A NEW two-day business festival made its debut before Wickham Festival, with hundreds of businesses coming together to share their ideas.

The inaugural Ideas Fest took place on Wednesday, August 3 and Thursday August 4 preceding Wickham Festival, to provide a relaxed setting for over 2000 people to talk business.

The outdoor festival hit it off with the business community in Hampshire and further afield. Businesses across the region were welcomed to listen to industry leader talks and network in a relaxed, informal setting.

The ethos behind the festival was to allow business leaders, founders and professionals to let their hair down and enjoy themselves while securing new business opportunities, meeting like-minded people and taking away valuable insights from industry leaders.

Taking to the stage were some of the biggest names in business, including Dragon’s Den star and host of number-one podcast The Diary of a CEO, Steven Bartlett, as well as founder of meditation app Calm, Michael Acton-Smith.

Hampshire Chronicle:

Other features included the author of The Good Ally, Nova Reid, former captain of Wales and the British Lions, Gareth Thomas, gave talks and hosting panels across the two days.

As well as inspirational talks covering topics such as climate change, gender bias and inclusivity, festival-goers could listen to acts like Fleetwood Bac and 10CC.

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Across the festival were activities such as morning pilates and other wellbeing-based activities, workshops in skills like public speaking and breathing, a silent disco, independent food and drinks vendors and a ‘boujie’ car boot sale in association with Richmond Motor Group, with profits donated towards causes in Ukraine.

Festival-goers could also help themselves to a range of freebies, including treats from popular cheesecake brand, Pleesecakes.

Francesca James founded the festival because she wanted to bring something new and innovative to the world of corporate events and offer the discount to ensure businesses from throughout the region could utilise the event to grow business within the region.

She said: “The feedback from our first ever festival has been amazing. The speakers shared some incredible ideas and expertise which will no doubt help people to not only grow their businesses, but to do so in a way that will have a positive effect on the world and people around them.

“We’re looking forward to coming back again next year, to hear some more incredible speakers, experience more amazing brands and keep more ideas flowing.”

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The business festival took place Wednesday, August 3 morning and 9am until 4pm on Thursday, August 4 after which Wickham festival took over.

Following its success, the inaugural Ideas Fest has already released Early Bird- tickets for next year’s festivities taking place on August 2 and 3.

For more information go to ideasfest.co.uk/

Festival partners include organisations such as Tik Tok, AA, The Great British Businesswoman Series and Wickham Festival.