The North West's African and Caribbean business community came together at the City of Manchester stadium recently at a groundbreaking event, organised by Business Link Northwest, to focus on creating a multi-million pound African and Caribbean economy in the region.
The event was hosted by broadcaster and business woman Juliet Alexander. Peter Watson, Managing Director of Business Link Northwest got the conference underway by outlining how the organisation could support enterprise amongst the African and Caribbean community through free-to-use and impartial support. Acknowledging that the event was the first time that Business Link had communicated specifically with African and Caribbean business people, he said that change was required on both parts to make a genuine difference, and promised that it would be the first step of many.
This was followed by a passionate and controversial speech from Dr. Chika Onyeani, renowned author and Editor-in-Chief of the African Sun Times. The speech set the scene for the evening with the importance of learning from the practices of other minority groups, specifically referring to the Asian business community as a strong example of how greater collaboration can lead to success.
An expert panel of successful Asian business people then took to the stage, including Dr. Nighat Awan OBE of Shere Khan Foods, Lisa Tse of Sweet Mandarin and Salim Uddin-Khandakar of Salutions Ltd. The panel talked about the importance of trusting each other in business.
The panel was followed by Marilyn Comrie, inspirational founder and CEO of LeaderGen, who presented the findings from her research, undertaken on behalf of Business Link Northwest. The research drew out several obstacles that African and Caribbean businesses believed were barriers to their growth, including access to finance, a lack of relevant business support, problems with winning large contracts, and developing the leadership and management skills that are essential for success as a business increases in size, reaffirming that Business Link Northwest offered services that could help to address such issues.
Finally, an inspirational African and Caribbean panel was welcomed to the stage, including Philip Dyer of nxo, Olive Strachan of Olive Strachan Resources and Tony Wade MBE, former managing director of Dyke and Dryden. The panel members talked about their own success stories, with Tony Wade placing a real emphasis on the role that networking and mentoring played in his achievements.
Peter Watson, Managing Director of Business Link Northwest, comments; "This event was designed to be informative and of genuine value to African and Caribbean businesses, and most importantly to inspire delegates to take the next step. In the last 18 months I've addressed many rooms full of people about business issues, and I have never seen a room so full of energy and enthusiasm for so long! There was a really upbeat and positive atmosphere, plenty of opinions and ideas, and most importantly you could sense a real desire to listen to the advice and create real change."
