Successful Day at the Business Zone
Author: Claire Staley
Date: Tuesday 4th March 2008
Successful Day at the Business Zone
Pembrokeshire Business Zone 2008 was an innovative must-attend event for all budding entrepreneurs and existing business owners in Pembrokeshire. The event, which was held on February 28th at the Pembrokeshire Showground in Haverfordwest, brought together some of the county’s leading business experts, support agencies and successful new entrepreneurs for a day of networking and exchanging of ideas and best practice.
Sponsored by PBI, PLANED and the Western Telegraph with support from PBI’s part objective one funded Pembrokeshire B2B programme (which encourages business networking) and PLANED’s Leader + Transnational project, ‘creating a community culture of entrepreneurship’, one of the main features of the event was the ‘Enterprise Showcase’ area. Forty new businesses and entrepreneurs from across our communities took up the fantastic opportunity to ‘showcase’ their businesses and promote their products and services to other exhibitors and visitors attending the event.
Trevor Collins, from Modern Print, said “The Business Zone was a great opportunity for local firms like ourselves. We met lots of potential new customers and useful contacts and found it a very rewarding experience. We would definitely like to get involved in a similar event in the future.”
Pembrokeshire Photography commented; "As always we found PBIs' event to be well organised, well hosted with a good range of speakers and we look forward to attending the next! The opportunity was invaluable to us as a new business in the area. It was an excellent way of showcasing the quality of our photographs, making some excellent contacts and filing our work diary with 12 new orders. It was excellent value for money and a really enjoyable experience."
For those seeking help and information on ways in which to develop their business, or even start up a new venture, there were over twenty organisations on hand to offer advice and guidance on a wide range of business issues and the chance to attend seminars covering topics including funding and grants, business planning and marketing. The event also featured a ‘green zone’ where those interested in how to improve waste and environmental management could access information.
During the networking lunch, Glyn Jones, owner of Princes Gate Cool Water, the winner of the Pembrokeshire SME and Pembrokeshire Business of the Year 2007, gave an interesting insight into the key factors that he and his team feel are important in developing and growing a successful Pembrokeshire based business. A delegation of visitors from Sweden, Ireland and Slovenia also visited the event as part of a Transnational project supported by PBI and Planed, which is designed to share best practice amongst EU countries.
Over one hundred and fifty visitors attended the Business Zone and took advantage of the unique combination of so many potential customers and suppliers, together with expert advice and information on offer under one roof.
If you were unable to attend the Business Zone, but would like to see the profiles of the exhibiting businesses and support organisations, please click on the link from the home page at www.pbi.org.uk
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