Global Lego expert comes to SW for international ideas festival

Lego’s head of social media has been announced as the latest speaker at the Like Minds ‘From Startup to Scaleup’ Ideas Festival coming to the South West.

James Poulter will join experts from Google, LinkedIn, Facebook and StartUp Britain at the international event taking place in Exeter in September.

As well as running the online LEGO Life phenomenon, James is a senior manager at the Global Social Media Team at LEGO Group and member of the leadership team.

James works on both the social media marketing strategy of LEGO Life, as well as new feature development such as the LEGO Emoji and Sticker Keyboard. James also leads a number of strategic innovation projects for LEGO with emerging technologies and platforms.

Previously held in London, New York and Helsinki, the Like Minds Ideas Festival will see delegates from across the South West and beyond take part in immersive masterclasses and panel discussions, including on business strategy, thought leadership, content marketing, Facebook for SMEs and creativity in business.

Andrew Ellis, the founder of Like Minds, said: “I’m delighted to bring Like Minds back to its birthplace in Exeter, featuring some of the hottest talent in entrepreneurship and business growth the UK has to offer. Like Minds has always been the place to connect with amazing business leaders and gain invaluable insight to harness for your own business. We look forward to keeping Like Minds in Exeter going forward and expanding the event to two days next year.”

Like Minds Exeter will feature a Futures Room, showcasing key regional activity set to propel the South West’s economy over the next decade and beyond, and exhibition space. There will also be a Sponsors and Speakers’ Dinner the evening before, off-site lunches at restaurants around Exeter for delegates, each one hosted by a different speaker, and an after party in the city on the Friday evening.

The first speakers and masterclass sessions announced include:

James Poulter Head of Social at Lego
Oli Barrett MBE, Co-founder Startup Britain
Minter Dial, Founder of The Myndset
Bindi Karia, Bindi Ventures
Chris Moss, Mav3rick, How to Encourage Creativity Immersive Masterclass
Gemma Went, Facebook Immersive Masterclass for SMEs

More speakers are set to be announced in the coming weeks.
Launched in 2009, Like Minds very first event was actually a business conference in Exeter nearly a decade ago. Since then, Like Minds has expanded to run ideas and innovation festivals, business summits, trade missions and immersive training around the world.

GWR is offering discounted travel for people travelling from London for the festival and for those traveling from Paddington there will be an “Entrepreneurs Express” on the Thursday evening.

Tickets are still available, along with tickets for the Minter Dial Business Breakfast at: www.wearelikeminds.com

Follow @wearelikeminds on Twitter for more information.