Karen Woolley, FSB Regional Business & Stakeholder Manager
Conference Commences
An Introduction to the UK Trade Remedies Authority and how it can help your business
Lorrie Hayes, UK Trade Remedies Authority (Sponsor)
The only two sentence sales presentation you will ever need Bernie DeSouza
The customer buying journey: Why most sales are lost before you even know they exist
Simon Washbrook
Fireside Chat: The do’s and don’ts of starting your own business
Jeevan Punj
From graphic design to team building using VR technology: Lessons learned from two decades of running a micro business
David Wilson
Q&A from Morning Session
Lunch, Networking and browse exhibition stands
Afternoon Session
Welcome Back
Blink Confidence: The art of making your business go from megaphone to magnetic
Mario Barba
Calming the chaos: Finding clarity in a world that doesn’t stop spinning
Karen Robinson
How can the Growth Hub help your business
Shropshire Growth Hub
Q&A from Afternoon Session
Informal networking & Browse exhibition stands
Conference closes
Event Sponsor
Trade Remedies Authority
The UK’s Trade Remedies Authority offers the first line of defence for UK manufacturers if they face unfair international competition from lowpriced imports. Since the TRA was established in 2021, it has protected UK producers from unfair trade practices across £22bn of UK imports.
gov.uk/uktra
Host
Hollie Whittles
Your host for the day is Hollie Whittles, Hollie is an award winning TEDx speaker, author and Director of two digital companies – FraggleWorks and Purple Frog Systems. Her passion is to EDUCATE, ENTERTAIN and ENGAGE. Spending more than 7000 hours speaking to audiences across the UK, she has helped hundreds of business owners to grow their businesses. Hollie is in constant demand. Her charismatic and knowledgeable approach empowers people to get the results they want through adoption of the right technology, strategic planning and digital marketing. Hollie is also the National Policy Skills champion for the Federation of Small Businesses. www.linkedin.com/in/holliewhittles
Speakers
Lorrie Hayes
Lorrie, a Lead Investigator for UK Trade Remedies Authority, will provide an introduction to the TRA and how that can help your business.
Bernie De Souza’s presentations are powerful, fast moving and teach attendees word for word exactly how to get more clients without paying for advertising. Immediately, attendees can improve their results with simple, actionable phrases that bond people to them. Delegates are entertained, motivated and inspired with skills that last a lifetime. His presentation on the Only Two Sentence Sales Presentation You Will Ever Need is simple, practical and powerful, and will help you improve your results straight away.
www.linkedin.com/in/berniedesouza
Simon Washbrook
Simon Washbrook is the founder of the multi-award-winning popcorn CRM, he also has 20+ years of experience in Sales and Marketing, specifically for SMEs. Simon started his corporate career at Anglepoise Lamps and by the end was working at a division of BMW group which implemented CRM systems into large organisations. He then went on to form his own Design and Marketing agency that specifically worked with small businesses. During this time, he came to realise that most SMEs don’t join up their sales and marketing activities, which was losing them thousands of pounds in lost sales and missed opportunities every single month. This is why he built popcorn CRM, designed to join up all this activity in a simple and highly visual way, allowing small businesses to understand exactly where all their prospects were, when they should be contacting them, and more importantly why.
www.linkedin.com/in/simondwashbrook
Speakers
Jeevan Punj
Jeevan is the founder and owner of Elite Hampers, an award-winning Shropshire based corporate gifting business. She is also a local optician and whilst working in various practices, learnt that unless people felt valued in their position in a business (customer or employees), their loyalty wavered and they were less inclined to stay with the business. Elite Hampers was created to add value to business relationships by showing appreciation through gifting. In 2025 Jeevan was named one of the UK’s top 100 most impressive female entrepreneurs by Small Business Britain’s f:entrepreneur #ialso100 campaign. Also in 2025, Elite Hampers was named one of the UK’s top 100 most inspiring small businesses ahead of the Small Business Saturday campaign. This led to Jeevan attending events at the House of Lords and celebrating at a private event at No.11 Downing Street! Jeevan has spoken about her business journey at various local events, on the radio and has been a guest speaker at the National Science Museum in London.
