Together We Can Take On The World

Our entrepreneurs' conference will see 300 business leaders come together at the Crowne Plaza Newcastle, for what is the highlight of our event calendar and promises to be an inspirational day of shared knowledge and new connections, alongside some laughs from our host, BBC Radio Newcastle presenter Alfie Joey.

This year we look forward to welcoming some amazing speakers including:

Simon Woodroffe OBE having left school at 16 and spent 30yrs in the entertainment business designing and staging concerts for Madness, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder and George Michael, Simon embarked on his YO! adventures in the mid-90’s, creating YO! Sushi, the conveyor belt sushi restaurant chain, in 1997. It now has over 100 sites around the world. Next he launched YOTEL, the world’s most radical hotel which operates a 700 room site in New York City with Singapore, San Francisco and Boston opening later this year and Miami, London, Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Dubai Business Bay opening in 2018. Not content with resting after all that, Simon is now working on YO! Home, his re-invention of the city apartment which he plans to launch later this year!

Karen Pickering MBE , has won more major Championship medals than any other female British swimmer; and the most Commonwealth medals for England of any female athlete. Representing Team GB at four Olympic Games and with an outstanding 73 titles to her name, despite being advised to retire when she broke her back aged 24, Karen is a testament to what hard work and determination can achieve.

Sarah Wood OBE, co-founder and CEO of Unruly, is a tech seer with the power to make any advert go viral. Responsible for some of the most awesome social video campaigns on the planet, she was crowned Veuve Cliquot's Business Woman of the Year 2016 and describes herself as an accidental entrepreneur and serial academic who enjoys generating ideas, working with awesome people and making things happen - fast.

Sherry Coutu CBE is an entrepreneur, non-executive director, investor and advisor to companies, universities and charities. Chair of Founders4Schools, author of 'The Scale-up Report' on UK economic growth and non-executive director to the London Stock Exchange, Raspberry Pi, Zoopla and Cambridge University (Finance Board), she has been voted by TechCrunch as the best CEO mentor/advisor in Europe and by Wired magazine as one of the top 25 'most influential people in the wired world'.

A serial investor and entrepreneur, Thomas Hoegh co-founded LOVEFiLM, Met Film School and Growth Street. He is the founder of Arts Alliance, an investment organisation with a particular focus on private media and entertainment companies, and he is also the founder of Arts Alliance Media (AAM), Europe’s leading provider of digital film distribution services dedicated to building a European digital network to deliver film to cinemas.

Tickets cost £99 (+VAT).