Businesses benefit from Lancaster conference

Business leaders and academic experts shared expertise and insights at a new annual conference at Lancaster University Management School.

The Entrepreneurs in Residence Conference welcomed more than 50 practitioners and researchers from fields ranging from sustainability and the environment to business education.

“It was a huge success,” said conference organiser Brian Gregory, director of the renowned LUMS Entrepreneurs in Residence (EiR) network. “This was our first conference, but it certainly won’t be the last – the day was really valuable and productive for everyone who attended, and we have had such good feedback.”

The conference brought together members of the EiR network – who run businesses in such a variety of industries all around the UK, and overseas – and the academic research experts from within LUMS and beyond.

Brian added: “Running the network, it’s easy to see how business leaders and researchers can benefit from each other, but there is not always the opportunity to make that first connection, and the conference served as a valuable contact point.

“It was about sharing good practice and best practice from business and entrepreneurship, showing how businesses can learn from the work of our world-leading pioneering academics, and how researchers can learn from those on the front line of business. There are benefits for both sides in bringing them together.”

Attendees heard from LUMS academics Dr Jennifer Carter and Professor Ellie Hamilton on entrepreneurial learning, Dr Randall Zindler and business mentor Victor Giannandrea on the sustainable and environmental benefits of B Corps, and business sustainability expert Duncan Pollard, formerly of Nestlé, Shell and WWF, on the operationalisation of sustainability.

They also welcomed Dan LeClair, CEO at the Global Business School Network, joining virtually from Florida to discuss the concept of bringing global local – where local companies can learn about global trends, and innovation practices on a small scale can be taken to the international level and applied by other businesses.

Plans are already being made to hold a second EiR conference in 2023.