In the first business breakfast of the Club’s new season, held at The Scores Hotel, attendees learned how to improve personal and team productivity as well as enjoying networking.
Sam Forsberg of ActionCOACH Scotland.
Sam Forsberg of ActionCOACH Scotland shared key principles for greater productivity and introduced attendees to tools they can start using immediately to achieve more of the things most important to them.
Dr Sandra Romenska, Senior Lecturer and Director of Teaching at the University of St Andrews School of Management.
Dr Sandra Romenska, Senior Lecturer and Director of Teaching at the University of St Andrews School of Management, helped attendees discover how they can be a better leader via a research-based interactive experience which included setting each side of the room a team negotiation challenge.
Both excellent expert presentations were greatly enjoyed by attendees, who clearly found them energising and inspiring.
NEXT EVENT:The Club’s next event is Surviving Brexit on November 8. It’s a politics-free event featuring 3 expert speakers on how to ensure your company does!
Dr Billy Grierson (left), Stephen Westwood and Dr Shona Dobbie will describe how companies can develop a Brexit survival strategy.
It’s not yet clear what form Brexit will take, but St Andrews Business Club’s November 8 event will help company owners and managers develop a Brexit survival strategy for whatever happens.
Three highly-qualified experts will speak at the event, to be held at the New Golf Club from 5.30pm.
Former Alliance Trust economist Dr Shona Dobbie gives independent economic, political and demographic advice to businesses. She will provide a politics-free understanding of the economic consequences of Brexit.
International businessman and entrepreneur Stephen Westwood has fulfilled roles as Chief Executive, Finance Director and interim executive across multiple business sectors for corporations in the UK and the US. He will deliver an appreciation of the actual and perceived impacts of Brexit on business.
Innovation and business consultant Dr Billy Grierson spent more than 30 years working for Ciba and BASF developing an understanding of how companies fail to solve problems and what tools and techniques can be used to improve their success rate. He will outline the framework to start the process of thinking about what opportunities and challenges your business will face and what you can do about them.
Anyone wishing to learn about this vital business topic, as well as network, is asked to book via Eventbrite.
The University of St Andrews Enterprise Week Keynote Event, organised in partnership with St Andrews Business Club, took place at The Byre Theatre. The speakers took part in a panel Q&A at the end of the event.
North-East Fife businesspeople joined St Andrews University students, staff, members of the public and Club members to hear the stories of several of Scotland’s most inspiring entrepreneurs as part of this year’s university Enterprise Week.
The free Keynote Event at The Byre Theatre on Wednesday night heard the stories and lessons of three Scottish entrepreneurs. The Club partnered with the Enterprise Week student committee to help organise the event as part of its commitment to nurturing entrepreneurship in the area.
Attendees took part in a networking wine reception with canapes before being welcomed by the Principal, Professor Sally Mapstone. She spoke about the increasing role of enterprise in the university and the importance of creativity in it.
Professor Mapstone then introduced Geoff Morris, the university’s Director of Special Projects & Community Engagement, who is responsible for the Eden Campus development in Guardbridge and he spoke about its vision and progress to date.
Craft beer
First of the inspiring entrepreneurs to share their story and lessons was Alan Mahon, co-founder of Brewgooder, the social enterprise which aims to provide clean water for a million people by producing and selling excellent craft beer and donating all the profits to clean water charities.
In its first year sales of Clean Water Lager funded two new well projects in Malawi providing 5,000 people with clean drinking water, transforming rural communities. This year it’s funding 60 projects helping 33,000 people. It also recently won the innovation award in the Scottish Beer Awards.
Alan spoke of the increasing importance of mission in business and told attendees how Social Bite, at which he works with Josh Littlejohn, went from a shop in Edinburgh’s Rose St to a planned village in Granton with high-quality affordable eco-housing for people suffering from being homeless. He also announced that students all over Scotland are being invited to join the Social Bite Sleep in the Park event in Edinburgh’s Princes St Gardens on December 9 in return for a minimum fundraising donation.
App company
Next up was 2007 St Andrews Economics & Management graduate Ines Teles, who founded the university’s Entrepreneurship Society. She co-founded app company DWYL in 2013 after working for the NHS and consultants Accenture and talked about the importance of openness and the growing role for machine learning.
Final speaker was St Andrews alumna Pippa Geaves, who graduated with an MLitt in Art History in 2013 and a Postgraduate Diploma in Managing in the Creative Industries in 2014. While working for a PR and creative agency, the graphic and web designer won the Innovation award at the DevelopHER Awards in November last year.
Pippa then decided to explore the consumer side of playful design and stationery, by founding Jeeves & Co. Design Studio in January this year. She explained how a failure to plan a career before graduating had led her to end up at her local Job Centre, but the circuitous route she’d taken to creating her company felt better than the more traditional one and had taught her more.
Q&A
The event finished with questions from the audience to the speakers.
Speaking about the event, St Andrews Business Club President, Alistair Morris, said: ”We’re delighted to have been asked to contribute to this event to help inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs and business people. The Club welcomes them to any of our own events.”
Bonnie Hacking, Enterprise & Employability Adviser at the University of St Andrews, said: “We’d like to thank St Andrews Business Club for its contribution to this event. We look forward to this being the first of many events we work on together to promote enterprise in our students and in the local community.”
Dr Sandra Romenska (left) and Sam Forsberg will teach you how to get more done.
People doing business in North-East Fife are being invited to learn how to get more done in the latest St Andrews Business Club event on October 25.
In the first business breakfast of the club’s new season, to be held at The Scores Hotel from 7.30am, Dr Sandra Romenska from the University of St Andrews School of Management will help attendees discover how they can be a better leader via a research-based interactive experience.
Sam Forsberg of ActionCOACH Scotland will share key principles for greater productivity and introduce the audience to tools they can start using immediately to achieve more of the things most important to them.
Anyone wishing to learn about this important business topic, as well as network, is asked to book via Eventbrite. The cost is £11.21 and includes a buffet breakfast and 45 minutes networking.
A full list of this season’s events can be found on our Events page.
