The local event takes place over two days, with its first show which took place yesterday and carrying on today. This year sees the show goes virtual, as expected during the current national lockdown.
Previously named the Gloucestershire Business Show, this year the online event has morphed into the showcase event that is now known as Business Insights (#BI20.2 to see the conversation on Twitter).
The festival is said to focus on business and innovation, with it having begun yesterday morning with an early 7.30am business breakfast networking event. It continued throughout the day and included events with speakers, breakout sessions, exhibitions and opportunities for the chance for networking and business communication.
Today’s full on show provides endless business opportunities, including a sustainability in business talk, a discussion on Covid and its effect as well as a student question time. Having to turn the show into a virtual event isn’t always seen as ideal, but the show organiser Peter Allison, of County Business Shows, sees it as an opportunity to improve plans and make the most out of it.
“The Gloucestershire Business Show was scheduled for June 2020, as we saw the lockdown make those dates non-viable and we had to defer the live location show, we had some programme prepared and the contributors were keen to deliver it online,” said Mr Allison.
“We added some LIVE stream content and Business Insights arrived. Having “accidentally” created it in June, we’ve got a more planned version on 18 & 19 November with a virtual exhibition and a planned programme.”
The business event has even gone global as it has expanded from Gloucestershire and branched out to international partners in the US, all across Europe, India and Asia.
Abigail Parks, 24, works at the local Gloucestershire business, Capital Cleaners, an independent small business based in Churchdown. The carpet cleaner said “an event like this is great and can actually be helpful for smaller businesses, especially locally.”
“It gives you the chance to communicate with other local businesses and the opportunity to find more work. The fact that this event is free is also good news, especially with this year being so difficult financially!”
Future events are expected throughout the next year starting early in January. Mr Allison hopes to bring the event back to live locations but this will depend on government lockdown rules and the possibility for social distancing in the coming months as the virus still spreads.
The online show is completely free and the links can be found on the Eventbrite website.
