CEED’s fifth  ‘Entrepreneur Envoy’ mission, and second trip for calendar 2015 for CEED Global Club members, was to London for a packed week of meetings with its business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors and startup hubs.

Participants got an insider’s perspective of the London business scene from executives of some of the largest UK companies in retail, banking, telecommunications and consumer goods and learned about product innovation and how their industries are evolving. The group also met with several inspiring entrepreneurs who shared their experiences of growth and shifts in their business. The underlining themes of the trip were the importance of building ones brand and the nexus between the story and design of innovating products and their interaction with customers. Inspiration for the group also came from the dynamic startup scene of London, where CEED members visited several co-working spaces and entrepreneur hubs, and participated at the “Silicon Valley comes to UK masterclass event” at Campus London, Google’s seven-storey space for entrepreneurs. As with every CEED trip, participants had a chance to meet VC s and angel investors who gave feedback to pitches of the Global Club members.

While in London the group met with:

  • Jeremy Basset, Global Marketing Strategy Director at Unilever
  • Galahad Clark, Managing Director and founder of Vivobarefoot
  • Richard Heggie, Head of Proposition & Delivery for Entrepreneurs at Barclays Wealth and Investment division at Barclays
  • Zoltan Hopka, Principle at EBRD Technology Venture Capital
  • Sian Priest, Managing Director of Rainmaking Loft
  • James Trezona, Managing Director of Rooster Punk
  • Boštjan Bregar, CEO and Co-founder  of 4th Office
  • Liam Reynolds, CEO and founder of True Up
  • Tim Powell, Senior Business Executive at University of Warwick Science Park and Director of Minerva Business Angel Network
  • Michelle Kingsley, co-founder of Showroom and business angel
  • Matt Simister, Commercial Director for Fresh Foods and Commodities at Tesco
  • Peter Cowley, UK Angel investor of the year 2014-15
  • Sam Goss, Investment Director at Octopus Investments
  • Simon King, Investment Manager at Octopus Investments
  • Carey Benn, chairman and founder of The Loyalty Network
  • Isidro Nistal, M-Pesa Principle Product Development Manager at Vodafone
  • Iulia Tudor, Community Development & Memberships Manager at TechHub
  • Phil Gerrard, Managing Director and co-founder of AllOfUs
  • Orlando Mathias, Director of R&D and co-founder of AllOfUs

 

The visit to London provoked questions on how trends and the changing global business landscape will affect businesses locally, and what are best ways to stay ahead of the curve. CEED Global Club members will continue exploring these questions through monthly “Ask the Expert” webinars, where they can meet with a diverse array of industry experts, entrepreneurs and investors. The next international envoy will be to Bulgaria where the next CEED Global Conference will take place, 13-14 March 2016.