University offers free business sessions

Business people around the Highlands and Islands are being invited to attend free lunchtime seminars with some of the region’s leading experts. The University of the Highlands and Islands Management School is hosting a series of talks on a variety of business topics over the next few weeks. The sessions, which take place in Inverness, will look at subjects including family businesses, public relations and social enterprises.

The first talk, ‘How to sack your father (and other pressing issues in family businesses)’, will be presented by Susan Hoyle, a taxation specialist at lawyers Wright, Johnston and Mackenzie. Taking place on Friday 17 May, the seminar will give an insight into journey of successful family businesses.

Nathalie Agnew, managing director of Dingwall-based public relations and marketing agency, Muckle Media, will present the second session on Friday 31 May. Entitled, ‘Making good news travel - a Highland opportunity delivered’, the seminar will see Nathalie share her experience of international public relations and marketing.

The third lunchtime session will be delivered by Donald MacLean, managing director of Dingwall-based firm, MacLean Electrical on Friday 7 June. As a director of a successful international business, Donald will speak about ‘How to take a Highland business to the world’.

The last talk in the series will look at ‘How to make social enterprises sustainable in hard times’. It will be presented by Lee McGrath, general manager of ReBoot, a Moray-based computer recycling social enterprise, on Wednesday 12 June.

The Management School’s Gary I Campbell explains the format of the sessions: “Each seminar will take place over lunchtime for no more than an hour. This will allow us to hear the thoughts of the speaker, ask questions then network with others over a bite to eat. The university is open for business across the region and these sessions will hopefully show that, although we are a university, we can take a practical approach when working with businesses.”

Susan Hoyle, the first speaker in the series, said: “Family businesses are different from other types of business because of the interaction between the family and the business. To avoid family complexity putting the business at risk business families need to understand the common, and predictable, issues that family businesses face. Education is key to this understanding.”

Dr Neil Simco, dean of the faculty of arts, humanities and business at the university, adds: “The lunchtime seminar series is an important opportunity to build links between the worlds of academia and business. We’re looking forward to welcoming colleagues from the business community for these events.”

All four lunchtime talks, which have been organised in association with Business Gateway Highland and Enterprise Europe, will be held at the University of the Highlands and Islands Executive Office, Ness Walk, Inverness, from 12:30pm to 1:30pm. If you are unable to attend in person, there may be an opportunity to watch the sessions from where you are as they will be broadcast live by webcast and video conference. For more information or to book a free place, contact Fiona Ryan on 01463 279 347 or at fiona.ryan@uhi.ac.uk.

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Susan Szymborski
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