TheBusinessDesk.com backs women’s business event

TheBusinessDesk.com has signed a deal to be the Media Sponsor of the inaugural Yorkshire Women in Business Convention.

The move will entitle our registered users to discounted tickets to the event at Leeds' Saviles Hall on Friday March 14, which will feature some of Britain's most inspiring and successful business women speaking to an audience of key players from the region.

Current Business Woman of the Year Karren Brady and former City “superwoman” Nicola Horlick will address the all-day event, which will end with an appearance by top impressionist and comedian Rory Bremner.

Inspired by Mike Firth, the man behind the highly successful annual Yorkshire International Business Convention, which has now been running for 12 years, the event is expected to be a sell-out, with 500 of the region's business women attending.

Registered users of TheBusinessDesk.com are able to take advantage of a special reduced rate offer on tickets for the event which are available for £125 +VAT instead of £150 +VAT.

Ms Brady has, for the last 14 years, been managing director of Premier League Birmingham City Football Club, a post she attained at the age of 23. Under her management, the club recorded the first trading profit in its 131-year history and she became Britain's youngest-ever leader of a public company when the organisation floated on the Alternative Investment Market in 1997.

She has written books, hosted her own TV series, and her board experience includes directorships of Channel 4, Mothercare and Sport England, in addition to being the chair of Kerrang! Radio.

Ms Horlick was dubbed the saviour of top investment management group Morgan Grenfell when it fell on hard times 12 years ago, despite combining her City career with raising five children. She has also managed billions of pounds in leading pension and insurance funds for organisations such as SG Asset Management and Societe Generale. The 47-year-old has since escaped the mainstream by setting up and now running Bramdean Asset Management, a small investment company, based in London's Knightsbridge.

She made headlines in 2004, when she fought off armed robbers trying to steal her ring outside her Kensington home, despite having a pistol forced against her stomach and being threatened with death. She has written a book entitled Can You Have It All? How To Succeed in a Male World.

The convention will also be addressed by Michelle Mone, the 36-year-old Glasgow entrepreneur raised in a tenament who began her business success 12 years ago by developing the Ultimo Bra. Her company, MJM, which now markets a range of lingerie brands, is currently valued at around £45m. The recipient of numerous awards, including the World Young Business Achiever and Business Woman of the Year prizes in 2000, Ms Mone now juggles the demands of running her group with bringing up three young children.

Inspirational blind adventurer Miles Hilton Barber will also speak at the event. He has set numerous records in extreme endurance events across all seven continents, was the first blind pilot to fly the English Channel and in the spring of last year completed a 55-day, 21,000-kilometre microlight flight from London to Sydney, with top sighted co-pilots Brian Milton and Richard Meredith-Hardy. Mr Hilton Barber also broke the British high altitude record, when taking a microlight to 20,300 feet with co-pilot Storm Smith.

The convention – which will also feature a question and answer session, involving a panel of top business women, and a charity raffle, raising funds for partner organisation Breast Cancer Haven – will be compered by BBC Television presenter Clare Frisby.

Mr Firth said: “I'm delighted to have secured such an outstanding line-up of speakers. There has already been huge interest in attending the convention from business women across the Yorkshire and Humber region, and I'm sure the announcement of such top quality participants will only increase its attractiveness.”

Organised by Mr Firth's company, Normaton-based Regional International Business Conventions, the new event on Friday March 14, which is intended to become annual, is being backed by city promotional campaign Marketing Leeds and 3,000-strong Yorkshire networking organisation Forward Ladies.

Further details of the Yorkshire Women in Business Convention can be found at www.ywibc.biz. You can download a ticket application form from the site.

To quality for your discounted ticket price of £125 +VAT (£146.88) just write THEBUSINESSDESK on your booking form.