Featured Exhibitors
Our Seminars & Workshops
Click on the workshop title for more details,
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Join us for Chamber Spotlight or Thought Leadership!NE Chamber of Commerce
NE Chamber of Commerce are hosting a stand up networking session available to all at 11am in Seminar Area 4 and the Thought Leadership session from 10am to 12pm in Seminar Area 3
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Is it too late to start a podcast?
Ashleigh King
With video being king in marketing efforts now more than ever, is it too late to start a podcast? Expert in Residence at the Business & IP Centre North East and Founder of Flamingo Heights Podcast Studio, Ashleigh King looks at whether your marketing strategy for 2025 should look to include podcasts and if it's actually too late to start?
Ashleigh King is a podcaster, entrepreneur, and advocate for storytelling and inclusivity in the North East. As the founder of Flamingo Heights Podcast Studio and host of Nurture Your Zest, she has built a thriving platform to amplify diverse voices and help others share their stories. With no formal media training, she turned her passion into a successful business and now mentors aspiring podcasters as an Expert in Residence (Podcasting) with BIPC North East, delivering workshops regionally and nationally.
A leader in media and community impact, Ashleigh has produced major events like TEDx Newcastle University, reaching over 250,000 viewers. Her journey—rooted in resilience, creativity, and entrepreneurship—proves it’s never too late to start a podcast and make a meaningful impact."
Catch Me if You Brand: The Timeless Formula for Captivating Storytelling
Abi Dodwell
Why do the world’s most iconic stories stick with us for generations? It’s because they captivate, emotionally connect and make us care. Not because they have presented a well-defined “problem and solution” model. Too often, brand content today feels like it’s lost its spark as we lean on a stale list of “sales & marketing tactics.” When it’s boring to create, it’s 100% boring to consume - so let’s explore how we can turn a new page.
In this session, we’ll explore how the same storytelling techniques that power bestselling novels and blockbuster films can help your brand rise above the noise. By using the timeless three-act structure, you’ll learn how to craft and communicate a brand story that grabs attention and is truly worth following.
Abi Dodwell is a Marketing Strategy Specialist and the founder of Red Biscuit. With over five years of experience in both B2B and B2C, she's worked across a variety of industries, including tech, utilities, manufacturing, print, finance, and medicine. Abi’s approach to strategy and campaign delivery is all about creativity and storytelling. Helping brands connect with their audiences in memorable ways that mean their voice is heard above all others.
From Chaos to Clarity – The Magic of Visual Strategy
Ann English
Ideas fuel business success, they spark innovation, drive growth and create new opportunities. Ideas are valuable, abundant, and yet intangible. With so many ideas and possibilities floating around, how can businesses turn them into clear, actionable strategies?
In this interactive, hands-on talk, Ann will guide participants through simple yet powerful visual strategy techniques to unlock creative thinking, overcome roadblocks, and bring their best ideas to life.What’s in it for the audience?
Engaging Activity: The 9-Dot Challenge to shift mindsets and remove roadblocks. Live Visual Strategy: Ann will create Visual Doodles in real-time to show how to capture ideas visually and simplify complex concepts. Actionable Takeaways: Practical tools and frameworks attendees can use immediately to think differently and take meaningful action.
Ann is a Visual Communications expert, TEDx Speaker and Author of The Clarity Quest Ideasbook, a guided journal to breathe life into your valuable ideas. She believes in the benefits of putting pen to paper to tap into your imagination and unlock your childlike curiosity by daydreaming and doodling.
With her business Create Intrigue, Ann helps you to visually communicate what you think, say and do through:
• VisionMapping Coaching: captures ideas as a VisionTree to grow your business and SignatureSystem to build your brand.
• VisualDoodle Technique: visualises your story and customer journey as a VisualDoodle roadmap, promo image and video.
• Visual Marketing Academy: learn how to present your brand, products and services professionally and apply the silent sales strategies big brand use to create intrigue, engage customers and boost sales.
From Clicks to Connections: building a loyal audience & making more sales
Naomi RoseIn this seminar, you’ll learn how to identify and attract your ideal audience, building connections that lead to loyal, paying customers. We’ll explore practical strategies for engaging potential clients, increasing brand visibility, and aligning your audience growth with your business goals. Walk away with a clear plan for growing your audience and making more sales, all while driving long-term success for your business.
Naomi Rose is not your average marketing strategist.
