Over 130 people attended Conference Cumbria, organised by the county’s chamber of commerce.
The event took place at Kendal’s Castle Green Hotel and saw speakers including Ugo Monye, Colin Bell and Jenny Lee.
Broadcaster and former professional rugby player Ugo delivered an inspiring presentation touching on teamwork, leadership, resilience and diversity, drawing on the parallels between team sport and business.
The broader themes were interspersed with amusing and insightful anecdotes from Ugo’s career playing for England and the British and Irish Lions and subsequent move into broadcasting. After finishing his talk, Ugo answered the audience’s questions.
Then local entrepreneur Colin gave a presentation on what makes a start-up business successful, covering the key characteristics of successful entrepreneurs including growth mindset, ambition and horizon scanning. The event then broke for lunch, during which attendees networked and browsed the exhibition stands.
Jenny kicked off the afternoon session, telling the story of farm diversification business, Torpenhow Farmhouse Dairy.
The talk covered taking over the family farm with her husband Mark, turning towards regenerative farming methods and then using the milk produced at the farm to make cheese and gelato products which have subsequently picked up numerous awards and rave reviews from food critics.
This was followed by a panel discussion with local business leaders Gill Haigh, managing director of Cumbria Tourism), Jayne Moorby MBE, of Oxley Group, Gemma Dawe, of Lake District Relocation and Angela Jones, of Westmorland & Furness Council about Thriving Local Economy, discussing the key requirements needed to support business and deliver sustainable growth.
Leadership expert Neil Jurd, then wrapped up the day with a session on how leaders can build positive working relationships and high performing teams.
Head of business support at Cumbria Chamber of Commerce, Lesley Robinson said: “We are thrilled with the success of Conference Cumbria and positive feedback we have received. This year’s event saw double the number of attendees from last year and their energy and engagement exceeded our expectations. We look forward to building on this for next year’s event.”
Event sponsors were University of Cumbria, Dodd & Co, David Allen, Westmorland & Furness Council, Leo Group Ltd and Cumberland Council.
