Glasgow Business Summit 2016: It’s all about business and opportunity

A team of students, postgraduate and undergraduate, have put together a programme of speakers for the Glasgow Business Summit, an event designed to provoke discussion about current and future business challenges and opportunities. Organising student Samuel Baker outlines the aims and format of the event.

The Glasgow Business Summit is a student-led business conference in Scotland for students and professionals that seeks to foster effective discussion about changes, challenges and opportunities affecting the global business environment.

We have pulled together renowned scholars, business leaders, and policy makers from different business streams to take part in this event which offers something to everyone in business, whether they work in corporate roles in international business or are established entrepreneurs or are embarking on a new entrepreneurial venture.

We hope Glasgow Business Summit will serve as a platform for stimulating debate about important issues affecting business.

The global business landscape is evolving daily, and new changes mean new challenges which as a result affect the growth of businesses, regardless of their size or provenance.

The Glasgow Business Summit aims to shine light on business challenges. By bringing together accomplished entrepreneurs, business leaders, academics and policy makers, the summit will offer an opportunity for participants to ask questions, learn, network and gain support for their business ideas.

As the saying goes, experience is the best teacher, and only by learning from those who have been in a similar situation, can we fully understand how to act within a complex business environment.

At the Glasgow Business Summit, participants will have the opportunity to attend panel sessions where business leaders will be discussing relevant topics in business, keynote interviews where participants will quiz successful entrepreneurs, a business exhibition where companies will be showcasing what they do and how they have achieved it, and networking sessions where guest speakers will interact with participants in a relaxed environment.

There will be keynote speeches from Jim McColl, founder and CEO of Clyde Blowers Capital, on the realities of building a successful business; Debbie Crosbie, chief operating officer, Clydesdale Bank, on successful business leadership; and Jamie Hepburn, MSP, Minister for Employability and Training, on supporting talent and business opportunities in Scotland. The Fraser of Allander’s Graeme Roy will look at the state of Scotland’s economy post-Brexit.

The role of the financial services industry will be in the spotlight with a panel event featuring participants from Barclays, PwC, Glasgow City Council and the Business School. Other panel topics will address financing business models; digital trends and innovation strategy in business; challenges and opportunities in global markets; and how to grow a start up into a successful business.

The Glasgow Business Summit will therefore be a platform for those looking to learn, develop strong business ideas and plans, network and expand business connections and those interested in understanding the future of the business environment.

Graduates and professionals looking to explore opportunities will also have the chance to meet with companies exhibiting at the summit.

The Glasgow Business Summit takes place on Friday 7 October 2016 at the Technology and Innovation Centre, University of Strathclyde, and is open to the public, including students from across the country and non-students.

Details on the agenda, speakers and how to buy tickets can be found online here