Scotland’s tourism industry conference 2022
2022-11-09 08:00 - 2022-11-10 13:00 UTC | Edinburgh International Conference Centre, 150 Morrison Street, Edinburgh, EH3 8EE
Scotland’s tourism industry conference is back for 2022. With a packed programme, the event is designed to celebrate, empower and further propel our industry into the future in line with the national ambition to be leaders in 21st century tourism.
The landscape our industry operates in has changed significantly over recent years, prompting huge change, unprecedented challenges but also new opportunities.
A collaboration between the Scottish Tourism Alliance (STA), the Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions (ASVA) and HIT Scotland (Hospitality Industry Trust), the Industry Conference will run across two days. It will bring together an exciting range of speakers to deliver important insights, advice and inspiration to navigate and flourish in this new world and to embrace the new opportunities and responsibilities it presents. This year’s event will also feature an exhibitor hall as well as a complimentary evening reception offering the ideal chance to catch up, connect and have fun.
The biggest conference of its kind in Scotland, the much-awaited event of the year is the perfect opportunity for the community to re-connect with industry peers, make new connections, gain invaluable and actionable learnings from expert speakers, share knowledge and be inspired.
This is an unmissable event for anyone at any level who works, supports or is interested in the tourism industry.

How to protect and manage your intellectual property
2022-11-09 10:00 - 12:00
You have invested time, energy, and money into your project, however, have you protected the innovation?
Following this webinar, you will understand how to manage your intellectual property (IP) or how to start the process of registering it.
Topics covered include:

What are intellectual assets (IA)?
What is intellectual property (IP)?
How to use IP (in the real world)
Where to get more insight and information

Participants will leave with:

An understanding that all businesses create IA/IP
A framework of knowledge about IP
A little more knowledge about the diverse types of IP
An insight into how to identify, protect and exploit IP/IA
Context of why IP/IA matters
Links to useful learning resources

Build an effective strategy to grow your business
2022-11-09 14:00 - 16:00
This webinar is practical, outcome driven, and designed to fit with the needs of small businesses in both B2C and B2B environments. It will help you develop a strategically led approach that can turbo charge business growth, identify the core growth strategy(ies) that are right for your business, and develop an action plan.
We will look at:

Your business today – identifying your strengths and areas for development
The key pillars of a business and why balancing all areas is essential for success
Personal and business ambitions and using these to guide strategy development
Ansoff’s Matrix as a tool for identifying core growth strategies
The core components of your business delivery
How to develop a methodical, strategic approach to developing your business for future success

After the webinar, you will understand:

How to undertake a balanced review of where your business is that helps identify areas for development
Ansoff’s Matrix and how to use it as a core strategic planning tool
How to create a strategic plan for growing your business

Exploring Debt Funding Options
2022-11-10 10:00 - 11:30
As the funding landscape continues to evolve, there are a wide range of debt related products, outside of traditional bank loans and overdrafts, available to support businesses to start up, scale up or stay ahead. Delivered in partnership by British Business Bank (BBB) and Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) as part of the British Business Bank’s Business Finance Week, this virtual event is designed to:
Build your awareness and understanding of the options available to you, with a particular focus on loans (including RLS), invoice finance and asset finance
Help you make informed choices about what type of finance is right for you and your business at a particular stage
You will also have the opportunity to hear from some of the providers themselves – to hear their views on current market conditions, sectoral trends & funder appetite, understand how best to improve / maximise your chance of success when applying, and importantly how best to manage the debt once it’s in place.
You will also hear first-hand from businesses about the positive impact that loans, invoice finance or asset finance have had in terms of accelerating the growth of their business and how they overcame some of those initial barriers to get to that point.

The essentials of bookkeeping and what expenses you can claim
2022-11-10 10:00 - 12:00
This webinar is for those who are entering business for the first time or require an understanding of what is involved in financially managing a business, including basic bookkeeping, and creating a profit and loss account. You will also get an understanding of what expenses the business can claim and then how to fund your business. At the end of the session, you will receive a workbook on excel to help you manage and monitor costs and sales.
At the end of this session, you will be able to:

Implement basic bookkeeping skills across your business
Create a profit and loss account
Understand what expenses can and cannot be claimed
Use financial management to increase revenues and profits
Understand capital and revenue costs and how they are treated

Skilled worker route: How employers can sponsor international talent
2022-11-10 11:00 - 12:00
Join us for an update on the Skilled Worker Route: how employers can sponsor international talent.
With most EU and non-EU citizens now subject to the UK immigration system, we invite you to join us as we discuss how the Skilled Worker route can help you to access overseas talent. As a Scottish based SME, TalentScotland can support your business in a number of ways.
This webinar is presented by Brodies LLP, TalentScotland’s immigration specialists – you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions you may have.

TikTok and Instagram Reels for business
2022-11-10 14:00 - 16:00
You might view TikTok as a stream of dance trends and lip-synching videos, but it can also be a fantastic place to engage with your customers and increase the reach of your business online. Explore how to create bitesize vertical video content and how to use this new format for more effective business communication.
We will cover:

How to optimise your TikTok and Instagram accounts for the best results with video.
How to discover the latest trends on each platform and leverage this to create popular videos for your business.
Ideas for creating content to entertain, inspire or educate your audience (with lots of examples from a variety of relevant TikTok and Reels accounts).
How to increase engagement and reach by paying attention to your videos’ structure, duration, titles and understanding hashtags and algorithms.
The best kit, apps and workflow to create bitesize vertical videos for both platforms.

