June 10th saw the Enterprise Research Centre host its inaugural ‘State of Small Business Britain’ Conference at the ACC Liverpool as part of the International Festival for Business 2014.

We opened with some hard hitting headlines about the State of Small Business Britain.

Feedback on the conference was very positive. Andrew Lynch, Assistant Business Editor of the Times said “I didn’t go with high hopes and came away with a warm fuzzy glow. I was impressed with the films and the way everything was presented simply and inclusively”.

Headline Video

Centre Director Professor Stephen Roper welcomed everyone to a day that was filled with hard data, provocative discussion and audience participation.

Our Conference Chair, Lucy Armstrong regularly asked our audience whether they agreed with a view or not – and there was much waving of red cards for ‘NO’ and black cards for ‘YES’!

Unlocking Growth in UK Firms

Lord Bilimoria then gave our keynote speech and kindly recorded his key messages.

June 10th saw the Enterprise Research Centre host its inaugural ‘State of Small Business Britain’ Conference at the ACC Liverpool as part of the International Festival for Business 2014. We opened with some hard hitting headlines about the State of Small Business Britain.

The Big Debate

Our Big Debate featured leading economist Vicki Pryce (picture right), Marcus Stuttard, Head of AIM and Professor Mark Hart in conversation with Conference Chair Lucy Armstrong.

The Big Debate looked at the dynamic state of the UKs SME economy and the latest data the Enterprise Research Centre has published in the form of a LEP Growth Dashboard for 39 economic areas across England.

A copy of the Growth Dashboard can be downloaded here.

The Ambition Gap

Professor Jonathan Levie set out the latest data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor which suggests a long term decline in levels of growth ambition in the UK versus the US. Jonathan put his animation skills to the test to explain why this might be.

Mathew Rock, editor in chief at the data business DueDil, discussed the evidence with John Anderson, Entrepreneurial Exchange and Business owner Jim Griffin.

Growth: Export & Finance

In the afternoon, we looked at two key drivers of Growth: Export and Finance. Professor Jim Love explained the latest Enterprise Research Centre thinking on how the UK might increase the propensity of firms to export and the crucial link between firms that innovate and firms that export.

Download Jim’s presentation here.

Financing Growth

Our session on Finance and Growth, featured a Case Study of the financing of a Management buy-in by Gregory McDonald of Goodfish followed by a presentation from Dr Stuart Fraser on firms perceptions of accessing finance especially bank borrowing.

Download Stuart’s presentation here.

How do we Unlock Growth?

We closed the day with a session looking at what the UK can do to unlock growth in SMEs.

Throughout the conference, we asked members of the business advisory community what they thought the UK should do and the short Vox Pops video below captures their thoughts.

We asked the same question of the audience and  the Centre’s Senior team which resulted in a lively discussion.