West Lindsey Launch Event A Huge Success!
That was the overall opinion of over 90 members of the local business community that attended the Advance Rural Lincolnshire launch event in Gainsborough on 28th June 06.
Speaking from the Sands Venue, Rob Andrew’s inspirational talk was welcomed by over 200 attendees across three locations in Lincolnshire. Parts of the event were synchronised and linked by advanced satellite technology to launch events running simultaneously in East Lindsey & South Holland.
The Gainsborough event was chaired by Councillor Michael Tinker who expressed his delight in what Advance Rural Lincolnshire will be trying to achieve and looked forward to seeing the project get underway. Councillor Eddy Poll also gave his outlook on the issues facing businesses in rural Lincolnshire and spoke about how Advance Rural Lincolnshire would serve to benefit, support and develop those businesses. We also heard from Tim Bell of Bell Hanson Ltd, Gainsborough who gave an informative overview of his experiences building his own successful business in the district and the challenges he has had to face and overcome.
Amongst the lessons Rob Andrew shared with the audience was the need to pick the right people for your business. He also spoke about the need to have passionate belief about your cause, citing the Sands Venue as wonderful local example of what can be achieved.
After the speeches, the audience was given the opportunity to discuss amongst themselves the key issues and challenges they face as businesses in West Lindsey and to express how they felt the Advance Rural Lincolnshire team could tailor solutions to meet those needs.
Amongst the common themes were:
- Training Programmes (including Marketing and Websites etc)
- Networking Opportunities
- Business Advice, Help and Mentoring
- Transport Infrastructure Issues
- Retention of Skilled Workers
- Education of School Leavers
- Image of Lincolnshire
- Dealing with Red Tape
The event was rounded off by a networking lunch with an impressive spread made up of locally sourced produce.
The participants commented that they particularly enjoyed the informality and wide variety of people present, meeting other local business owners and making new contacts in a relaxed and open atmosphere and were inspired by the enthusiastic speakers and the whole concept of Advance Rural Lincolnshire!