With over 20 years of experience leading digital and marketing teams for large-scale organisations, Naomi knows exactly how to create high-impact strategies that grow audiences and deliver real results.
In 2018, Naomi left her 9-to-5 to follow her passion for baking, launching a café and bar with no prior experience. Within six months, she turned her start-up into a thriving six-figure business with 17 employees. During the pandemic, she successfully crowdfunded a bakery, raising £17k from over 300 supporters. Just three months after opening, her bakery won the prestigious Britain’s Best Loaf Award.
But here’s the thing. It wasn’t her baking that made her business a success, it was her expertise in marketing and strategic planning.
Today, Naomi helps ambitious business owners cut through the noise, creating bespoke marketing strategies that drive growth and attract the right customers. She’s also the founder of Coffee & Collabs, an online networking group for business owners who aren’t fans of traditional networking.
Naomi lives in North Yorkshire with her husband, mad spaniel, and two crazy cats. She’s a beekeeper, professional cellist, motorbike rider (not with the cello though!), fitness fanatic, and travel lover.
Future-Proof Any Business with Strategic Insights Alice Heywood
In this session Discover how leading global corporations drive financial growth and sustain competitive edge through serious strategic insights
Alice Haywood, founder of Audience Experts Ltd, combines years of research in the UK economy, innovation, and behavioural science to guide businesses in leveraging qualitative insights. Her tailored training and support upskills teams to embed strategic thinking and secure their place in today's highly competitive market.
AI Tools to Support Your Business
Shane Gammage
In the ever-changing world of AI, knowing the right tools to support your business can be difficult. That's why Shane from Who's Listening will be providing you with insight on some AI tools that can really help support productivity within your business, whilst making sure that you stay authentic. Oh and we're not talking your ChatGPT's of the world, these tools will more than likely be ones you haven't heard of - or didn't know the power of!
Shane is the founder of Who's Listening, a fully-remote digital marketing agency based in Newcastle. Having worked in marketing for over 10 years, Shane left behind the corporate marketing world in 2022 when his daughter was diagnosed with autism, opting for the flexibility of working from home. Since then, he has built a successful remote agency with 5 staff, working with businesses ranging from local restaurants all the way up to Fortune 500 and household brands such as Midea and Disaronno.
Marketing with 'Strategic Flexibility
Michael Pagan
Strategic flexibility is increasingly vital for businesses to thrive in today's ever-changing marketplace. It's a proven source of competitive advantage…and growth! This seminar explores how to achieve strategic flexibility within your business and team, looking at how the adaptability of a ‘fractional’ model can be leveraged to boost your marketing efforts across the planning, creative and activation stages. We'll share insight and practical examples of why this way of working has become increasingly popular with some of the region’s fastest growing companies, explaining how it can give you a genuine competitive edge - as well as an affordable way to expand your knowledge, team & talentpool, in ways that increase the effectiveness of your comms investment.
Michael Pagan FCIM, MA, BEng Michael is a Chartered Marketer and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He has over 20 years of expertise in Branding, Design & Marketing Consultancy - having worked on public and private sector initiatives for over 150 different brands, in a variety of sectors within the UK, Europe and overseas markets.
He is passionate about planning, designing and developing marketing communications and campaigns that are not only visually engaging but also commercially effective - grounded in an understanding of the target audience and what drives the decisions they choose to make. He strongly believes design and visual communications offer brands a better opportunity to influence behaviour and grow, when approached in this way.
Prior to joining Blue Moon, Michael was Managing Director of DECIDE - the UK’s longest established independent creative agency, where he worked with clients including Dr. Oetker, Mondelez, Spectrum Brands, Procter & Gamble and Boehringer Ingelheim. Over the course of his career, he has overseen several long-term research collaborations with leading academic institutions, and has been the strategic planning lead on a number of DBA Design Effectiveness Award winning creative campaigns.
The Power of Soft Skills in the Workplace – Unlocking Personal and Professional Success
Sue WildIn this session Sue will take attendees on an eye-opening exploration of why soft skills—not numbers or algorithms—are the ultimate drivers of growth and innovation in today’s competitive workplace. From the session the Key Takeaways will be -
• Understand Soft Skills, Redefined: Beyond the buzzwords, we’ll show you why communication, emotional intelligence, and adaptability are non-negotiable in the modern workforce.
• Master the Essentials: Learn how to use key soft skills—like collaboration and problem-solving—to build stronger teams and achieve better outcomes.
