5 July 2011
The organisers of Collaborate2Innovate, a leading event dedicated to building profitable business partnerships in the Solent region, today announced that this year's event will take place on Tuesday 1st November 2011 in Winchester. Collaborate2Innovate is aimed at innovative businesses and entrepreneurs and will provide attendees with new business opportunities through collaboration in order to help them gain significant competitive advantage.
Last year's Collaborate2Innovate proved extremely successful with 97% of attendees recommending the event to peers. Over 85% of the near 400 delegates also rated the keynote speakers as excellent. This is the third year of the annual event and it promises to continue to provide a valuable platform for Solent businesses and entrepreneurs. The past collaborations have already delivered significant benefits to delegates, including new partnerships and customers, increased sales and profitability and secured local funding opportunities.
The first keynote confirmed for Collaborate2Innovate 2011 is Chair of the Governing Board, of the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and Chief Technology Officer and Vice President, Software Group Europe at IBM, Dr Graham Spittle CBE.
This year's Collaborate2Innovate will focus on key themes that are currently presenting both challenges and opportunities for businesses in the Solent. Business experts with significant experience and market knowledge will host sessions on international opportunities, technological collaboration, investment funding, creating growth in challenging times, sales and marketing, and the future of the workplace in a cloud computing environment. These themes will be addressed via workshop seminars, which will explore different strategies using business case studies. Attendees will also have the opportunity to speak to experts in various fields and take part in a lively Q&A session.
A major highlight of Collaborate2Innovate's success has been the organised 1 to 1 Networking that it offers; attendees can register to be partnered with other like-minded delegates to discuss potential collaboration. This style of networking enables delegates to schedule short, fruitful meetings with key targeted contacts, increasing the potential of a local partnership.
Nigel Vaughan of Solent Synergy, the not-for-profit organisation which created Collaborate2Innovate, comments "This year's event will again provide extremely valuable opportunities to acquire very useful business information and explore collaboration opportunities. The sessions will address the needs of diverse businesses, from start-up to large organisations and focus on the topics of greatest value to them."
The steering group this year is made up of the founding sponsors BDO LLP and Paris Smith LLP, platinum sponsors Barclays Corporate and Thomas Eggar, together with Gold Sponsors Grant Thornton, Matchtech, ML Electronics, Vail Williams, Xyratex and the Solent's four key universities (Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Solent and Southampton).
Collaborate2Innovate 2011 takes place in The Holiday Inn (near INTECH), Winchester on Tuesday 1st November 2011. For further information or to register for your attendance please visit the website on www.collaborate2innovate2011.co.uk
