Enterprise Hub Business Start-Up Festival will run from January 22 to February 9, and will offer a range of workshops, drop-ins, and advice sessions for anyone thinking of starting a business. Neil Hodgson reports
Three weeks of intense business support starting this month will help to inspire the next wave of budding entrepreneurs across the Liverpool city region.
The Enterprise Hub Business Start-Up Festival will run from January 22 to February 9, and will offer a range of workshops, drop-ins, and advice sessions for anyone thinking of starting a business.
At the heart of the festival will be five free conferences across the region, starting with an event in Liverpool Central Library on January 24, followed by similar Enterprise Hub Business Start-Up Conferences in Sefton, Knowsley, Wirral, and Halton.
The conferences will feature talks from local entrepreneurs giving people an opportunity to hear about how they went about starting their business, what they have learned along the way, and what advice they would give to others wishing to follow in their footsteps.
They will also feature workshop activities to clarify the processes involved in starting a business.
People can find out more about all the events planned and where to drop into for advice or workshops by following a facebook page – www.facebook.com/MerseyEntHub –that will help them keep in touch with the full range of support that will be on offer.
And the link will provide three live streaming events each Friday during the festival, starting at 1pm, featuring a team of enterprise experts who will run a Q&A session for anyone seeking a bit of quick advice.
This is the first festival of its kind Enterprise Hub has staged since it was launched in December 2015, to support business start-ups across the city region.
It was inspired by the huge success of the Enterprise Hub Start-Up Week last September.
It provided support for entrepreneurs, including a Start-Up Day at Liverpool Central Library that offered free advice from successful business leaders and digital giant Google, as well as an entrepreneurs’ clinic by assistant mayor and enterprise champion Cllr Gary Millar.
Jackie Williams, Enterprise Hub project manager, and enterprise director at Liverpool social enterprise The Women’s Organisation, said: “The Liverpool city region is buzzing with entrepreneurial ideas and talent, and we want to use this opportunity to harness that talent.
“Enterprise Hub has already supported more than 4,000 people across the region to begin to evaluate their ideas and develop new skills, and more than 600 new businesses have successfully launched since Enterprise Hub opened in December 2015.”
Enterprise Hub is working with a variety of delivery partners across the region to roll-out the Business Start-Up Festival, including The Women’s Organisation, Alt Valley Community Trust, Everton Development Trust, Granby Toxteth Development Trust, Merseyside Expanding Horizons, Franchising Works, St Helens Chamber, Wirral Chamber of Commerce, The Prince’s Trust, and SAFE Regeneration.