www.linkedin.com/in/jeevanpunj
David Wilson
David is a brand and design expert: using a clear and honest approach to marketing he is joint owner of Glued. Glued Marketing helps businesses connect with likeminded customers through crisp brand communications delivered by web design, graphic design and all aspects of advertising. Glued’s new VR team development programme ‘Teams Glued’ is designed to help organisations retain and develop the best staff.
You’ll hear from David on how being a small business owner is challenging, lonely, frustrating and joyful all at the same time. Having run a microbusiness for 23 years David has experienced every type of economic condition: leading to great success and some significant set-backs. He’ll share his approach to staying positive and on-track while the business landscape has changed so much. 2026 has seen the launch of a new product using VR technology to help team development. David will talk about innovation successes and failures over the years and how pivoting becomes part of the journey.
www.linkedin.com/in/davidwilsonglued
Speakers
Mario Barba
Mario is the Creative Director of Barba Creative. He has over 20 years’ experience in the design industry, with a passion of for solving creative challenges and transforming businesses through strategic branding, impactful websites, and digital marketing.
His team partners with entrepreneurs and business owners ready to elevate their brands to the next level. By focusing on the essence of each brand, Mario helps businesses connect authentically with their audiences, fostering trust and driving long-term growth.
www.linkedin.com/in/mariobarbadesign
Karen Robinson
Karen runs from KR4HR, and is a HR Consultant and Senior Leadership Coach. She is a great believer that “Happy People are Productive People” and so helps ambitious SME Leaders to grow their business through their greatest asset - their people. With nearly 20 years’ experience as a HR generalist working with Senior Leadership teams and Boards, Karen is perfectly placed to support you with your HR and Coaching requirements, having lived and breathed the entire employee lifecycle; day-to-day transactional needs, people problems, one off speciality people projects and future planning people strategy. As an accredited Coach, Karen has supported Senior Leaders and Boards with clarity, confidence and accountability. Helping put structure behind thought processes, supporting and challenging difficult decisions, and guiding personal and professional journeys.
www.linkedin.com/in/karen-robinson-3ba148182
Ruth Westwood
Ruth leads the delivery and promotion of the Shropshire Growth Hub, supporting local businesses to start, grow and thrive. Her role involves working closely with partners, stakeholders and businesses to raise awareness of available support, coordinating tailored advice and signposting services, and ensuring businesses can easily access the resources they need. She also represents the Growth Hub at events at on a national level, helping to showcase how they can add value to the local business community.
www.linkedin.com/in/ruth-westwood-843161100
Exhibitors
Federation of Small Businesses (FSB)
Our mission is to help smaller businesses survive through these difficult times and ultimately achieve their ambitions.
Members get an exclusive package of great value business services including advice, financial products and support. These cover a wide range of benefits such as tax, legal and HR, local network groups and business banking. You can find out more about these benefits by visiting our stand at Bootcamp today.
We don’t only provide fantastic membership benefits - FSB is also the UK’s leading business campaigner, focused on delivering change which supports smaller businesses to grow and succeed.
Come and have a chat today to see how we can support you, your business, your workforce and your ambitions and really help make your business fly!
www.fsb.org.uk
Ablepreneurs
Ablepreneurs® is an inclusive business community connecting small businesses with talented disabled, chronically ill, and neurodivergent entrepreneurs, freelancers, and creatives. We help businesses access skilled, reliable support while championing flexible, real-world ways of working - creating opportunities to grow sustainably, collaborate differently, and build businesses that work better for everyone. www.ablepreneurs.co.uk
BCRS Business Loans
BCRS Business Loans is a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and provide loans to businesses who are unable to access finance from
traditional sources such as banks. We provide business loans from £10,000 to £250,000 to growing small and medium sized businesses based in the West Midlands and Wales.
www.bcrs.org.uk
Cyber Aware World
Cyber Aware World safeguards your business from cyber threats. Play Smart. Stay Safe. Secure Your Business with CYBER AWARE WORLD - our mission is to empower small businesses with the knowledge and skills necessary to defend against cyber threats caused by human error. Through innovative and engaging simple GAMIFIED training, we aim to make cyber security accessible, effective, and enjoyable for all. Our goal is to transform the way businesses approach security, ensuring that every team member becomes a vigilant guardian of their digital environment. By combining cutting-edge technology with interactive gamified learning, we strive to create a safer cyber landscape for small businesses in the UK and beyond.
cyberaware.world/index.php
West Midlands Cyber Resilience Centre
The Cyber Resilience Centre for the West Midlands Helps small and medium-sized businesses and public sector organisations improve their cyber security. Our fully funded cyber security services are backed by UK policing and Government and delivered in partnership with regional universities. Join our free membership to access our support
www.wmcrc.co.uk
IT Made Simple
IT Made Simple are on a mission to provide “done right, first time” IT support to businesses and nonprofit organisations across Birmingham. Their strong community focus helps them to provide IT support with real integrity. With no need for lengthy contracts you don’t need; they don’t believe in temporary, sticking plaster solutions; and approach all clients with understanding - whether you are a small business with a broken laptop or a 20-person business needing ongoing on-call technical support. www.it-madesimple.uk
Jaiyn.ai
Be Found. Be Chosen. Be Everywhere. AI is changing how customers find businesses. Without the right setup, you risk becoming invisible. We make you discoverable… and give you an AI agent working for you 24/7/365. AI assistants now decide who gets discovered – and who gets ignored. If your website isn’t speaking their language, you’re invisible to them and to the millions of people asking for recommendations right now. You’re not just missing traffic, you’re missing customers.
jaiyn.ai/en-US
popcornCRM
popcorn is a really simple-to-use CRM that is designed specifically for small businesses. It has just the essential marketing tools you need to be able to manage, nurture and convert your prospects faster.
popcorncrm.co.uk
Pete’s Watercolours
Peter sells his Father’s Watercolour paints (Peter Fredrick Twinam) mainly Giclee prints. ‘Giclee’ is a highgrade form of copy printing and very closely reprints the many colours forum in an artis work. The process uses about 12 to 14 inks in the production of a ‘Giclee’ print and prints on to Cotton Bond Galley grade paper, the exact paper an Artis would use for original painting media.
peteswatercolours.etsy.com
Shropshire Growth Hub
The Shropshire Growth Hub is your single point of access to information on the vast range of support available to businesses in the Shropshire Council area. Offering face-to-face advice on business grants, loans and support available for Shropshire businesses regardless of size or sector, from pre-start to established businesses.
marchesgrowthhub.co.uk/about-us/mgh-shropshire
Trade Remedies Authority (TRA)
The Trade Remedies Authority exists to defend the UK against unfair international trade practices. It investigate whether new trade remedies are needed to prevent injury to UK industries caused by unfair trading practices and make recommendations on appropriate measures to defend UK economic interests.
gov.uk/uktra
Frank Jay Chilli Shop Ltd
The Trade Remedies Authority exists to defend the UK against unfair international trade practices.
T H E T R A
The UK’s Trade Remedies Authority investigates import practices which could harm UK businesses
If your business manufactures goods and you are struggling to compete with unfairly lowpriced imports, you could apply to the TRA for a trade remedy to apply a tariff on these imports at the border.
You can find guidance on all aspects of our investigations on our website to guide you through the process
We investigate whether new trade remedies are needed to prevent injury to UK industries caused by unfair trading practices and make recommendations on appropriate measures to defend UK economic interests.
If you would like to find out if a trade remedy could help protect your business from unfair international trading practices, contact the TRA on contact@traderemedies gov uk We’re ready to help.
