New Minister of State for Higher Education
to address ISBA Conference

Dr Kim Howells, MP, the new Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education has agreed to open the second Plenary Session of the Conference entitled “Entrepreneurship Education – Creating the next generation of Enterprises”.  Dr Howells has identified this subject as one of his priorities and he will emphasise the Government’s desire to foster entrepreneurship among graduates and young people.  This Plenary Session will begin at 14.00 on 4^th November.

Entrepreneurship Education in Europe

Philippe Albert, President of the Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Small Business Network at the European Foundation for Management Development, will then present a European Survey of Entrepreneurship Education.  He is an Associate Professor at CERAM Sophia-Antipolis, France.

Allan Gibb, Professor Emeritus Durham University, will then challenge the conceptual foundation for Entrepreneurship / Enterprise Education and demonstrate the need to change to a wider agenda with a higher plain of response.  Paul Hannon, Professor of Incubation and Enterprise at the University of Central England will chair the session.

International contributions

The Conference has attracted leading national and international experts in the field of entrepreneurship and small business education, policy development and research.  In addition to the presentation by Philippe Albert on education in Europe mentioned above, Mr Fabien Durand from the European Commission Enterprise Directorate will present their latest work on SME’s access to Public Procurement Contracts across the EU. 

In the parallel workshops, technical papers will be presented by leading researchers, educators and practitioners from Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, South Africa and USA.

Accelerating Women’s Enterprise

One of the Workshop Tracks will focus exclusively on best practice in the encouragement and support for Women Entrepreneurs, led by Dinah Bennett from the University of Durham and Prof Sara Carter from the University of Strathclyde, supported by leading members of AWE Development Partnership, PROWESS, WBDA and other networks, both in the UK and overseas. 

 Conference Statistics & Topics

There will be a record attendance at this 27th ISBA National Conference due to the highly relevant content and the wider marketing of the event.  By the end of September, a record total of 310 people had registered to attend the Conference, while we have received a total of 216 research papers or reviews of experience and best practice for presentation in the specialised Workshops.  There will be nine parallel tracks covering the following twelve key topics in a total of 54 sessions:-

A - Advancing entrepreneurship education: creating the next generation of entrepreneurs

B - Building entrepreneurial businesses: strategy, management and succession

C - Creating new business: start-ups, incubation and outreach

D - Developing enterprise in different economies: a global phenomenon

E - Enterprise in diverse contexts:  creating opportunities for all

G - Government policy & practice: towards an enterprise culture 

H - Hi-growth, hi-tech business, networks and clusters: generating the future economy

O - Online entrepreneurs & E-business: ICT in SME development and growth

S - Support for Small Business: changing policy and practice

T - Transfer of knowledge and skills: learning, training & management development

V - Venture funding for SMEs: business angels, cooperatives and micro-credit

W - Women’s enterprise: raising the proportion of female entrepreneurs

Conference Sponsors

The Principal Sponsors of the Conference are the Small Business Service and One NorthEast, the Regional Development Agency, supported by Gateshead Council,  Newcastle City Council, Tees Valley Partnership, InBiz, Lloyds TSB, ACCA and Barclays.  There will also be several Exhibitors of relevant publications, products and services of interest to the delegates and to entrepreneurs.

Easy Access to Conference Venues

The venues for the Conference will be the unique LIFE Science Centre in conjunction with the adjacent Jurys Inn, which are just 200 yards from Newcastle Central Station.  This station is served by frequent high-speed services by GNER between London, Edinburgh and Glasgow and by Virgin Trains from Birmingham, Bristol, South Coast, South Wales and the South West.  There are also Trans-Pennine Express Services from Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and York plus the METRO services across Tyne & Wear and numerous local rail services across the North East Region. 

There are air services to Newcastle from most parts of the UK and major cities in Europe.  The airport has a direct METRO link to Newcastle Central Station in just 20 minutes. For motorists, the A1 motorway is just 2 miles away along the A184.   For visitors from Europe, there are ferry services from Scandinavia and the Netherlands to nearby North Shields with a connecting bus service direct to Central Station.  Once in the city, there are excellent METRO underground services, frequent buses and many taxis available, whilst it is easy to walk around the partly pedestrianised city centre.  We have negotiated special discounted rates for delegates at several nearby hotels.  These can be booked direct using a special password that will be notified when you register for the Conference.