Entrepreneurs, SME business owners and decision-makers based in Greater Manchester are invited to gain a competitive edge by signing up for a free half-day workshop with a team of leading experts on digital growth and international trade.
‘Going Global – Digital Tools for International Growth’ will bring together heavyweight speakers to Manchester city centre on March 9th, including Department for International Trade ecommerce specialist Tom Dixon, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and the Growth Company’s Richard Jeffery.
The one-off event at The Studio is aimed at those looking to adopt new digital technologies and online tools to bolster their international trade efforts and entry into new B2B overseas markets.
At the centre of ‘Going Global’ is a Google Digital Garage training workshop, ‘Scale Your Brand and Advertise Across Borders’. The Google Digital Garage is one of Google’s flagship investment programmes in the UK, providing free digital skills training to people and businesses. Since launching in 2015, the Digital Garage has visited over 500 UK locations and trained over 400,000 people.
Richard Jeffery, Director of Business Growth at the Growth Company, said; “Businesses looking to grow and reach new international markets – no matter what their core sector – have a tremendous amount of online tools and useful data sources available to them. While this is a nice problem to have, these ever-increasing digital options risk overwhelming business owners and ironically shifting focus away from the problems they were designed to solve.
“What promised to be an exciting, interactive and thought-provoking new workshop will address such challenges by helping business owners take a smarter approach towards their digital toolkits in the context of international growth. Bringing together this range of experts to look at the issues around digital, specifically through a Greater Manchester looking glass, will inform and empower business owners to make the right choices for reaching more customers, increasing turnover and improving ROI.”
Ronan Harris, Google UK & Ireland Managing Director, said: “Having the right digital skills can have a transformative impact on business growth and job creation. Our hope is that by providing dedicated, tailored training through the Digital Garage we can help bring new growth to high streets, here in Greater Manchester and across the country.”
Following the Google Training workshop, there will be an interactive debate, ‘Digital Successes (and Failures) in Overseas Markets’, featuring inspirational panellists including Sean Brown, founder and CEO of Mercarto, one of 33 companies selected for the first cohort of the Global Scale-Up Programme, which had over 200 applications from Greater Manchester companies. Among the other panellists who will share their experiences and best practice on reaching new overseas markets are: Mike Blake-Crawford, Strategy Director at Social Chain; Liz Scott, Head of Entrepreneur Engagement for Tech Nation; and Helen Tonks, co-founder and Director at Hydraulics Online.
Tom Dixon, Ecommerce Specialist at the Department for International Trade, will speak on ‘How E-Commerce Can Grow Your Business’ and International Trade Advisors from the Growth Company will be available to advise business owners on the next steps for their global growth strategies, including opportunities for funded support and grants available from the Department for International Trade.
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham will also deliver a speech about the future of international trade for the region.
To register for ‘Going Global – Digital Tools for International Growth’ go to www.businessgrowthhub.com/events. This is a fringe event as part of the inaugural Digital City Festival taking place in Manchester from 9-13 March – five days of events showcasing the best in digital.
