediate results.
After receiving such positive feedback from the workshops held this year in the North East, we have invited the Disney facilitators back to our shores to bring their training magic to Yorkshire.
On 28th, 29th February and 1st March 2012, at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, we will be delivering workshops on People Management, Leadership Excellence and Quality Service and we’d love to see you there.
Theo Paphitis and other ‘Guest Speakers’ talk to 1,400 Students at SAVILES Hall in Leeds about what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur…Hear what they had to say;
When self-made millionaire and Dragons Den star Theo Paphitis stepped onto the stage at SAVILES Hall, Leeds, it is as a dragon of an altogether friendlier temperament.
Gone is the steely gaze that makes contestants on the show shake in their shoes and the rapier cut and thrust that ruthlessly exposes flaws in a business proposal.
Instead, he beams benevolently on the 1,400+ audience as he promotes the extraordinary BA Honours degree in Enterprise Development at Huddersfield University, nicknamed the ‘Pracademic’. Theo has become a huge fan of the revolutionary new course and shares with the audience real life experiences from Wedge Wellys and Magic Whiteboard.
Claire Young, Professor John Thompson and Chris Owen also give their account of what you are likely to face on the journey to become a truly successful entrepreneur.
Claire Young is an Apprentice Finalist, Motivational Speaker, Coach and Social Enterprise Champion…
You may know Claire from the TV show, The Apprentice, where Claire reached the final in 2008. Since then she have been actively working on several projects which are designed to empower and enable young people in enterprise.
Her role she says boldly “Is firstly, as a successful businesswoman” and she has two main areas of interest…School Speakers – A business providing quality motivational speakers (including Claire herself), for schools, colleges and universities.
Additionally, Claire has a site called ‘Girls Out Loud’. The aim of this project is to inspire young girls, between the ages of 13 and 18 to raise their work, life goals and aspirations.
“Dragons’ Den could either have made or broken us,” said Sarah Longthorn . “We see so many businesses going on Dragons’ Den and they fail under the pressure so we knew that could be a massive risk to our business.
“But at the end of the day, we knew we had a great business and hopefully the Dragons would recognise that and they did so it turned out well.”
Now in its 3rd year of trading, WedgeWelly, which employs just 3 staff is constantly innovating through the creative eye of Laura Booth who designs new products to stay ahead of the competition…This year they’ve launched its new Splash Wellies brand in addition to three new products under the WedgeWelly brand along with a young girls’ range of WedgeWelly boots – Misfits – after signing an exclusive deal with retail giant John Lewis.
“There’s lots going on for WedgeWelly,” she added. “We’ve got five countries we’re looking to export to in the next 12 months and we’re also looking to launch a clothing range of festival dresses for ladies so that will complement the boots very well.”
Magic Whiteboard, is one of the Den’s overnight success stories. As we all know countless would business owners have seen their ideas mocked, scorned and teased whilst other ‘promising successful’ pitches have fallen into insignificance, the Westwood’s turned £100,000 of Dragon investment into a 50% profit margin in under 2 years.
Their simple business idea allows you to create a portable whiteboard from a roll, anywhere, in seconds (forget flipcharts). The sheets of statically charged polypropylene film stick to any hard, flat surface without the need for tape or glue, ready to be written on then easily wiped clean.
Neil explains “Having worked for NHS as a trainer I grew tired of dragging whiteboards up and down the stairs all day…it was driving me mad,” And then along came a solution the Magic Whiteboard which as he says. “There was nothing like it in the market and so I was just addressing a problem I had.”
Neil researched a supplier which he found in Europe of all places and using the family savings to buy the rolls the journey began.
Professor John Thompson is the founder of the BA honours degree in Enterprise Development and talks to 1,400 students about researching a business idea, testing the business model and then starting their own business whilst of course studying for this degree.
The BA (Hons) Enterprise Development degree from The University of Huddersfield provides an exciting opportunity for students who have a clear interest in business start-up and self employment and who want to develop their ability to practice and to ‘do’ as well as to learn about entrepreneurship.
Networking and the development of social capital are crucial aspects of this degree. Students are exposed to a ‘studio culture’ and the opportunity to develop business ideas and work on a number of real projects before they start their own business. The course aims to enable people to have a clear vision of why a particular business idea is different and will succeed in its target market.
Course members learn about relevant disciplines, practice their learning to develop their skills and then apply their knowledge and skills to real situations. Our intention is that successful graduates will leave the programme with both a degree and a viable business.
Chris is an award winning marketing consultant, a Chartered Marketer and has been in the industry for over fifteen years, eleven of which has been as Marketing Director of Royal Armouries (International) plc. He has worked with several multi-million pound companies, associations and individuals such as Business Guru Michael Gerber Author of the E-Myth and Lord Longford patron of the Matthew Trust. Currently he is working with Professor John Thompson and Theo Paphitis from Dragons Den creating a unique degree where course participants could start their own business and get a degree.
“Chris is a down to earth, feet on the ground marketing professional who is really good at doing a kind of Marketing MOT on your business”
