The inaugural Clacks Business Week, organised by Ceteris (Scotland) Ltd, proved to be a great success with over 500 local business people attending the events held between 21 and 25 November.
The theme of the Week was Business Growth and the wide variety of events focusing on growth ranged from presentations on Growth in a Changing Future to a dinner for Manufacturing Companies, to a workshop on how businesses can benefit from employing young people.
The Week was officially launched by Margaret Mary Rafferty, Managing Director of Ceteris at Gean House on Monday 21 November when local business leaders were treated to informative speeches around the topic of business growth from the Member of Parliament for Ochil and South Perthshire, Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, Graeme Finnie, Managing Partner of French Duncan and Ken Lewandowski, Chairman of Alloa-based Emblation.
The week continued in a positive manner with the FSB’s Women’s Learn & Lunch, Ask the Expert sessions on Marketing and Social Media and Business Gateway workshops ll proving to be sell out events.
A number of events organised were unique to Clackmannanshire Business Week, including the employer focus group evening organised by the newly established Forth Valley Developing the Young Workforce Group, and an incredibly well attended Funding & Support Exhibition for businesses across Forth Valley. This was organised by Business Gateway Clackmannanshire, who were delighted to see a range of local businesses take advantage of the financial and business advice on offer from companies as diverse as Royal Bank of Scotland, The Prince’s Trust, Scottish Enterprise, University of Stirling, Transmit Start-ups and Resource Efficient Scotland.
Meanwhile, FSB’s Breakfast Buzz also migrated to Muircot Farm near Sauchie for its first Clackmannanshire breakfast networking event, which was so popular that the organisers are already planning another in the New Year.
With Tourism and the promotion of Clackmannanshire a key focus during the Week, Ceteris tried to make sure that there was activity throughout Clackmannanshire, using eight different venues across the area.
There was even a tourism specific event organised by Discover Clackmannanshire with many local tourism businesses gathering at Gean House to meet with and listen to representatives from Visit Scotland, Clackmannanshire Council, LEADER and Scotland Food & Drink.
Margaret Mary adds, ‘the week couldn’t have happened without the support of our sponsors, French Duncan and other participating organisations, such as Clackmannanshire Business, Forth Valley College, Clackmannanshire Council, Federation of Small Business, and many others, including Inglewood House and Gean House. Our own business is all about supporting business growth, we work with over 100 start ups every year and a further 100 existing businesses, so we were thrilled with the turnout each day.’
‘We ended the week with a splendid lunch at Inglewood House on behalf of Scottish Autism. This was attended by around 120 people and raised over £1800 for the charity and Struan House. Our local MSP, Keith Brown (Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Jobs and Fair Work) also supported the lunch by attending and speaking glowingly of the strength of the Clackmannanshire Business Community.’
‘On behalf of Ceteris I’d like to thank everyone who helped by organising and attending the Week and look forward to next year.’
To find out how Ceteris can help you to grow and develop your business, call 01259 726430.
PICTURE: Top table at Clacks Business Week launch, (left to right) Graeme Finnie, Mike Mulraney, Margaret Mary Rafferty, Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh MP and Ken Lewandowski.