• See the Business Impact: Real-world examples and case studies will reveal how prioritising soft skills can unlock untapped potential and deliver measurable results.
Through this engaging talk, Sue will challenge outdated thinking and push you to rethink how you lead, hire, and grow. Because in today’s work climate, technical skills get you in the door—but it’s the soft skills that’ll take you to the top.With over 30 years of experience in education, including 23 years as an E-learning Consultant, Sue Wild has dedicated her life to transforming the way people learn and grow. Her career began with empowering pupils and teachers to seamlessly integrate technology into everyday learning. But her passion for progress didn’t stop there.
Today, Sue is the driving force behind Skillogy, leading a bold movement that redefines the way businesses tackle the growing soft skills gap. Under her leadership, Skillogy turns “soft” skills into essential tools for success—arming organisations with the communication, adaptability, and leadership skills required to stay competitive in a world that never stops evolving.
Sue’s ability to merge her expertise in education with real-world application takes her impact to the next level. Her recent collaboration is with an inspirational teacher focusing on the importance of “soft” skills as part of her doctoral study, has focused on, preparing individuals to excel not just in school but in life.
Based right here in the North East, Sue is fiercely committed to unlocking the region’s untapped potential. “The skills gap is right in front of us,” she says, “but so is the opportunity to transform it.” From students preparing for life’s challenges to employees driving organisational success, Sue is passionate about bridging the skills gap at every level.
Overcoming Cyber Security Challenges in the Age of Remote Working
Tomas RobertsonThe majority of organisations have adjusted their policies to allow for home working. Even though modern cloud-based technologies have made this shift more straightforward than ever, remote working is not without risk. In this seminar, we will discuss the specific security challenges that are posed by remote working, as well as give you clear ways to overcome them in a way that doesn’t compromise productivity.
Tom co-founded Circle Cloud in 2013, which is now one of the North East’s leading IT & cyber security management organisations. Tom's focus has always been on building and delivering managed service packages that suit the IT and cyber security needs of SMEs in the modern world.
Unlock the Power of Your Mind: 3 Game-Changing Techniques for Emotional Resilience and Success
Kay McCreadyStress, emotional disconnect, and overwhelm are common struggles in today’s world. Through storytelling and practical insights, Kay McCready unravels the transformative power of embracing and processing emotions to build lasting emotional resilience and success.
In this inspiring seminar, Kay blends personal anecdotes with actionable techniques to deliver a session that is both relatable and impactful. Attendees will leave with three powerful tools they can implement immediately:
1. Understand the Mindset Connection: Gain clarity on how your thoughts shape your emotions and actions.
2. Regulate the Nervous System: Learn a simple yet effective method to move from stress to calm, enhancing focus and emotional balance.
3. Boost Motivation and Energy: Discover how to create that dopamine hit for improved mood and productivity.
These techniques, combined with Kay’s captivating storytelling, provide a fresh perspective on emotional resilience and equip attendees with tools to make transformative changes in their lives.
Whether you’re a leader, professional, or someone ready to step into emotional freedom, this talk will leave you inspired, empowered, and ready to embrace your inner warrior.Kay McCready is an award-winning global speaker, Emotional Resilience Coach, Trauma Practitioner, and 9D Breathwork Facilitator. As the founder of Kay McCready Coaching, she empowers individuals to navigate life’s challenges, build emotional resilience, and reconnect with their inner strength.
Drawing from her 28 years as a police officer, Kay shares deeply personal stories of navigating emotional suppression, hidden trauma, and the societal pressures that enforce resilience at the cost of emotional well-being. Her journey from battling depression and emotional struggles to mastering mindset and emotional health offers audiences hope, practical strategies, and the inspiration to rewrite their own emotional narratives.
Solving the people puzzle in minutes instead of months - why people communicate in the way that they do
Teresa Peters
Would you like to understand people better and build instant rapport? Join Teresa Peters, founder of Accelerator Coaching, for an interactive and inspiring talk that will transform the way you communicate with everyone in your life.
Discover the secret to recognising communication styles in just minutes and adapting your approach to connect more effectively with clients, colleagues, friends, and family. You’ll learn why some people act before they think, while others think before they act, and how you can use this insight to improve relationships and achieve your goals.
Teresa will share her top piece of advice: “Treat others as they would want to be treated.” This simple yet powerful shift in perspective can have a profound impact on your personal and professional life.
