This week lays host to the UK’s leading innovation event, Innovate UK 2014. Bringing together an audience of more than 2000 people over two days and putting them in front of 200 world’s leading speakers to discuss ways to help grow your business, covering vital funding, support and presenting a vast amount of high powered connections. With attendees from research base, to government, business, as well as UK and international investors from 30 overseas markets, this really is the best event dedicated to networking with leading innovators.
Whichit’s CEO Jonathan Gan joined a panel of successful entrepreneurs to discuss why the UK is the best location to internationalize your business. The UK is currently located at the top of the list as the world’s leading location to both set up and grow a business. It provides the much required direct access to the European market, built up of the international environs of over 830 million people.
In the 40 minutes, a creative discussion took place between these industry leaders, bringing forth thoughts on the advantages of the UK market over others, the types of support you can receive here as well as the money oriented challenges you may face and the reasons why London is the economical hotspot of the United Kingdom, leading more businesses here over any other mainland locations.
Jonathan Gan discussed how the UK is the world leader in eCommence, which is the sector that Whichit belongs to, as it is located at the center of the interaction between finance and business, making it the hotspot for brand and financial growth. Furthermore, with the cultural variety the UK holds, it allows for fast growth, as you can target a strongly diverse group of people in a small geographical space. For those you cannot directly reach, it is located within such a time zone that it allows for international contact within the business working hours.
All this came together to pin point what the UK holds in terms of leverage to help further expand your business. Programs created by the UK government, such as the Sirius Programme, combined with the startup support activities of Innovation Warehouse and the Accelerator Academy, provide startups the ultimate environment to take your idea to the next level.
Whichit Founders at Innovate UK 2014
The sector was Chaired by Philip Salter, Director of The Entrepreneurs Network, the panel was made up of Dmitry Aksenov, Chief Executive Officer, FinGenius, Tim Brown, Founder, Three over Seven, Greg Fitzgerald, Carbon Analytics, Henrique Olifiers, Co-founder, Bossa Studio and our very own Jonathan Gan, CEO of Whichit.
