A business support agency which has become an online hit during the lockdown is to mount its most ambitious event to date.

Dorset Growth Hub (DGH) is hosting an inaugural Online Business Summit on Friday May 1.

The free all-day event has 15 speakers over five sessions with regular breaks and even networking sections.

It runs from 9.30am until 4pm on Zoom.

The speakers are all local experts in their field, covering marketing, PR, wellness, cyber security and business growth together with other topics.

They include Mark Masters, Jake Moore, Gemma Wall, Barbara Cox, Andy Headington, Andy Lambert and Erin Thomas Wong.

Others will be announced over the coming week.

During the past month the DGH team has hosted 14 of its own online events with 985 businesses joining live and a further 371 businesses watching on ‘catch-up’.

Nick Gregory, Programme Manager, pictured left, said:  “The world as we know it has changed over the past few weeks and months and we’ve all been in ‘survival’ mode.

“Our aim is to help keep business owners motivated, feel connected with like-minded business owners and take away some insights and a sense of not being in this alone.

“Dorset Growth Hub has been here to support businesses over the past weeks with a variety of weekly webinars.

“Now we have the technology and know-how to run these larger events online it seems vital to keep the Dorset business community connected, to keep moving forward and to share our positivity for the future.”

The Online Business Summit will feature five speaker slots with a choice of two or three speakers in breakout rooms.

There will be a short comfort break at the end of each one-hour webinar session as well as a 30 minute lunch break.

All sessions will be recorded so delegates will be able to access any they haven’t seen after the event.

The summit is aimed at small or medium-sized business owners, sole traders and senior managers in an organisation looking for inspiration and guidance.

To register for a place visit the Eventbrite booking page here.

Speakers and their sessions confirmed to date are:

1. Andy Headington, Chief Executive Officer, Adido

20 digital marketing tips to get through the Corona Crisis

2020 is going to be a tough year for every business in the UK. With more and more people turning to digital to buy their product, chat with each other and run their businesses, this seminar is designed to cover lots of areas of digital to help improve traffic and sales. It will be fast paced with real world examples and an opportunity to ask questions at the end to cover off anything missed.

2. Erin Thomas Wong, Founder, The Mumpreneur Collective

How to stay sane and grow your business during lockdown 

Erin will share five strategies to keep the wheels turning in your business during this challenging time.

3. Andy Lambert, Director, ContentCal

Improve the speed, quality and results of your content marketing efforts

For a business wanting to get noticed, a strong content marketing strategy is critical to driving growth. Three things hold back many businesses: Lack of time, a shortage of ideas and the reputational risk of getting it wrong. This actionable tip packed session will cover how you can create one week’s content in 30 minutes, the six-step strategy to get the creative juices flowing and a framework to ensure your messages strike the right tone given the current circumstances.

4. Jake Moore, Cyber Security Specialist, ESET

HackedIn via LinkedIn

Watch Jake unfold a targeted phishing attack via LinkedIn on the CEO of a company and how easy it is to manipulate anyone into handing over the credentials of their accounts and precious data. Jake uses hacking tools which are widely available on the internet (if you know where to look) and good old fashioned social engineering techniques to show how easy it is to take over someone’s email account, website… or even life!

5. Mark Masters, The ID Group and You Are The Media

How to get your first ten loyal email subscribers

Having an audience you can address on your own terms puts you in a powerful position. Mark started You Are The Media from zero in 2013 and today it is a marketing and media training and learning community. It is an annual conference, a podcast, workshops and the ongoing You Are The Media Lunch Clubs (now online every two weeks). Mark will share 14 principles he has stuck by that will help you acquire your first ten loyal email subscribers.

6. Gemma Wall, The Contemporary PA

Up-levelling your start-up or small business

For many business owners, the reason they start their business is because they have a passion or because they have a skill or expertise that they know people will benefit from.  At launch stage, we tend to have three branches to get us going – we have the idea, we have basic operations and we have the minimal equipment needed to get us started. But as we begin to grow and look to drive our business forward, we reach a point where we have to start looking at and investing in other areas to reach our full potential. During this session, I’ll help you to explore some of those areas using our growth tree.

7. Barbara Cox, BC Nutrition

Healthy hacks to boost your resilience and immune system

The presentation starts with an intro to explain what your immune system actually is and how the hacks are associated with hitting each area of your immune system. Barbara will give helpful tips on hydration, superfoods, energising spices, cutting the junk food trap and taking a natural approach to a healthy lifestyle. The healthy hacks are easy to understand, implement and are very much within budget. There will be time for an ‘Ask The Expert Q&A’ about any nutrition needs so have your questions ready.