Organisers of the annual Liverpool Loves festival have announced the return of Liverpool Loves Business for its third consecutive year. Andrew Wright reports.

The free business event returns on July 13 with a new city centre location, this year taking place at Liverpool Hilton between 9am and 4pm.

The theme for 2017 is Dealing With The Art Of Sales, which aims to ‘assist and support delegates to rediscover their cutting edge, skills, and empower them in all areas of generating business’.

More than 600 entrepreneurs and professionals from across Liverpool City Region attended last year’s Liverpool Loves Business.

This year, Orb CIC, the team behind the festival, has again signed up a number of businesses, with Google Digital Garage headlining the programme on the Go Get ‘Em Stage.

This year, the event will feature a series of speaker stages and break-out areas, where delegates can access  business advice and listen to talks from industry leaders.

The Sales Dojo, sponsored by Your Business Mobile, will see sales and business development experts hold a series of quick-fire sessions on refining sales technique, advice on how to strengthen networks, develop interpersonal skills, and build strong client/consumer relationships.

There will be meeting spaces for delegates, which will also host one-to-one business advice sessions, and a commercial marketplace will provide a shop window for essential business services for start-ups and growth-phase companies.

Festival director Josh Boyd, from Orb CIC, commented: ‘We are delighted and excited to announce the return of Liverpool’s largest independent SME conference – the third Liverpool Loves Business. This year’s focus is to support, empower and inspire professionals, entrepreneurs and businesses to generate more sales, maximise their revenue, and build great networks by developing a killer sales strategy.

“The programme of seminars, keynote speeches and workshops will energise, motivate and invigorate the salesperson in us all to implement better, smarter techniques that can help to upskill people and move towards successfully achieving their targets.’

A full programme of speakers, exhibitors and networking sessions will be announced in the coming weeks.

Liverpool Loves Business is free to attend. Delegates are invited to register in advance on Eventbrite and reserve their place at https://liverpoollovesbusiness.eventbrite.co.uk