10th annual Women’s Business Conference and awards to be held in Cheltenham next month

Published by

Peter Davison

Women’s Business Club will host its 10th annual conference and awards in Cheltenham on Wednesday October 5. The aim of the event is to inspire, empower and celebrate women in business whether they are starting out on their journey or already established SME businesswomen.

The event, which is being sponsored by financial services company eToro, will see businesswomen from all over England come together to connect, network, share expertise, listen to inspirational talks and attend 1-to-1 workshops.

This year’s keynote speaker is CEO Rupal Patel (pictured) who is on the verge of publishing her book ‘From CIA to CEO’. Rupal has had a high-octane career which has taken her from dusty briefing rooms in jungles and war zones to corporate boardrooms and international stages. After a thrilling career at the CIA, she started two award-winning businesses, and is now shaping the future of work by helping growth-oriented leaders and innovative organizations build careers and businesses that thrive with purpose.

Angela De Souza, CEO of Women’s Business Club, said: “We are so excited to be adding even more value to women in business this year through a number of key changes – both for delegates and for our speaker experts. There is so much for women in business to get involved in at the event.”

The following changes have been made to this year’s event:

A fully female lineup of speakers.
Exhibiting with a difference: no more rooms full of stands with people selling at you. Instead, the event features Expert Pods where delegates can meet experts for a 15-minute one-to-one fully focused Q&A and advice session. Designed to build relationships and offer direct advice relevant to the attendee's business.
Workshops that are designed to be lessons, not lectures. These one-hour interactive sessions with hand-picked industry experts provide in-depth expert content and practical applications.

Taking place at the end of the conference, the SME Awards acknowledge and celebrate exceptional companies and their leaders. There will be eight prestigious awards presented on the night for women who are changing the game and leading the way in business. Nominees will be judged by the award sponsors and leading business experts.

Winners will receive an award that they can display in their office, as well as a badge to display on their website and print materials they can use to show the world that they are an award-winning business.

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.