The Business Conference 2008

• Introduction
• Agenda
• Costs and Location
• Speakers
• Seminars
• Booking Form

Pete Waterman OBE
A late developer who couldn’t read until he was thirteen, Pete started his working life as a fireman in Wolverhampton in 1961. He subsequently worked as a gravedigger and for General Electric, where he became a shop steward aged 19. As a boy, born in 1947 amidst the war-shattered ruins of Coventry, he had sold coal from the back of a pram to augment the family income. Inspired by the partnership of Lennon & McCartney, Tamla Motown and Buddy Holly, he started writing songs. He couldn’t get enough of the songs he wanted to hear.

His efforts have led to an amazing string of 22 number one hits - more than Elvis Presley. Pete produced or promoted more than 200 hits with artists including Kylie Minogue, John Travolta and Rick Astley. Drawing parallels with the pop industry, Pete believes success in any enterprise is dependent on the ability to innovate and fully to commit yourself. From studios on London’s South Bank Pete Waterman runs an operation that seeds the pop charts of two continents with new talent. At 60 he looks keen and fit and clearly thrives on what he does.

Emma Harrison
Emma Harrison grew up in Sheffield, attending a local comprehensive school where she demonstrated her entrepreneurial flair by running an illegal tuck shop. By her own admission Emma was a rebel at school and did not achieve fantastic exam results. While Emma was at University, her father founded the Industrial Training Agency to provide training to those made unemployed by the closure of the local steel works. After graduating Emma's father left her to run his business, he had no idea he was launching one of the UK's most formidable women entrepreneurs. Her big break came when her father asked her to join his small industrial training business "you come on board and I'll teach you everything you need to know about running a business in 18 months." Emma only got two weeks of the promised 18 months training. "You seem to have got the hang of it," he said, and moved to Germany.

Within a year it was turning over £1million, Emma then took the decision to walk away from the business and start again from scratch. 1991 saw Emma founding A4e Ltd to deliver social change on behalf of the government. Managing £300m of government contracts, A4e now employs 1,500 staff in offices nationwide and Emma anticipates that A4e will more than double in size over the next two years.

Tim Campbell
In 1997 Tim went to Middlesex University where he gained a 2:1 in a Psychology degree. Campbell started working as a trainee Human Resource recruitment consultant for the London Underground in 2000. In 2003 he was appointed Marketing Project Manager for the London Underground where he worked on a major project improving Kings Cross and the Channel Tunnel station facilities. Tim began to feel unchallenged in his job and started to look for new challenges. When a close friend sent him a web link to apply for the BBC show The Apprentice in June 2004 he jumped at the chance! By September Tim had been accepted to take part in The Apprentice and started filming the shows in November where he commenced his employment at Amstrad. Consequently, in April 2005 it was announced that he had won the show and was awarded a £100K salary.

Tim was appointed by Sir Alan Sugar as the Project Director for Amstrad’s health and beauty division, Integra. Tim has recently left Amstrad to start his own male grooming business. He says that Sir Alan had been "inspirational" and taught him "how to take risks’ and, more importantly, ‘he has built my self-confidence and taught me practical skills that have helped me to look at new challenges."

Matthew Amroliwala
Matthew has been one of the main presenters on BBC News24 for the last ten years. He is also a regular face, presenting news bulletins on BBC1 on the weekends. He has anchored some of the biggest stories covered by the BBC in recent years - the Asian Tsunami, the Hutton report, 9-11, the Concorde crash, and the Iraq war, as well as chairing political debates and discussions on a range of issues. More recently he was the main presenter on London July 7 Bomb Attacks. He presented rolling news on BBC1, as the story unfolded, for six hours that day.