Fusion Conference - Rising From Recession 17th November 2011 Afternoon Sessions

After a lovely lunch we headed back into the Macleod room to hear Peter Crome of the Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle talk. Peter started off talking about his early career as a potato peeler and how his career nearly ended over a mix up with a desert fork. He gave some incredible insight into his career and some of the lessons he has learned along the way. There was much note taking as well tried to keep up with some of the tips and the book recommendations he gave us during this informative session.


Breakout sessions followed Peter and we dispersed throughout the Kingsmills to take part in those we had signed up to.

The "What I Wish I Had Known" Session

 

 

The "How Do I Start Marketing" Session

 The Fusion AGM was well attended with members getting an update on the financial status of Fusion as well as the plans to develop in the future, how we intend to fund our activities and our plans for events for 2012 including the conference. After that it was a quick change and back down to the bar for a pre-dinner drinks reception. Dinner was in the Macleod room. The Fusion Innovation award was presented to KP Technology and there was much joviality during Craig Anderson's after dinner speech which included a great anecdote about politicians, dogs and lamp-posts amongst other things!

Fusion Conference - Rising From Recession 17th November 2011 Morning Sessions

The first day of the Fusion conference kicked off at 8am with a healthy breakfast and a run through of the programme with Mark and Jim

The conference opened with coffee in the Adams room

 We then moved through to the Macleod Room to hear the first speaker of the day Mike Neilson who talked about the Scotttish Government plans to increase exporting and to stimulate growth amongst many other things.

 

After Mike Neilson's session it was through to lunch where much catching up took place and many new contacts were made so the extra networking time was much appreciated.

Kilcoy Kindergarten

Kilcoy Kindergarten - Childcare and Nursery

Quality childcare and early education for your child.

The purpose of Kilcoy Kindergarten, located at Kilcoy approximately half way between Inverness and Dingwall in The Highlands of Scotland, is to assist parents with a childcare provision, which they may use, to enable them to continue to pursue their employment, interests, hobbies etc, in the knowledge that the care, safety and development of their child is not compromised. In turn, it is an opportunity for the children to mix with their peers and develop relationships.
We at Kilcoy Kindergarten, aim to provide security to all children and peace of mind to their parents. We support the children's development by ensuring a safe, stimulating and caring environment where they can play, grow and learn.
We undertake to deliver the highest standard of childcare and education, in a most secure environment and location. Through our balanced curriculum of learning with fun, each child is able to develop at their own individual pace, with the support and care of experienced and skilled staff.

Cole-Hamilton & Co - Attending Rising From Recession

Welcome to Cole-Hamilton & Co, Chartered Accountants.

The complete service for small businesses

 Accounts

Company Tax

Personal tax

Payroll

VAT

Bookkeeping

Company Formations

Company Secretarial

Start-up support

Late accounts and tax

Our aim is to help you run your business more effectively.  Whether you would like help with your accounts for Companies House, or with financial information so that you can manage your business better, we can provide you with what you need.  We’ll sort out your tax affairs and discuss any problems directly with HMRC on your behalf.
Our director, Simon Cole-Hamilton, has spent over 30 years in business, so he knows exactly what a challenge it can be. We can take some of the stress off you, leaving you to get on with running your business.
What’s more our fees are very reasonable, and you can have a free, no obligation, meeting before you have to decide whether to engage us.
Give us a call and put your accounting worries behind you: 01463 718191, or email info@cole-hamilton.co.uk

Synergie Scotland - Attending Rising From Recession

An overview of Synergie Scotland

The Projects Division provides services in project, cost and design management, encompassing architectural, engineering, renewable energy developments, waste management and facilities operation. The scope includes new build projects, historic building refurbishments and infrastructure enabling works.
The Environ Division provides an holistic approach to resource efficiency and sustainability, incorporating waste, water and energy management, utilities auditing and procurement, automated utility metering and data analysis, sustainable energy management, renewable energy developments (primarily in wind, wave, tidal and solar) and building assessment through Energy Performance Certification.

Harvey McMillan - Attending Rising From Recession

About us

Harvey McMillan was formed early in 2010 by founding Director, Martha Simpson.  Jo Adams joined the Comany as a fellow director in January, 2011.

Martha & Jo

We believe that our backgrounds, values and experience bring a unique blend of professionalism and pragmatism to our work with clients. It is our philosophy that successful businesses are built by dynamic people, and that successful leaders need dynamic and motivated followers.  Innovative and dynamic HR support is integral to this process.
We have significant private, public and not for profit sector experience at Board level and Director and CEO level.  We share a clear vision of the importance of innovative and dynamic people policies for sustainable business success.
We combine business growth focus with a values based approach.  We embrace these values within a culture of fun, energy, nurture and innovation.  We aspire to delight our customers with the service we provide.

