I am delighted that Sage have asked me to be part of the Sage Summit influencers group.  Sage Summit will be at London Excel on 5th and 6th April 2017.

There is no escaping the fact that the world is changing and the future of business is changing with it.  Digital transformation is the phrase on everyone’s lips and in all the business press.  I’m looking forward to learning from experts about the latest insights, innovation, and trends.  I’m wondering how they will impact my business and that of my clients.

Great line-up of Inspirational Speakers

Today I received an email with details of the speakers and it’s a great line-up that includes:

Martha Lane Fox CBE – British businesswoman, philanthropist and public servant.

It’s a name I’m familiar with.  Martha co-founded lastminute.com and later Lucky Voice.  She is a board member of Twitter, the founder of doteveryone.org.uk, the youngest member of the House of Lords and Chancellor of the Open University.  Wow! I’m really looking forward to hearing her keynote.

Jamal Edwards MBE, CEO SBTV and digital entrepreneur.

I confess that I couldn’t place the name when I read the line-up. Something to do with my age I imagine.  It seems he established the online music platform SBTV when he was 15 years old by filming and uploading videos to YouTube of his friends rapping. Since then he’s grown SBTV into a renowned brand with a subscriber base of over 814,000! I’m guessing that I can learn a lot from him.

Deborah Meaden, UK entrepreneur and Dragons’ Den investor. 

I’ve always liked Deborah Meaden on Dragons’ Den and I’m a huge fan of Strictly Come Dancing.  I wonder if there’s anything she learned from being a contestant that she can use in her role as an investor. I’ll ask the question if I get the chance.

Sahar Hashemi OBE, Entrepreneur

I hadn’t heard of Sahar before reading her bio but now I’m really looking forward to hearing her speak.  She is the founder of Coffee Republic and Skinny Candy, a brand of sugar free sweets.   She is also the author of two best sellers on entrepreneurship, a LinkedIn Influencer, a member of Secretary of State’s Entrepreneurs Forum, and was listed on the Maserati 100.  How fascinating!

Sessions on Developing People, Products and Business

In April I’ll be launching my book Grow Your Geeks – A Handbook for Developing Leaders in High-Tech Organisations. A key message in the book is that good technology isn’t enough.  You need strong leadership to turn good technology into a successful business.  So, I’m delighted to see the agenda includes sessions on developing people as well as products.

The sessions I’m most looking forward to are:

• Stop Making it Difficult for Great People to Do Their Best Work

• Sage People: Managing and Supporting Your Greatest Asset

• Technology for Business…What’s Next?

• Starting Up or Scaling Up? Digital Marketing Explained.

There really is something for everyone at the Summit and it’s great value too so why not join me?  The early bird ticket price of £49 has been extended to 15 March 2017.  Find out more and register at https://www.sage.com/sage-summit/en-uk/

Please let me know if you’re going so we can meet up during the two days.

If you can’t make it you can learn through me.  I will be blogging and posting on social media during and after the event.  You can:

Connect to me on LinkedIn at uk.linkedin.com/in/antoinetteoglethorpe

Follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/antoinetteog

Like me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AntoinetteOglethorpe