Welcome to Business Link events portal

The home of everything you need to know about Business Link events in the north east. Whether you are looking for advice on starting a business, business development support or business growth advice, we are here for you every step of the way.
HOME SUCCESS STORIES Event Success for Business Link
Event Success for Business Link
On Monday 10 November 2008, the Sage, Gateshead played host to over 300 business people from across North East England, as Business Link officially launched its first annual ‘Marketing: the art of’ event with keynote speakers PR guru Max Clifford and Mark Palmer – the global brand director for Green & Black’s chocolate.

Alastair MacColl, Chief Executive of Business & Enterprise North East, which delivers the Business Link service, formally opened the event with a welcome and introduced Max onto the stage for his presentation on ‘Image is everything – how to get your message across’.

Discussing the importance of PR in maintaining and protecting a brand, Max drew upon his own extensive experience by using anecdotal scenarios from his past and present celebrity clients including The Beatles, Kerry Katona and Simon Cowell. Max then used theses examples to illustrate to delegates how his PR techniques could be put into practice to suit their business.

Throughout his speech Max reiterated the importance of PR during this turbulent economic climate and stressed to delegates that building relationships with the regional media and partnering with complementary organisations to create news hooks would be of significant gain – without blowing the budget!

This first keynote speech was then followed by a series of workshops and debates from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, regional marketing companies and big brand regional businesses including Sage, Barbour and Nova – the company responsible for marketing the Great North Run.

The second keynote speech of the day was by Mark Palmer on ‘How to reposition an existing brand’.  Famed for successfully repositioning Green and Black’s chocolate from a niche organic brand to the everyday chocolate it is today and for increasing turnover from £4m to £40m, Mark covered what makes a successful brand, the importance of brand analysis and how to approach repositioning.

Commenting on the day, Alastair MacColl, said: “The aim of any event is to make it as thought-provoking and beneficial as possible for delegates so that they can leave feeling they have learnt something that will be of benefit to their business.  

“I believe in our first ‘Marketing: the art of’ event we found the right balance between entertainment and learning and I have been overwhelmed by the number of delegates that have approached me to commend us on the calibre of speakers and the selection of workshops and debates offered.”

'Marketing: the art of' will be repeated in 2009: watch this space for more information.