Business Technicians - Attending Rising From Recession

We provide a comprehensive range of marketing, business and accounting services to individuals, small businesses and limited companies. We work throughout the Cairngorms National Park, Inverness and the wider Highlands and Islands.

Whether you are an individual struggling with your annual tax return, a small company wishing to outsource its payroll or marketing function, someone who needs advice and support to start or grow your business, or you need to review your marketing and write a plan, we are here to help.

Our specialists will work with you every step of the way to help make your vision a reality. Give us a call and we will be delighted to discuss your requirements with you.

Janet the Coach - Attending Rising From Recession

About Janet

Janet MacDonald is an internationally-certified life coach, having undergone a rigorous training with the Academy of Coaching Excellence and is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation She works mainly with individuals, small businesses and teachers. Her clients include financial advisors, film makers, lawyers, coaches, educationalists, creative artists, personal development practitioners, sales people, designers, local authority personnel……
Janet has been helping people to improve their lives for over 25 years, having a wide experience of working with individuals and groups as a life coach and in the field of complementary medicine. She feels that the skills and experience she gained from her earlier career as a shiatsu therapist, teacher and assessor informs and enriches her current work as a life coach. Both involve interacting with people, understanding their needs, directing them to look at areas of their lives that are not working effectively, and supporting them through changes that they wish to make in order to improve and enhance their health and lifestyle.
As a coach her aim is to empower her clients beyond their self-imposed limitations in order for them to create and attain exciting and meaningful goals that will enrich their lives. She works by drawing out the best in people, focusing on their strengths and encouraging them to do the same, whilst holding them accountable for their choices and actions. Janet is warm and inviting and will support you to lead a life full of possibility and promise. She aspires to coach with rigour and compassion
She lived much of her adult life in London and Bristol but in 2003 returned to her roots, a place of outstanding natural beauty in the Western Highlands of Scotland. A large percentage of her work now takes place over the telephone, Skype or in a residential setting.

“I strongly believe that everyone can achieve what they truly want and that each person has their own answers within them.”

Highland Venture Capital - Attending Rising From Recession

About

Highland Venture Capital was formed in 2006 with the aim of of providing a source of equity finance for growing or new-start businesses.
We meet in the late afternoon, once a month in an Inverness hotel.  At these meetings we usually have 2 presentations from companies, discuss the current investments and review the plans received and circulated in the past month.
Our investment criteria are:-
•    Companies requiring £75k or greater.
•    A preference for companies operating in the Highlands
•    A preference for companies wanting to supply their goods and services beyond the Highlands
The Syndicate currently comprises circa 40 investor members but is actively seeking to increase its membership, is happy to invest on their own, and/or to co-invest alongside others, both in first round and/or subsequent rounds of funding.
HVC offers a flexible and proactive funding option, focused on supporting your business to grow.
HVC is a member of the Scottish Enterprise Co-investment Scheme

Intellectual Assets Centre - Attending Rising From Recession

The IA Centre offers a range of services and is available to your businesses, irrespective of your size, sector, age or geographic spread in Scotland. In addition to the interactive website with its many resources and tools to help you understand IA and your business's needs in IA Management, the IA Centre also offers: 1-2-1 advice and guidance, group activities including conferences and workshops, and publications and research.

 

Rollover the names of our key services and click to find out more about what we do at the IA Centre...

Advice and guidance on all IA and IA management issues

You need to know where to look for your IA and be sure that you can recognise them when you find them! Only thereafter can you start to leverage them for competitive advantage.

Dynam Events - Attending Rising From Recession

Dynam is a design and marketing agency based in Inverness. Disciplines include: graphic design; web design and development; strategic/marketing planning and event management.
Dynam treats each client individually – no ready-to-wear web design or marketing packages. This means extensive involvement in learning about each client – their needs and aspirations, their driving philosophy, their strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Only when we have the full picture can we start to deliver an effective response to the brief – and our clients get the in-depth, across-the-board professionalism they deserve.

