Buckinghamshire: MD2MD announces LeaderFest 2013

MD2MD, the Oxfordshire-based leadership development group for managing directors of SMEs, has announced that on June 19 it will be hosting LeaderFest 2013, the annual conference which gives successful entrepreneurial leaders the opportunity to share their experiences with those looking to develop their leadership skills. This year’s event will be hosted by Couture, at the world-famous Pinewood Studios site, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire. 

LeaderFest began in 2010 to provide managing directors and their senior management - people with the challenge of leading a team of 10 or more people - with the opportunity to listen to, and learn from, the experience of successful business leaders. What is it that contributed most to their success, what tips would they share and what they would do differently if they were able to rewind history? It offers attendees the opportunity to meet and learn from like-minded leaders, as well as a number of high-profile entrepreneurs and industry speakers, and provides attendees with tips, tools, techniques and thoughts to become a more successful business leader.

Bob Bradley, MD2MD chairman, commented: “LeaderFest is an extension of the highly-successful ‘leaders learning with and from leaders’ peer model of MD2MD, and enables attendees to learn from the experience of fellow leaders both as they are interviewed on stage, and through personal interaction.”

The panel for 2013 includes:

• Alex Pratt OBE – an author, business speaker and columnist, as well as an entrepreneur who runs Serious Readers ; a high-growth and high-quality lighting manufacturer.
• Jackie Lee – who launched her business, Dolls House Emporium, after spotting a gap in the market for creating scale model kits of timber-framed dolls’ houses in 1979 and who has recently sold her business.
• James Hakesley – previously chief operating officer of Fidgit Box and now co-founder and chief operating officer of Nideo; an online platform that connects the business community through video and offers a clean and professional video hosting solution.
• Roy Kimani – previously managing director of Fidgit Box and now co-founder and current chief executive officer of Nideo.
• Mark Sears - an entrepreneurial brand strategist who works with pioneer brands looking to re-imagine themselves. He previously worked for the Virgin group of companies where he oversaw the strategic direction of the Virgin brand and provided support to the ecosystem of 200 Virgin businesses globally.

Every month, MD2MD members meet in small groups with the objective of developing their thinking, skills, knowledge and confidence, through challenge and discussion and through new ideas from expert practitioner speakers sharing their specialist real-world experience.

Bradley concluded: “The secret of MD2MD is learning with and from others like you, improving your business one step at a time. The practical nature of the people that lead entrepreneurial medium-sized businesses love the opportunity to develop their thinking, their skills and their ideas with other leaders with real ‘university of life’ experience. LeaderFest replicates those core principles of MD2MD and opens up this forum to a wider audience of business leaders willing to invest a small amount of time to improve their own skills and ultimately make their business more successful.”