Dorset Business Growth Breakfast – Wimborne – Dorset Growth Hub

Note: when booking, as this is a free event no ‘promo code’ is required.

Get back in the room with some of Dorset’s growing businesses.

Let’s chat, share a coffee and pastries with plenty of time to network and connect with fellow Dorset businesses.

This event will be hosted by Nick Gregory, our Operations Director, who will update us on the current business landscape and funding options, including grants available. We will be joined by Fran Bridgewater FCIM – Wine Film Producer and Director of Drinks Cru Ltd, who will be chatting to us about an interesting and exciting topic – Dorset as a location for filming. She will also be revealing an incredible opportunity for the Dorset food, beverage and film/ancillary services community to get involved with an exciting project happening in May 2024.

We will also be joined by Malcolm Scott Wallby from Scott Walby LLP, who will be chatting with us about the basic legal building blocks of a new business, including Incorporation, name, branding, shareholders’ agreements, terms of business and more.

Reasons to attend:

The event is running from 8.30am and will finish at 10.30am to allow you plenty of time to get back to the daily management of your business.
This event is aimed at business owners or senior decision-makers who are looking to grow their local network and supply chain.
Opportunity to meet peers facing similar business challenges to yourself and be part of a community that can help each other overcome hurdles and challenges.
Learn about all the local funded support and grants that are available for you and your staff.
A light breakfast, that you didn’t have to make yourself.

About the speakers

Fran Bridgewater FCIM – Wine Film Producer and Director of Drinks Cru Ltd

Fran has worked in the wine trade for 22 years, having first embarked upon her wine journey as a Somm at London’s prestigious Vats Wine Bar. Nowadays she is an accomplished wine and spirits judge, copywriter and a multiple award-winning marcomms specialist, nurturing the success of boutique wineries worldwide and promoting diversity and inclusivity across the trade.

At heart, Fran is a brand strategist and social media tactician with a degree in Economics and fluency in both French and Spanish. With a background in brand development, having worked on some of the biggest and most exclusive wine brands in the world, Fran has spearheaded the development of two multi-million pound enterprises from scratch and has ambitions to one day run her own boutique vineyard in the Languedoc-Roussillon.

Fran is a Dâme de la Chaîne des Rotisseurs with a fully accredited Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and also is the founder of Wine Jobs Global, a pro bono trade organisation set up during lockdown to provide job opportunities across the globe, with a proactive network of over 2,000 talented jobseekers, employers and avid supporters – for which she was a recent IWSC Emerging Talent in Wine finalist. In Dorset, Fran is Brand Ambassador for Steven Spurrier’s legacy wine estate, Bride Valley Vineyard and she regularly features on radio, TV and on stage representing the wines and most recently she launched the new trade generic Volcanic Wines of the World.

Malcolm Scott Walby of Scott Walby LLP

Malcolm has had careers with the Royal Navy, in road transport, oil exploration, in business and property development, as well as working as a Solicitor in the City and for a large provincial firm before starting his own practice in 2005.

The big difference with Malcolm is that he has sat on the businessman’s side of the desk and taken tough decisions, turning around the family business, which he subsequently turned into £2m and also working in both large and small corporate environments.

Malcolm provides pragmatic, commercial advice to company owners, specialising in company and employment law.

This event is completely free and part-funded by Dorset Council.