SFG Software - Attending Rising From the Recession

Based in Inverness, sfG Software is your 'small friendly Giant', providing a 'giant' service to our customers while delivering all the benefits you would expect from a 'small and friendly' company.

sfG Software goes that extra mile, in more ways than one, to support your IT needs. What sets us apart from other IT support providers is our genuine 'out of hours' support, provided by a person rather than a machine, so that we start fixing your problem the moment it happens - whether that's 7pm or 7am, Monday through Sunday. We also offer you flexible SLAs in which we even commit to giving you money back if you use less of our services than we estimate. Our bespoke software development has usability at its heart, and we follow strict development methodologies to ensure that our projects are well managed and delivered on time.
From the heart of the Highlands, sfG Software is committed to building a proactive partnership with you to ensure that you have the best supported IT network possible and the most effective and useable software applications. If you want to learn more about sfG Software and how it's helping other companies in and around Inverness, just give us a call on 01463 630200.

Interface - Attending Rising From Recession

How We Can Help You

Universities and Research Institutes are not just places that produce skilled graduates and researchers, they also provide a vast diversity of expertise which both small and large companies can make productive use of.
There are many ways through which your company can benefit from collaboration with the variety of academic expertise available throughout Scottish universities and research institutes. Within these pages, we help unravel some of the terminology involved in working with the academic community.
We also provide background to the main forms of industry - academic partnering/collaboration:

• what is consultancy?
• what types of equipment and facilities are on offer?
• how could I access research and development?
• how would collaborations work?
• what is intellectual property (IP)?
• what are industrial placements?
• what funding solutions are available?

If you want to find out more about how Interface could help your company please call 0131 651 4791. Alternatively, please complete our Search Enquiry & Feedback Form.

You can also visit www.university-technology.com to find out more about the new technology opportunities from all of Scotland's universities. Register free for emerging technologies in your market sector which could help develop your business.

Social Enterprise Academy - Attending Rising from Recession

About the Academy

The Social Enterprise Academy was set up in 2004 as a social enterprise. We tailor learning and development for people working in, or towards, a leadership role in the social economy. 
Our leadership, enterprise, and social impact programmes encourage innovation and creativity by focussing on you the participant and your personal development as an entrepreneurial leader.
The Academy is able to deliver courses to the public, private, as well as the social economy sector.  We have also worked with a number of organisations to tailor our programmes to create an in-house learning programme.
We exist to help you to achieve your full potential through learning.

Moray Firth Tutorial College - Attending Rising From Recession

ABOUT MORAY FIRTH TUTORIAL COLLEGE

Moray Firth Tutorial College was founded in 1999 as Moray Firth Tutorial School by its Principal, Mrs Anni Cole-Hamilton. Since then it has grown and expanded to become a tutorial college, offering Higher revision & tuition courses, private individual tuition and we have recently added our own Adult Courses as well as new Children’s Clubs. We are the only institution we know of to offer this range of courses in Inverness, the Highlands and the UK!
We interview all our tutors in depth, check references carefully and for those not registered with the General Teaching Council we require Disclosure Scotland checks. All our Tutors are graduates or equivalent.
Our staff include school teachers, lecturers in college or university, teachers who are recently retired or taking time out to bring up their children;  some tutor almost full-time, others accept just one student.  Many of our tutors are exam markers or have been involved in syllabus design and planning. All take pleasure and pride in their tutoring and we are proud to be associated with them.
The range of subjects we offer is wide and we can usually find a tutor for what you want to study: our greatest difficulty is employing enough tutors to keep up with demand.
Our Principal has worked in education for over three decades and also founded Moray Firth School in 2002, which won the award for Most Enterprising Business in the Highlands in 2009.

Fusion Conference Programme

Thursday 17^th November 2011
11.00-11.30 Registration

11.30-12.15 1st Plenary Session (Mike Neilson: Director General in the Scottish Government Civil Service)

Fusion Chairman David Fraser opens conference welcoming everyone and then introduces our first guest speaker Mike Neilson. Mike's responsibilities include Business, Innovation and the Rural Economy and he will share some of the Scottish Government's ideas aimed at seeing the Scottish economy continue to recover from the recession. Mike's session concludes with him fielding questions from the floor for a few minutes.

For 5 minutes before lunch we will give the floor to the proposer of the first of our Fusion Award nominees.

12.15-13.45 Buffet Lunch
 

13.45-14.30 2nd Plenary Session (Peter Crome: Chairman and MD The Carnegie Club at Skibo)
Immediately after lunch, Peter will address us, sharing some of his considerable experience and give us his thoughts from a private sector perspective on how we continue to move away from recession, drawing on his experience of running luxury destination facilities while coming out of previous recessions. Peter's session concludes with him fielding questions from the floor for a few minutes.