This engaging session will include:
● Practical exercises to boost your self-awareness and communication skills.
● A free takeaway guide on how to communicate with different styles – something you’ll refer to every day!
● Tips on maximising your potential by understanding how to effectively connect with task-oriented and people-oriented individuals.
Don’t miss this opportunity to improve your relationships, increase your influence, and unlock the key to better communication. This session is not only informative but also fun, interactive, and guaranteed to leave you with insights you can apply immediately.Teresa Peters is an Accelerator of Positive Change, enabling individuals and teams to thrive. A Senior Practitioner Executive Coach (EMCC), Team Coach Accredited (ICF), and certified in EQ360 Emotional Intelligence with RocheMartin, she combines expertise in neuroscience and emotional intelligence to empower leaders to access their strengths, manage emotions, and focus with clarity.
Teresa helps executives regain work-life balance and perspective when overwhelmed by daily demands. Known for her engaging and positive approach, she is an accredited practitioner in DiSC and Emotions Coaching, and delivers inspiring workshops and lectures as an Associate Lecturer at Teesside University Business School.
Her career began in 1997 with Trinity Mirror and Express Newspapers, managing sales teams and business development. In 2009, she co-founded a successful publishing company, and in 2015 discovered her passion for coaching. Teresa also founded the Sober Curious High Achievers Group, supporting professionals seeking personal growth and balance.
Teresa is passionate about her family, which includes her husband, 17-year-old twins, a 23-year-old son, a border collie, and a ragdoll cat. To celebrate her 50th birthday and 5 years of sobriety, she is preparing to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and run another marathon.
A highly valued brainstormer, Teresa’s warmth, expertise, and energy make her a trusted partner in personal and professional transformation.
How to unblock your biggest bottleneck
Laurie Stirling
Understanding your business cycle and where your biggest bottleneck lies inside that cycle is the key to unlocking growth and scalability. In this engaging talk, Laurie Stirling, a seasoned entrepreneur and award-winning Business Analyst, will guide you through the five biggest business bottlenecks to growth. She’ll reveal how recognizing where your business stands enables you to prioritize the right strategies, avoid common pitfalls, and position your team for success.
Drawing on real-world insights and actionable techniques, this session will empower business owners and leaders to:
Identify their current business cycle and its unique challenges.
Implement data-driven strategies to achieve sustainable growth.
Create a roadmap to transition confidently into the next cycle.
Whether you're scaling your lifestyle business or building an enterprise, this talk will equip you with the knowledge and tools to make informed, strategic decisions that drive long-term success.Laurie Stirling is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the web development industry and an award-winning growth and scale-up coach for the past eight years. Laurie specialises in helping entrepreneurs reduce their workload and overcome the bottlenecks that hold their businesses back.
Laurie empowers business owners who are at max capacity—wearing all the hats and struggling to find time for growth—to build scalable systems that enable them to focus on their strengths. Using data-driven insights and customized strategies, Laurie helps entrepreneurs automate, delegate, and innovate, allowing them to reclaim their time and achieve sustainable growth without compromising on income or personal priorities.
Whether you're teetering on the edge of burnout or looking for ways to scale beyond yourself, Laurie’s proven expertise can help you rediscover balance while driving your business forward.
How to never be blagged about SEO again
Adam Foster
If you think SEO is black magic, the dark arts, witchcraft or wizardry, you've been burned. SEO isn't black magic, it isn't easy, but it is simple. This seminar will give you an understanding of what goes into getting your website more traffic from Google Search, in a language you can understand"
Now thennnnnn, my name is Adam! Founder of Proper Mint Marketing.
I’m a Hartlepool lad that has been helping businesses attract more customers by ranking their websites higher in Google, so they can make more money since 2011.
I want to work with good people & mint businesses, so I can deliver Proper Mint results.
Proper Mint Marketing specialises in SEO Auditing, On-page content optimisation, Keyword research, Content marketing & copy writing and Marketing consultancy.Since 2016 I have created and taught marketing and digital marketing programmes, courses and workshops for Teesside, Sunderland and Northumbria Universities. These courses have helped business owners and decision-makers supercharge their marketing, and grow their business.
I love working with brands to help them understand the bigger picture of marketing, educate them in the process and how we can implement strategies and tactics to grow their business.
I understand you’re not a marketer. But after working with me, you will be able to hold your own in any marketing meeting, and not be blagged.