Based on the Pecha Kucha and TED concepts of keeping presentations concise, fast paced and generating curiosity, SouthWestfd have brought together some of the region’s most professional public speakers for an evening of 15 minute wonders.
Each speaker will present for 15 minutes on a key business topic, giving you a valuable insight into how to improve your business.
Subjects include how to raise finance, leadership skills, marketing communications, the myths surrounding social media and security concerns with cloud computing.
From a business standpoint, the three most important lessons that were presented at this year’s Oscars were delivered by one individual — Ben Affleck. Make that four, because he also talked about how you have to continue to work at having a strong marriage. Fortunately that’s how I feel about my marriage too, so I can second his opinion.
Affleck offered life lessons, to be sure, but every business can benefit from them as well.
This also goes for business partnerships. They take work to keep them thriving. You can’t just go through the motions and assume that everything...
Following from the ‘Exeter Expect Success’ campaign in the London Underground, the posters are now coming home to Exeter, to help the city celebrate its successes.
Celebrating 2012's success the City of Exeter joined forces and mounted an inward investment campaign. 'Expect success: Invest in Exeter' brings together key business leaders who are passionate about living, working and running a business in Exeter.
2012 has seen the City's Museum, University and F.E College all win prestigious UK wide awards, citing them as top of the UK's offerings. These posters are now due to...
Following on from our Blog of 8 March – ‘What Are We Doing About Exeter’s Triple Crown Status’ The Plum Consultancy is delighted to advise that the ‘Expect Success: Invest in Exeter’ logo is available for all local businesses to use on their websites, stationery and email signatures to promote Exeter’s extraordinary triple crown status in the UK.
With investment enquiries up by 250% since the campaign was launched in London 2 weeks ago, congratulations are to be extended to all those involved in obtaining these fantastic accolades. To capitalise on this opportunity, Exeter Chamber...
After a meteoric 2012 which saw Exeter-based bespoke software, mobile apps and web development agency Rokk Media Ltd reach its first decade, move to a purpose-built office and realise a doubling in turnover, it has continued to buck the economic trend in 2013 after securing major new clients and adding more members to the team.
New appointments in project management, web development and a key appointment at director level, all reinforce Rokk Media’s commitment to further extensive growth over the next few years.
New Marketing Director Ian Creek joins Rokk Media after...
With Social Media marketing taking on a life of its own in recent years, we at The Plum Consultancy ask what is relevant and what isn’t? How many people are drowning under the barrage of tweets, shares, likes, LinkedIn requests and Google+ notifications? Are they all meaningful or are tweets being re-tweeted within an inch of their lives and is anyone taking any notice or is it all going in the spam folder?!
We believe the considered approach is the only approach to have when using and dealing with Social Media for business purposes. Social Media is as much about relationship...
In the last 12 months alone, businesses being incubated by a partnership of five UK universities have raised some £30m in investment.
The figures have been unveiled by SETsquared , a collaboration between the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey. The organisation partners in enterprise activities and collectively supports the growth and success of new business opportunities through its five incubation centres.
SETsquared’s Partnership Director, Graham Harrison, shared the partnership’s latest success figures with MP David Willetts as he visited...
Of all the arrangements people use to conduct their business, none is more fraught with danger than the simplest: partnership. The problem is that the basis of any partnership is sharing.
That should be easy. Two partners, two shares. Generally fifty-fifty.
Well, it isn’t so easy. In the burlesque era, comic teams used a different formula. The straight man got 55 percent, the funny man got 45 percent. Why? The straight man was the agent for the team, responsible for getting the bookings, negotiating the b illing, all the nuts and bolts stuff.
How important is it to you to have a really good experience when you go out shopping, to a restaurant or at any time when you buy products or services? If you’re anything like us, the answer is – Very Important!
The whole experience means the difference between using a company once or returning several times for a repeat experience. How important is a friendly face, helpful advice or a pleasant telephone manner? And how objective are you about your own business’s image? Do you know what customers think of the experience your company offers? If you don’t you need to find out quick!...
The ability to listen to others is not, typically, the entrepreneur’s greatest strength. If you’re the oldest guy in the shop, if you’re the one others turn to when they want to hear about the “old days,” it’s time to find yourself an even older grizzly. When I first bought Mackay Envelope, I was twenty-six. My lawyer, the one I hired after I fired the young hotshot who told me not to buy the envelope company, was sixty. My accountant was fifty-eight, and my banker would admit to being seventy, but I think he was closer to eighty....
