On October 19th The Family Business Conference takes place at The Halston Carlisle and family businesses from around the country are being attracted to attend and speak. Headline speakers including sixth generation family business owner William Robinson of Stockport’s Robinson’s Brewery and Fred Story of Story Homes and Story Contracting are in place to share their stories. Yorkshire family business Wold Top Brewery will be speaking on a next generation panel alongside family business members from Hawkshead Relish, Manchester’s HMG Paints and Twoey. Organiser Sue Howorth of The Family Business Network explains the appeal:

There is a growing community of family businesses who are looking to learn and share best practice, I think the fact that they are sharing their challenges with other family businesses allows for a more honest take which is where part of the appeal stems from. I’m delighted to see the conference has attracted speakers from across the country, but am even more pleased to see that family businesses can see the value these larger companies stories’ can bring and are coming to the conference for that reason. Family businesses are the masters of their own fate, the ability to make decisions quickly means they are often ahead of the curve when it comes to innovation and direction of their business. However, the challenges that come from working with family can be universal, large or small family businesses can relate to the difficulties and are keen to understand how to overcome them.

Family businesses contribute enormously to the UK economy and are being increasingly recognised as having a voice of their own which cannot be ignored. John Stevenson MP will also be speaking as part of his remit as Chair of The All Party Parliamentary Group for Family Business and updating attendees on the latest family business news from Westminster.

The Family Business Conference runs from 09:30 to 15:30 at The Halston, Carlisle. Tickets are £38 and can be booked here.