Dragons Den star Sara Davies to inspire new entrepreneurs as Sunderland hosts national business festival
Dragons Den star and Wearside lass Sara Davies is headlining a week long national festival coming to Sunderland to help budding entrepreneurs start up their own businesses.
The UK Startup and Scaleup Week comes to Sunderland between June 2 and 6 and on each day will cover a particular theme; Monday inspiration, Tuesday getting started, Wednesday funding and finance, Thursday growing and scaling, and Friday keep going or pivot.
Sara has been a dragon on the popular BBC programme since 2019 and made her fortune after starting her business Crafter's Companion whilst still a student at the University of York.
She will be headlining the first day of the festival (June 2) and will be looking to inspire other budding entrepreneurs as the main speaker at the Fire Station.
Tuesday (June 3) will see the festival move to the Sunniside area of the city including The British Esports Performance Campus and Diego’s Joint, with specific content aimed at people who want to know how to start or run a successful business in the Esports, tech / digital, creative, film and music industries.
The City Hall will host Wednesday's (June 4) event with advice and information on where to access funding and potential investment opportunities to start or grow your own business.
On Thursday (June 5) the festival will move to Founders Bar at the Stadium of Light where the workshop will focus on how to grow your business through better sales, marketing, business development and leadership. You can also learn about using AI, building your team, and national and international expansion.
Friday’s (June 6) event at the Hope Street Xchange will cover measuring and monitoring success, how to know what is and isn’t working, how to stay focused and how to innovate and change direction if necessary.
Event founder Paul Lancaster said: “After running three hugely successful and internationally-renowned business festivals in Newcastle, we’ve chosen to run this year’s event in Sunderland because we genuinely think it’s the most exciting place to live, work, start and run a business in the UK right now.
“As someone who lives and runs a business in the city, I believe Sunderland has all the ingredients necessary to be a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity.
“I encourage anyone who is thinking of starting a business, wants to grow their existing one, is a funder or investor or just wants to play a role in supporting the future success of Sunderland and the wider North East of England, to come along.”
Cllr Kevin Johnston, Portfolio Holder for Business, Housing and Regeneration at Sunderland City Council, said: “We are thrilled that Sunderland has been chosen as the host city for UK Startup Scaleup Week.
“The city is leading the way with the support available to entrepreneurs looking to start or grow their business on Wearside, including our very successful Enterprising Sunderland programme, in partnership with the North East BIC.
“Billions of pounds of inward investment over recent years has made Sunderland one of the UK’s fastest growing and business friendly cities. Attracting events like this, which will shine a national spotlight on the city’s business community, is testament to that.
“We’re delighted to be involved.”
The festival is taking place with support from Sunderland City Council and a range of leading businesses and investors including NatWest, North East BIC, BearTech, Business Enterprise Fund (BEF), BJSS (now part of CGI), The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), Northstar Ventures, Sweeney Miller Law, Tennick Accountants, UMi, Ward Hadaway, Waterstons and Wubbleyou.