This was my first visit to the festival.
It was the fact that there was a day dedicated to Cyber Security and that the Malvern area has many associated businesses in that space due to close proximity with Cheltenham, was what made me want to go. The day before also had slots about innovation and about startup businesses so I went a day early to take those sessions in as well.
I hope we can create something of the same feel and not have the compulsion to go large all the time right here in Bournemouth.
On another note, I’ve now organised two Cyber Security Awareness events in association with Bournemouth University, as well as two community events where I live, and was very interested in how this was run.
I’ve never been to Malvern. It was a really nice town and famous for its hills. I turned up for the Wednesday afternoon session on “The Business of Innovating” and managed to park on a side street that was only a few minutes’ walk away, avoiding the car par charges for the day. A handy mental note made of the location.
I walked into the Coach House Theatre and thought this is quite small. Had a coffee in the café that fitted about 10 people along with the 4 or 5 stand holders. The talks were about to start, and we made our way into the theatre that had two sets of banked seating that can house 67 people in full theatre mode.
The seats weren’t full by any means, 30 to 40 people there. I really enjoyed the speakers but also the setting. As a theatre it does aim to be “intimate” but that really worked for me. No squeaky chairs to disturb things.
When it came to the startup stories I was blown away by Melissa Snover’s talk.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-snover-84276920/
She’s gone from creating a business selling vegan gummy sweets, sold to a company creating 3D printed candy, to now running a company that produces custom 3D printed vitamin jellies. You choose what you need, maybe based on your lifestyle and you get a box of custom created jellies containing the vitamins and supplements that you chose, in one easy to eat jelly sweet. No tubs of separate pills in the cupboards. https://get-nourished.com/
What was really amazing was her vision of a future where medicines could be done in similar way. Rather than a blister pack of a multitude of little and big pills for each day. One bespoke edible tablet could be 3D printed for each patient. Furthermore, having different coatings to enable slow release could negate the need to take X number of tablets per.
I for one hate taking tablets and some people can’t. This sounds ideal. That journey from sweets for fun to sweets for good was fascinating.
Another talk I particularly enjoyed was by Paul Hawes from Smartbox Assistive Technology and Sensory Software International. He has now sold this family business to enjoy retirement. It is a local business to Malvern and he presented with no slides, just standing there in the spotlight and gently recalled the story of the business.
We don’t always need the big guns when it comes to speakers. This local story, a family story was so captivating and I think you can learn more and connect more than maybe someone that built a huge brand.
Main points I picked up on
- https://patents.google.com is a useful tool to research something that you are working on and also to track down Venture Capitalists that might be backing other businesses in your sector.
- Change means that something can go back. You can freeze water to ice, but it can turn back to water. Transformation can’t be reverted like burning a book.
- Telling success stories in PR and content using the Hero’s Journey made up of failures and learnings along the way. The Hero is the client and a supplier acts as the mentor that guides the hero to their goal.
- Hire aptitude and then develop skills.
- https://gcatoolkit.org/smallbusiness/ useful IT tools and resources
I am pleasantly surprised that they get to do a full week of events. Being centred around the theatres works nicely as well as the spread of topics. It would be interesting whether something like this could be sustainable at say the Shelley Theatre, having three days or more of related events, maybe even end of a food and drink conference on a Saturday.
