To help support, encourage and empower the business women who make a contribution to Scotland’s economy, Lantra is holding a Rural Business Women’s Conference on Sunday 27 November at Westerwood Hotel, Cumbernauld.  The conference will feature prominent business women from across Scotland who will share their knowledge and the secrets of their success with attendees.

This one day conference is open to all women interested in starting or growing their own business, no matter what industry or background they come from.  It will also help those who are keen to diversify their existing business or assist those interested in starting up their own business.

April Bingham, Co-founder and Director of Bellwether Green, a commercial law firm, will be a guest speaker at the conference.  In addition to April, there will be presentations from the Rural Business Women Groups led by Wendy Duckett (Ayrshire & Fife, Perth & Kinross), Kate Sankey (Forth Valley & Central), and Amanda Kremer (Dumfries & Galloway).  The speakers will help participants develop their knowledge of business planning, benchmarking, legislation, sales and marketing issues.

Mary Mitchell, Lantra Regional Partnership Manager said: “This conference is a great opportunity for Scotland’s business women to meet, share success stories and explore ways to strengthen their businesses with like-minded women.  By attending, women will have a better understanding of the opportunities available to them, making them better prepared to thrive in the current difficult economic period.

Held from 9:30am - 4pm, the conference includes lunch and refreshments , but spaces are limited and allocated on a first come, first served basis.  To find out more about the programme of events call Mary Mitchell (07867 908183) or Ishbel Crawford (07867 908198).  To book tickets, email lantra.scotland@lantra.co.uk or call 01738 553311.

Owen Kelly, CEO of Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE) will tell Thrive for Business members that, “The success of our industry comes from serving clients and customers and their interests need to come first.”

Kelly is speaking to Thrive for Business on Wed 23 November at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, in Edinburgh.

He said, “Financial services, as an industry and an employer, is central to Scotland’s continued prosperity. The biggest challenge for the industry is the combination of market uncertainties with continuing regulatory change. It is a bit like building a car while you are at the same time trying to drive through a storm.”

Asked what his career highlights were to date, he said, “Responding immediately on behalf of the industry to the unfolding financial crisis in 2008; working with Scotland’s leading fund managers to promote that sector of the industry in China; and helping to secure some big investments in Scotland from Japan in the 1990s.”

Book your place at this event now!

We are delighted to announce we have started filming our events thanks to David Calder, Caledonian Mercury.

Check out our first film with MD Paul Farley, Tag Games and CEO Andrew Dixon, Creative Scotland here!

Let us know what you think, tweet with us @Thrive4Business!!

Looking forward to the next one!!

Andrew Dixon, Chief Executive of Creative Scotland plus the MD of Tag Games, Paul Farley, are speaking to Thrive’s Business Lunch Club members on Wednesday, 21st September, 2011 at The Corinthian Club on Ingram Street, Glasgow.

Creative Scotland, founded last year, invests in the arts, screen and creative industries for the benefit of the people of Scotland.

Tag Games create games for the biggest gaming platforms on the planet – mobile, handheld and online. The Dundee-based business has comes a long way from a small cottage in Fife just 5 years ago and now has a global reach of over 4 billion people and can boast clients such as Channel 4, Namco Bandai, Square Enix, Endemol and the BBC.

Andrew Dixon will be sharing his experience with Thrive members. He describes the defining moment of his career (apart from Creative Scotland) as delivering a £250m capital plan for the arts in Newcastle, Gateshead and the North of England. His goal for this year is to position Creative Scotland as one of the world’s most creative cultural investment agencies.  Thrive members will get insight into that process.

The business person Dixon would most like to meet at a Thrive networking event is Richard Branson, “Because he is a positive thinker who has turned his initial success in the creative industries into a global business”.

Paul Farley says his defining moment in business was, “Making the decision to leave a secure, well paid job to co-found Tag. I knew that if I didn’t make the leap of faith I’d always regret it. It’s been challenging, but there’s never been a day I’d wished I hadn’t done it!”
Farley is currently “Right in the middle of a major transition from making games that are unconnected and use a “pay per download” model to one that is based on making social/connected games that use a freemium monetisation model. We’ve had to completely change the structure of the studio, but I’m excited about the huge opportunities that lie ahead. Right now I want to complete that transition successfully and put Tag in a great position for accelerated growth in 2012.”

Watch the video of the event!

Week 1

Amanda and Emma had a good meeting with Andrew Macdonald-Bennet from Kelpie Connect and Riccardo Chapman from Destrukt Studio regarding a few developments at Thrive – more details next month!!

Anna returned lovely and brown from a holiday in Puerto Portals.

Wayne Gardner-Young, Founder & Entrepreneur, WGY Group & Paul Blair, HR Partner, Aegon UK presented to our Glasgow Property Club.

Week 2

We had our annual staff night out. We all enjoyed a delicious 3 course meal at Monteiths and then saw Rock the Ballet which we highly recommend!

Emma attended an interesting New Media Breakfast on Social Media hosted by FatBuzz and Attacat.

Anthony Ashbrook, Founder, Mobile Acuity and William Wood, Sales & Marketing Director, Sciencesoft presented to our Technology & Innovation Club where William kindly gave away a bottle of single malt!

Dr Rabinder Buttar, President, CEO and Founder, ClinTec International Ltd & Councillor Paul Edie, Convenor of the Health, Social Care and Housing Committee, Edinburgh City Council presented to our Edinburgh Lunch Club.

Week 3

Rebecca Davies came in for a brilliant Sales Strategy meeting with the team.

Emma and Amanda met Penny Haywood of PHRR to get the Thrive message out there and Catriona joined the team as the new Events Assistant.

Gillian McNamara, Principal Projects & Programmes Officer, Barrhead Regeneration & Alex McGuire, Executive Director of Development & Regeneration, GHA presented to our Glasgow Clubs.

Week 4

Dave Pratt, Co-Founder of Nautricity, Dorothy Shepherd, Round 3 Contract Manager, Moray Firth of The Crown Estate and Dan Finch, MD of EDP Renewables presented to our Energy Club.

Our Director, Amanda, has slipped her dancing shoes on and is away to enjoy a much needed holiday this week in Torquay.

We’re very sad to announce that our Office Manager Helen, is leaving us for good this week. However, replacing her shall is the equally calm and composed Chrissie Irvine.

Ola & Emma are off to Dubai to enjoy the last remains of summer and try to get as good a tan as Anna (good luck!)

And finally, once again a very big thank you to our Speakers: Wayne Gardner Young, Aegon UK, Edinburgh City Council, ClinTec International, Mobile Acuity, Sciencesoft, Barrhead Regeneration, GHA, Braehead Foods, Scottish Government, Nautricity, The Crown Estate, Tait Enterprise Development, Annandale Estates and Pocket Mountains for presenting at our networking clubs this month!

Ben Thomson spoke at our recent Thrive B2B networking meeting in Glasgow on the Future of Banking. He has also taken on the role of spearheading The Campaign for Fiscal Responsibility (http://cffr.co.uk/campaign-news/campaign-for-fiscal-responsibility-launch/) which was launched on the 3rd June 2010 and is an independent, non-party political campaign.

It involves individuals from a variety of backgrounds including business, the law, economics, academia, the voluntary sector and the trade union movement, who have come together to make the case for greater fiscal powers for the Scottish Parliament because they believe that such powers help us to create the framework for sustainable economic growth, new jobs and improved public services.

The aims of the campaign are to review the proposals for greater fiscal powers for the Scottish Parliament being discussed by the UK Government, to make recommendations to the UK Government and to promote the case for greater fiscal responsibility in the media and elsewhere.

The campaign is inviting people to sign up to a declaration, the wording of which is below;

The Campaign for Fiscal Responsibility

"A Scottish Parliament with far greater responsibility for raising the money it spends would lead to better government in Scotland. It would make politicians more accountable for the financial decisions they take while giving them both the incentive and the fiscal tools necessary to achieve improved public services and faster growth - vital in the current economic circumstances. Further, it would help to foster a healthy relationship between Westminster and Holyrood.

All of the main Scottish and UK parties agree that the Scottish parliament should have greater financial powers. The debate is now about which powers should be devolved and when.

Much has changed in the last year and the opportunity now exists to go further than the limited financial proposals outlined in the Calman Commission report.

Therefore, we are calling for the control of most current taxes to be devolved to the Scottish parliament."

For more information or to support The Campaign for Fiscal Responsibility visit http://cffr.co.uk/campaign-news/campaign-for-fiscal-responsibility-launch/.

Alternatively, call Amanda Kremer on 0131 526 3108

Week 1

Our newest interns to join Thrive are Khloe Salmon & Daniella Tam. Khloe also works at Scottish Widows & Daniella studies at the University of Bristol but is spending her summer with us here in Edinburgh!

Our Edinburgh BDM, Anna-louise enjoyed a holiday to Lanzarote & is off again now to Majorca!

Our Office Manager, Helen completed her book keeping course!!! Congrats!!!


Week 2

The Thrivette’s went along to an Edinburgh Chamber BBQ event at the Hyde Out & made some lovely friends as well as some very valuable business contacts!

Our Director, Amanda & Anna-louise were lucky enough to have a tour around Edinburgh Castle. Possibly a future venue for us! Watch this space…

We held the most popular Networking Workshop on ‘How to Work the Room’ in Glasgow for non-members which was a huge success!


Week 3

Nick Cohen from PCR saved us damsels in distress & fixed our computers.

The Thrivette’s threw our Marketing Exec, Emma a surprise 21st birthday party which really was a complete surprise & resulted in Emma ending up in A&E & unable to walk…

Welcome to Brian Jackson who is our newest member to our Glasgow Property club and Louise Llewellyn to our Dumfries club!

Virgin Media Pioneers asked Amanda to facilitate a networking session for their up & coming entrepreneurs as well as sourcing a top line speaker, Clare Darwish from Rich Brits – and all with less than 10 working days’ notice!

Ola attended a lovely BBQ at one of our favourite venues, the Corinthian Club.

William Hunter from St James Place was our 200th member on our LinkedIn Group which we thought deserved a free Thrive gift!


Week 4

Our Events Assistant, Alice attended her first Thrive Food & Drink event with our Glasgow BDM, Ola & met some ‘interesting characters’. (Craig from the Shine Agency 'moonwalked' himself in..!)

Speakers who visited our Glasgow clubs this month; Historic Scotland, Swift Technology, Optoscribe, Stirling Castle, City Design, Clydebank Rebuilt, Hospitality Industry Trust.

Speakers who visited our Edinburgh clubs this month; Malcolm Fraser Architects, The Crown Estate, Spark Energy, Zebec.

Speakers who visited our Dumfries club this month; Sk8 Scotland

Finally, from all of us at Thrive, we hope you've had a lovely July & are looking forward to August as much as we are!