Financial Wellbeing for Employees
Sam Tate & Marie Ranson
A joint presentation by award winning firms New World Financial Group and Key Wellbeing explaining how employers can make steps towards improving the financial wellbeing of their employees.
Presented by Sam Tate, Co-founder and Director of New World, and Marie Ranson, Commercial Director at Key Wellbeing.
Marketing, It's all about You!
Leeanne Coatman
In this session Leeanne will talk you through the smart way of planning a media strategy and how to implement it for the best results
Leeanne is an experience account manager for the Global Media group
Disaster Recovery in a Digital World
James Hay
Thinking about the ‘what if’s’ in business is not often a priority, but do you have the plans in place to keep your business working if the worst happened? James Hay, Technical Product Manager at Odyssey will give useful insight on how to protect your business.
James is Technical Product Manager at Odyssey Systems. He joined Odyssey in 2011 and has progressed within the team from Technical support, to Network Infrastructure Engineer to now managing the team. James leads a team of engineers who are certified to the latest industry standards and was pivotal in the partnership between Odyssey and Microsoft.
James has a passion for innovation and in his day-to-day role he is always looking for new products and services to deliver the very best customer experience.
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Generating MORE LEADS for your business + SEO + PPC + PR
David Johnson
In this session David will share in 30 minutes easy to follow hints and tips that you can use straight away to improve your online marketing, he will show you - How to start generating MORE LEADS for your business How you can put simple measures in place to improve the number of enquiries your business receives and how you can reach out to more of your ideal customers
Since 2016, David has built two businesses, spent time learning, watching the changes in the world, spent time in schools talking to children and kept up to speed with changes in SEO and Google.
In 2016, he created Loud Crowd marketing agency, specialising in help companies and business owners capture the power of Google and utilise it to help them grow their organisations.
“Cyber Threats Are Closer Than You Think: Lessons from Redcar & What Your Business Can Do Now”
Damien Harrison
Cyber attacks are no longer a question of if, but when, and they’re hitting closer to home than most businesses realise. In just the past year, major UK brands like Marks & Spencer, Harrods, and Co-op have all suffered cyber breaches. A ransomware attack on a major food supplier disrupted deliveries to several national supermarkets. And in Redcar, right here in the Tees Valley, a £10 million ransomware attack took down council systems for weeks.
This isn't just a big business problem. It's a supply chain risk, a reputational threat, and a real cost to your bottom line. Small to mid-sized businesses are often the easiest way in for cyber criminals. Following Bondgate IT’s appearance in BBC One’s Cyber Siege: From Russia to Redcar, Operations and Marketing Director Damien Harrison shares what these attacks reveal, and the practical, non-technical steps you can take now to protect your business.
What you’ll learn:
How attackers are breaching businesses through overlooked supply chain vulnerabilities
What the Redcar attack teaches us about crisis response and business resilience
The biggest security gaps in SMEs, and how to fix them without breaking the bank
Why cybersecurity now belongs in the boardroom, not just the IT department
How to create a culture of security that works, even in small teams
Whether you're a business owner, director, or part of a critical supply chain, this session delivers practical tools, local insight, and a clear action plan — without jargon or scare tactics.
Damien Harrison is Operations & Marketing Director at Bondgate IT, a leading North East-based Managed Service Provider supporting SMEs with cybersecurity, compliance, and IT strategy.
With over a decade of industry experience and an MBA in leadership and systems thinking, Damien helps business leaders make smarter, more secure tech decisions. He recently led Bondgate’s involvement in Cyber Siege: From Russia to Redcar, the BBC One documentary examining the £10 million ransomware attack on Redcar & Cleveland Council.
A Chartered Fellow of the CMI and host of the Middlesbrough Tech Tribe chapter, Damien is passionate about helping local businesses thrive by making cybersecurity practical — not paralysing.
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.
The practical uses of Microsoft Copilot AI for SMEs
Andrew Ballantyne
If you already use Microsoft 365 in your business, you should consider using Microsoft 365 Copilot to get more from your company data. It’s Microsoft’s own AI-powered productivity tool that integrates with Microsoft 365 apps and services like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams to provide intelligent assistance. If you’d like to know more about the practical applications of Microsoft Copilot for your business, as well as how to mitigate security challenges, sign up for our seminar.
Andrew co-founded Circle Cloud in 2013, which is now one of the North East’s leading IT & cyber security management organisations. Andrew'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.
Are You Sweating the Right Sprouts? - Positive Coping During Challenging Times.
Dave Algeo
Do you...
• find that day to day demands affect your well-being?
• feel that negative stress affects your health?
• want to cope more positively with setbacks?
• want to learn practical, ‘no- nonsense’ tools to manage these demanding times more positively?
Then this session is for you...
• Put stress in its place - the cabbages and stress link
• Recognise and manage overwhelm more effectively - the cabbage or sprout conundrum
• Deal with the demands of life, work and these challenging times - Slicing, Dicing and Sweating - positive coping tips
• Developing a Resilient/‘Self Care’ Focus - meet your ‘inner ????’ (One final secret vegetable)
The session will be engaging, interactive and fun, whilst providing you with practical, no-nonsense tips and tools to implement in your day-to-day life.
“Sprout Guy”, Dave Algeo is an engaging, entertaining speaker, bringing research and experience together in his own unique way to provide a fun and memorable conference session. With many years as a police officer and leader, Dave has experienced his share of challenges and learned the hard way, how critical it is to develop a genuine resilience and positive mindset. He now shares key tools in using memorable vegetable related metaphors to help others develop their own resilience, support others in doing so and promote positive mentally healthy cultures.
From Clicks to Connections: building a loyal audience & making more sales
Naomi Rose
In 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.
