Senior Enterprise and Mentoring Conference

How can we tackle the over 50s unemployment crisis?

 

The Prince’s Initiative for Mature Enterprise (The Prince’s Initiative) hosted The Senior Enterprise and Mentoring Conference at the BT Conference Centre in central London on 14th November 2012.  This transnational conference brought together 170 delegates from across the UK and Europe to promote the opportunities and benefits of self-employment as a means to address the over 50s unemployment crisis.

At a time when there are some 21 million people in the UK over the age of 50, the conference, shone the spotlight on the entrepreneurial successes of the UK and Europe’s fastest growing age group. The conference highlighted these successes to inform policy makers, governments and other over 50s, of the benefits of self-employment  later in life, in the face of growing unemployment and redundancy.

The conference brought together experts in the field of self-employment, business and senior entrepreneurship who informed the discussions from a European and UK Governmental perspective.

Speakers included:

Dr Jonathan Potter, Senior Economist, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

 

 

 

 

Lord Marland, Under Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills

 

 

 

 

 

Kelly Hoppen, entrepreneur and founder of Kelly Hoppen Interiors

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to championing the benefits of self-employment by the over 50s, the conference focussed on mentoring as a means of supporting people over the age of 50 to start their own businesses.  Mentors and mentees were in attendance, and showcased the value of mentoring in supporting entrepreneurs over the age of 50 to build the right foundations to survive and succeed in business, with the aim of encouraging more mentor/mentee relationships to be formed across Europe.

Jenny Maxwell, mentee and Managing Director of flood prevention business ‘Water Alert’

 

 

 

 

 

Egan O’Callaghan, mentor and entrepreneur

 

 

 

 

With a packed agenda, the ambitious conference also included  Q and A sessions with entrepreneurs from across Europe, a debate chaired by Esther Rantzen and ended with a celebration of successful UK entrepreneurs over the age of 50, with the Sage One Senior Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2012 – click here to find out more about our winners.

We would like to say a huge thank you to BT for letting us host the event at their venue and to everyone who joined us on the day!