Exeter set for International Ideas Festival

News Desk
Authored by News Desk
Posted Tuesday, March 28, 2017 - 7:25am

An international Ideas Festival for Business, held in London and New York is coming to Exeter, it was announced today.

The influential Like Minds Ideas Festival will arrive in Exeter in September, with business leaders and speakers from the US, Europe and the UK taking part.

It will be held at Exeter Castle on Friday September 29th, after a speakers and sponsors welcome dinner the evening before. Some 250 delegates will hear from international business speakers, take part in immersive masterclasses and debate with renowned business experts during panel sessions and lunches acorss the city.

Business innovator Chris Moss, who helped build three global billion dollar brands - Virgin Atlantic, Orange and 118 118 - will be one of the speakers at the Like Minds Exeter ‘From Startup to Scaleup’ Ideas Festival.

During his eight years as marketing director of Virgin Atlantic, Chris Moss took the company from a single aircraft to a loved international brand, creating Premium Economy, seat-back TV and on-board ice creams along the way.  Chris is also the founder of the famous mobile Orange brand, led the brand switch from ‘On Digital’ to ‘ITV Digital’, oversaw the brand merger of Lloyds Bank and TSB and was CEO of 118 118.

Chris will also be the guest speaker at the first of a series of Like Minds business events in Exeter held in partnership with Exeter-based PR, marketing and design agency Astley Media in the run up to September’s festival.

An ‘Inside Track’ business dinner with Chris as guest speaker will be held at Southernhay House on Thursday April 27 and a Business Breakfast Masterclass at Dean Clarke House, Southernhay, on Friday April 28.

Andrew Ellis, the founder of Like Minds, said: “The ‘From Startup to Scaleup’ Ideas Festival will give people opportunities to learn, share, develop new ideas and make new connections.

Like Minds is the perfect environment to engage and network with some of the UK and Europe’s leading entrepreneurs and business leaders. The time is right to bring an international festival focused on growth to the fastest-growing city for population in the UK right now.”

Chris Moss, who now runs business consultancy MAV3ERICK, said: “With its openness, pinpoint discussions and incredible line up of innovators from around the world, I’ve always loved Like Minds and it’s fantastic that it’s coming back to Exeter.

“I’m dyslexic so I constantly look for different connections, and an interesting thing about Richard Branson is he’s dyslexic too. In his case, it means he’s a really good connecter – he meets lots of different people, and brings them all together. I guess that’s one of the attractions of LIke Minds, it brings a lovely blend of people together and gets them talking.”

As well as international business speakers, LIke Minds Exeter will feature a Futures Room, showcasing key regional activity set to propel the South West’s economy over the next decade and beyond. There will also be exhibition space, a Sponsors and Speakers Dinner, off-site lunches at restaurants around Exeter for delegates, each one hosted by a different speaker, and an after party in the city on the Friday evening. GWR is offering discounted travel for people travelling from London for the festival and for those traveling from Paddington there will be an “Entrepreneurs Express” on the Thursday evening.

Like Minds events are also being held in London, New York and Shanghai this year. Launched in 2009, its very first event was actually a business conference in Exeter nearly a decade ago. Since then, from its headquarters in Devon, Like Minds has expanded to run ideas and innovation festivals, business summits, trade missions and immersive training around the world.
The first seven sponsors of Like Minds Exeter have been secured and the line-up of international speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.

A limited number of Early Bird tickets are now on sale, along with tickets for the Chris Moss Business Breakfast at: www.wearelikeminds.com

Follow @wearelikeminds on Twitter for more information.

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