On the conclusion of Peter’s session we will give the floor to the proposer of the second of our Fusion Award nominees.

14.30-15.30 1st Break-out Session
Thursday 1st Session:

Could I Export (promoted by Enterprise Europe Scotland (Inverness Office)
Michelle Hardie has organised this session. The mentor will be one of the EES Inverness team.

How to Tender for Public Contracts (sponsored by Business Gateway)
Maria Peter (Business Gateway) has organised this session. The mentors are Linda Davidson (Procurement Scotland) and Diane Law (Moray Council).

What I Wish I Had Known When Starting in Business (promoted by CREATE/UHI)
Carol Langston (CREATE) has organised this session. The mentor is Geoff Bush, a well-known entrepreneur who has been involved in many start-ups during his career and is an active Business Angel. 

15.30-16.00 Coffee/Comfort break
At this point we will give the proposers of additional nominees for the Fusion Innovation Award 5 minutes each to give a short presentation on their respective nominees.

16.00-17.00 2nd Break-out Session
Thursday 2nd Session:

Where Do I Start Marketing
Allan Simpson (The Results Academy) is mentoring this session.

The Dos' and Don'ts of Collaboration
Angus MacLeod (Wright, Johnston and Mackenzie) is mentoring this session.

How Do I Exploit My Business Intangible Assets (promoted by the Intellectual Assets Centre)
Ewen Macaulay (IAC) has organised this session. Campbell Grant (Sitekit Health) is mentoring this session.

17.00-17.30 Fusion AGM
Votes for the Fusion Innovation Award will be collated at this point and the winner identified in order to be announced after dinner. All Fusion members are eligible to attend and vote, whether attending conference or not.

17.30-18.30 Downtime i.e. late check-ins, use of leisure suite, email catch-up etc

18.30-19.30 Pre-Dinner Drinks and Networking Reception

19.30-21.30 Dinner and Fusion Award Presentation
Craig Anderson, well known BBC Scotland journalist who reports on affairs in the Highlands and Islands for Reporting Scotland among other things has agreed to be our after-dinner speaker.  Craig will share some anecdotes and stories from his many years of journalism with us.

Craig will be invited to announce the winner of the Fusion Innovation Award, to be presented by Cllr Ian Ross, Chairman of the Planning, Environment and Development Committee, Highland Council, on behalf of Business Gateway Highland and Moray, sponsors of this year's award.
 

21.30-late Networking at bar

 

Friday 18^th November 2011
08.30-10.30 Brunch and Opening Session (Gary Williamson: Williamson Foodservice)

Breakfast will be available for all those attending the second day of conference and not simply those staying in the hotel. It will be served in the Conservatory allowing networking and catching-up from Thursday before moving at 09.30 to the Burns Room for Gary's session.

Gary has agreed to share his experiences during his journey into business via the RAF and how he and his family have grown their businesses through collaboration, diversification and a strong adherence to delivering a quality service selling premium brand products.

10.30-11.10 3rd Break-out Session
Friday 1st Session:
 

Stuck or Frustrated in Developing Your Business
Janet MacDonald (Janet the Coach) is mentoring this session.

Got A Business Challenge which could be answered by Academia - a focus on the Low Carbon agenda (promoted by Interface)
David Chapman (Interface) has organised this session. John Currie (Director of the Scottish Energy Centre at Edinburgh Napier University) is mentoring this session.

Breaking into the Supply Chain of Big Organisations
Alastair Kennedy (Global Energy Group) is mentoring this session.

11.10-11.40 Coffee/Comfort break

11.40-12.20 4th Break-out Session
Friday 2nd Session:

Raising Business Capital
Iain Scott (Highland Venture Capital) is mentoring this session.

Do I Need Social Media (sponsored by Business Gateway)
Maria Peter (Business Gateway) has organised this session. Rene Looper (Tuminds) is mentoring this session.

Why should Intellectual Property Matter to My Business
Kate Macdonald (Capella IP) is mentoring this session.

Some break-out sessions will take the form of a dialogue between the mentor and a mentee assisted by a facilitator who will encourage participation from those attending the session. In those sessions where there is no specific mentee, the facilitator will promote a dialogue between the mentor and the entire group. 

12.20-12.30 Closing remarks

12.30-14.00 Buffet Lunch and then depart

During Friday morning, Young Enterprise Scotland (Highland and Moray) will be running a "Dragons' Den" for the 2011-12 competitors. They will join us for the buffet lunch and then in the afternoon after conference concludes, Fusion Conference delegates will be welcome to stay on and support the afternoon YES session.