Have you booked your ticket for this year’s Conference Cumbria? Don’t take too long to book as tickets are going fast and we’ve already sold half of the exhibition spaces!
Building on the success of last year’s first Conference Cumbria, this year we’re at the Castle Green Hotel in Kendal from 10am to 4pm with a great day planned.
“Simply the best Conference I have been to in a long while. Absolutely buzzing!”
“Fantastic event! Well organised and some amazing speakers. Great to get a feel for Cumbrian business enthusiasm.”
“A great event, really well put together”
“The event was truly remarkable, with many business owners converging for networking. Beyond capturing moments, I expanded my knowledge, rekindled with past acquaintances, and established new relationships. I’m convinced of the immense value of events like these and will be marking my calendar for more in the future. Such platforms foster collaboration, enabling our businesses to flourish collectively.”
“A really inspiring event, proud to have been a sponsor! Thanks to everyone who organised and attended, we’re already looking forward to next year!”
If you haven’t heard (where have you been?) our keynote speaker is Ugo Monye.
Broadcaster, presenter, and former professional rugby player Ugo is one of sports television’s brightest personalities.
Spending his entire playing career at Harlequins, with whom he won the Premiership and European Challenge Cup twice, Ugo represented England 14 times and was selected to tour South Africa with the British & Irish Lions.
His transition to television was immediate, becoming a key member of BT Sport’s leading rugby team, a captain on BBC One’s A Question of Sport, and presenting Rugby Special. In 2021, Ugo appeared on the iconic Strictly Come Dancing.
Ugo is a champion of diversity and equality, currently Chairing the RFU’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group and acting as a trustee for both the Women’s Sport Trust and Restart.
Our other speakers are:
Neil Jurd
Neil is the author of The Leadership Book, a TEDx speaker, and founder of training organisation and video platform Leader-Connect. Neil believes leadership can be easily taught, easily learned, and easily applied. Neil specialises in leadership development, and his company work with a range of organisations including Sanofi, University of Sheffield and BDP Singapore Ports. Neil is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Lancaster University, a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and recipient of both British Citizen Award and the OBE. Neil previously served as an army officer: he was an instructor at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and he led a Gurkha unit on operations in Iraq. Neil lives in Cumbria with his wife Macarena and their three children.
Leader-Connect specialise in leadership and team development. Residential courses are engaging, with an emphasis on experiential learning and an aversion to Powerpoint. Clients include Alertacall, BDP Singapore Ports, Defence Children’s Services, SOAS, and the University of Sheffield, as well as a number of small organisations and schools. The Leader-Connect video and podcast platform was launched last year and is a curated collection of leadership and team related content. Leader-Connect run courses in the UK, and overseas – with one member of our team currently on a permanent attachment to the Strategic Change Organisation in Tripoli.
Colin Bell
Colin’s career has traversed the creation, development, and transformation of private and public sector organisations and programmes. In the financial crisis Colin was part of an MBO team who rescued, scaled and sold Birmingham based tech and innovation business Winning Moves. Since then, he’s worked with local and national government designing policy and programmes that enable more businesses to start, scale and improve. More latterly he’s founded several businesses including business transformation agency Leap the Crowd and specialist public relations company We Do Content. Passionate about small business and entrepreneurship, Colin holds a Masters in Small Business Development and co-edited the book, Entrepreneurial Place Leadership: Negotiating the Entrepreneurial Landscape .
Jenny Lee
The Torpenhow Cheese Company was formed at Park House Farm near the village of Torpenhow on the northern edge of the Lake District, Cumbria, in 2019, with the aim to turn the rich organic milk from the Jersey/Friesian herd into creamy deep-flavoured cheese. Taking over her family farm with her husband Mark, Jenny runs this award winning and pioneering farm diversification business with farming still very much at its heart but with a focus very much on regenerative farming.
A family business of cheese lovers who just wanted to share their passion with others, they converted an old hay barn opposite the farmhouse into a dairy and learned the craft of making cheese and butter.
In 2018, Jenny and Mark began the organic conversion process having stopped all chemical fertiliser, pesticide and herbicide use the year before and converted to full organic status in June 2020.
The Torpenhow Cheese Company is a truly inspirational story of hard work, dedication and support from their local community. A business which never stands still and is always looking for ways to support other local producers as evidenced through their collaboration with Three Hills Gelato.
Panel members
So far confirmed for the panel we have Gill Haigh, Managing Director of Cumbria Tourism, Jayne Moorby Head of Marketing for Oxley Group and Angela Jones, Director of Thriving Places with Westmorland & Furness Council.
Tickets cost £65+VAT Chamber members/£80+VAT non-members – if you also want to book exhibition space then it’s £115 +VAT Chamber members/£155 VAT non-members.
Sponsorship packages are available including headline sponsor which includes a ‘meet and greet’ with Ugo – details can be requested by emailing lesleyr@cumbriachamber.co.uk
Thanks to our already confirmed sponsors – Cumberland Council, Westmorland & Furness Council, David Allen IT Solutions, Dodd & Co and Leo Group.