Brighton Summit 2014: Come on an Adventure!

This blog is written by Miranda Birch and brought to you by the combined brains of (in no particular order)  Steve Bustin, Nick Price, Julia Chanteray, Emma Haughton, Julie Roff and the Chamber team.

It must have happened to you. You’re going about your business and someone makes an off-the-cuff remark. It stops you dead in your tracks and it makes you see yourself or your work in a completely new way. A turning point or a stepping stone.

It happened to the Director of the Sussex Innovation Centre (SINC), Mike Herd.

He was sixteen and had just accepted a job at NatWest. He was chuffed. It was proper job with a household name.

Then a central heating engineer who happened to be doing some work at his house, said, “If you don’t go to university you will really regret it for the rest of your life. I did.”

A few words that prompted the teenage Mike to change tack and the day before he was due to start work at the bank, he resigned.

Instead, he applied to university to do a degree in Applied Physics with Business, a degree that took him all over the world in the oil exploration industry and then finally led him to SINC – Sussex Innovation Centre, where creative entrepreneurs get the inspiration and support they need.

So a chance comment, lasting a few seconds prompted Mike to find ‘another way’, leaving the safety of NatWest and journeying into the unknown. (Oil exploration does that: think the barren outer reaches of Siberia…)    

Mike told this anecdote at one of the Chamber’s Spotlight events. And it sums up what this year’s summit is all about: The fact that being in business can be one hell of an adventure.  

And that sometimes, the things that really spur us on, are totally unexpected. They come out of the blue.

It could be testimonial or a call from a potential client. Or an off-the-cuff remark from someone you’re sitting next to at a Chamber breakfast.  

Inspiration and insights from unexpected sources underpin “Come on an Adventure” on Friday 4th July. It’s what came out of last year’s Summit feedback: how you loved  the variety and mix of the speakers and fellow attendees against the surprising backdrop of the Pleasure Hour and Un-conference.

So this year, we're building on that sense of serendipity.   

There’ll be inspiration from Rob Forkin, who, with his brother Paul, founded the immensely successful Gandy’s Flipflops.  A social enterprise shaped by an event which was catastrophically unexpected, the Tsunami of 2004.

The Pleasure Hour becomes bolder, pushing at the boundaries to become The Dare Hour. We can’t reveal too much at the moment, but suffice to say there’ll be a Dare to Bare, a Dare to Be Provocative and a Dare to be Creepy.

And the Un-conference is back, with tantalising sessions to dip in and out of, as the mood takes you. They will include the ‘Business Lessons Learnt from  Breaking Bad’  and, if you book a ticket, a chance for you to pitch to run a session.

‘Come on an Adventure’ will be one of those precious days.  

A chance to take stock, be inspired by other people’s stories and gain insights that will spur your business on.

The intriguing mix of guests, businesses and general derring-do will mean that things you haven’t even considered as being relevant to your work will suddenly gain great significance by the end of the day.

Within the space of 8 hours, you’ll be nudging the central heating engineer next to you and saying, “I hadn’t even thought of that!” “I’ve never seen it that way!”   

It sounds bold, but we mean it: your business may never be the same again.  

Tickets are selling fast!  Make sure you don’t miss out and book here.
 

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk