Applications for the Digital Advisor project are now closed
For information on other ways that Keele University can support your business, visit keele.ac.uk/gateway or contact the Keele Gateway team on gateway@keele.ac.uk.
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The digital age has transformed the way we do business. Over two days our hands-on workshops will help you understand and integrate the latest digital technologies into your organisation to drive growth and thrive in the digital age.
Exclusively available to small and medium enterprises in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, the workshops are fully-funded so there is no cost to attend.
What you will cover
Over the two days you will explore:
How to grow your market digitally and attract more customers;
Building your brand digitally using data and insight;
Turning your digital plans into reality, including addressing digital skills needs within your organisation;
Maximising the digital environment to enhance your business performance.
Benefits to your business
Take away knowledge, tools and techniques to implement in your business.
Sessions delivered by digital experts and business practitioners;
Real world application – a chance to try digital tools, techniques and technologies that can easily be implemented in your business;
Access a personalised playbook of information and content that you can refer to and reuse after the workshop;
Sessions are fully-funded so there is no cost to eligible participants.
Thriving in the Digital Age
Session Itinerary
| Day 1 – How to find customers, and grow your market digitally | |
| Morning |
Understanding your customers to help grow your business After a breakfast networking session, we commence with a series of practical workshops to explore how customers see your business, carry out customer journey mapping, and develop customer personas. |
| Afternoon | Building your brand digitally by using data and Insight Following a networking lunch, you will look at creating a digital marketing strategy, including building and implementing a digital marketing plan and developing your campaign. |
| Day 2 – How to align your people, systems and processes to grow your business | |
| Morning | Turning your digital plans into reality The morning starts with networking over breakfast, followed by a workshop on data security, cyber security and cloud-based working, ensuring you know how to keep your data safe. We’ll then move onto explore practical tools to apply the right metrics to measure your business performance. |
| Afternoon | Using the digital environment to enhance business performance Following a networking lunch, the afternoon focusses on applying the learnings from the two days to your business, with a 90 day digital planning session. The afternoon finishes with a guest speaker from the digital sector. |
Spotlight speakers
Victoria Prince
Touchpoints Marketing
LinkedIn profile
- Marketing Consultant and multi award-winning Entrepreneur, Victoria will take you through developing a customer persona and building and implementing a digital marketing plan.
Jonathan Lawton
Hixon Group
LinkedIn profile
- Director of award-winning business IT support services provider and cloud solution specialist Hixon Group, Jonathan’s workshop will focus on how to turn your data into money.
Professor Raphael Hirschi
Keele University
LinkedIn profile
- Director of Keele’s new Digital Society Institute, Raphael will look at dashboards and applying the right metrics to measure your business performance during his workshop.
Veronica Kitton
VK Business Consulting
LinkedIn profile
- Owner of VK Business Consulting, Veronica works with service-based small business owners to take away the fear of implementing a CRM. Through a series of practical workshops, Veronica and Victoria will lead a deep dive into understanding your customers, including customer journey mapping.
- Theo Millward - FranScape
- Professor Samir Dani - Keele University
- Alex Goffe - Keele University
- Glenn Handforth - Keele University
- Professor Raphael Hirschi - Keele University
- Veronica Kitton - VK Business Assist
- Jonathan Lawton - Hixon Group
- David Lowe - Keele University
- Victoria Prince - Touchpoints Marketing
Project team
Glenn Handforth
Entrepreneur in Residence, Keele University
LinkedIn profile
- Glenn has over 30 years of experience helping a range of individuals - from entrepreneurs to directors of SMEs - to address their leadership, vision and direction, strategy, brand communications, and operational challenges.
David Lowe
Entrepreneur In Residence, Keele University
LinkedIn profile
- Provider of business mentoring, coaching and training to businesses who are already forward looking and dynamic, and committed to the growth and development their core business, diversification into other markets, or both. Helping to solve practical day to day difficulties and add value to strategies.
Claire Nicoll
Project Manager, Keele University
LinkedIn profile
- Claire is the Project Manager for Keele's digital business support initiatives, including the 'Thriving in the Digital Age' workshops - providing local businesses and entrepreneurs with the knowledge and skills to harness the potential of data and digital technologies.
Innovation Centre 7 and its associated programmes are part-funded through a suite of funders including the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (as part of the England 2014-2020 European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) Growth Programme), the Research England Development Fund, and UK Government funding through the Getting Building Fund.