How to write a Business Plan and why you need one
2022-11-10 18:00 - 20:00
This webinar will help you create a robust business plan.
The webinar will look at:

creating a description for your business
the business planning process
efficient ways of obtaining skills and resources
presenting your business plan

There will also be information on additional services from Business Gateway and details of other webinars which may be appropriate for you.
This webinar is for businesses based in Dundee, Angus and Perth.

An introduction to business websites & what you need to consider
2022-11-10 18:00 - 20:00
This webinar will take you through all the steps required to design, build and host a business website. You will learn about:

The need to determine website objectives
The importance of knowing who your audience is and measuring results
Setting clear calls to action and creating engaging content
Creating your brand’s visual identity online, your site’s blueprint and how you can structure your site map
What’s involved in registering your domain, maintaining your site content, and options for hosting it

This webinar will also offer guidance on when and how to outsource your website development. Covering topics such as choosing a suitable content management system, what to organise first and costing for the work.

Living Wage Week
2022-11-14 09:00 - 2022-11-20 17:00
Living Wage Week will be held this year from the 14th to the 20th of November.
It is the annual celebration of the Living Wage movement across the UK.
See the programme of events for businesses on the Scottish Living Wage website.

Facebook for business
2022-11-14 10:00 - 12:00
Get to grips with Facebook – the world’s most popular social networking platform.
In this webinar you will:

Learn how to get the most out of Facebook and how it could fit into your business’s digital marketing strategy.
Better understand the algorithm behind Facebook, and how to create great content that achieves a bigger reach and impact.
Learn from the stats and data you can get from the system and discover who your most interested customers/clients are.
Understand the power of Facebook advertising, and other selling options available to you.
Discover other business opportunities presented by Facebook, including how to promote and sell products and services.
Be introduced to ‘Business Suite’ – a free Facebook dashboard to manage all your business activity.

Tourism businesses: Turn your customer reviews into increased customers
2022-11-14 11:00 - 12:00
During this session, we’ll cover:

How to manage your online reputation proactively.
How to deal with customer or client feedback, both positive and negative.

How the importance of reputation has changed since the pandemic.

What cost-effective reassurance tools have increased in importance.
What cost-effective reassurance tools are available to tourism businesses such as VisitScotland’s Quality Assurance schemes.

Pinterest for business
2022-11-15 10:00 - 12:00
A commonly used tool for those researching products and services for personal life (clothing ideas, holidays inspiration, cooking alternatives!), but how can it benefit your business? Move from being a beginner to knowing enough to gain commercial benefit from the use of Pinterest.
During this webinar we’ll help you better understand:

Who is using Pinterest and what are they looking for?
How to setup your business profile
Key features to use within Pinterest
Measuring success and engagement

An update on low cost Visa routes
2022-11-15 11:00 - 12:00
There are lots of low-cost visa routes under the UK’s points-based system.
Join TalentScotland for an update on affordable visa options, including the Graduate, High Potential Individual and Youth Mobility routes.

Build your brand and promotional graphics
2022-11-15 12:00 - 14:00
This webinar will define what a brand is (and is not) and explain how it is more than just creating a logo. We will explore how a business can use their brand to show its identity, purpose, personality, message, and values in order to stand out from competitors, build a loyal customer base and make more sales.
This session will:

Provide you with a clear understanding of the difference between brands and branding
Help you understand what a brand is
Show you why branding is important
Look at your brand strategy, brand identity and action
Help you learn how to develop your brand’s positioning, character, and purpose to differentiate your business from its competitors
Demonstrate how to set up a brand kit and style guide to ensure consistency across websites, social media, business cards, posters etc.
Teach you how to create simple promotional graphics using a variety of tools including Canva
Highlight a variety of free tools including Google Drive, Hubspot and Mailchimp that can save time and simplify marketing tasks

Upgrade your business marketing with a CRM system
2022-11-15 15:00 - 17:00
From organising how you reach new customers to tracking the new deals you close, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a great tool to help your business grow. In this webinar, we’ll show you how to connect a CRM to your website, track potential new customers, manage your business activities, nurture your leads and track successful, new business.
By the end of this webinar, you will understand:

What a CRM is, why they’re important and the difference between some of the best CRMs offered to businesses.
How to use HubSpot, a free CRM, for managing contacts, organising sales processes and creating reports.
How to improve your sales and marketing processes by using CRM task management, meeting scheduling and email marketing.
Your legal responsibilities when capturing customer information.

Marketing 1-2-1 Surgery Sessions
2022-11-16 09:30 - 17:00
Whether you’d like to discuss market research, marketing strategy or would even just like an impartial review of your website or social media page, this is an opportunity to book a one to one appointment either from the Business Gateway Dundee office or over Zoom with marketing specialist, Stuart Milne.
Once you have booked your space, one of the team will be in touch to arrange an appointment.
These appointments are for businesses based in Dundee, Angus or Perth.

Tourism businesses – Use analytics to evaluate your digital platforms and get customers
2022-11-16 11:00 - 12:30
By the end of this webinar, you will understand how to find out (for Google, Instagram & Facebook Analytics):

The characteristics of people who are accessing your online presence.
What people are doing when they access your website/s or social accounts.
How to set goals and objectives on each platform.
The art of measuring the effectiveness of websites and social posts.
How to continuously improve digital activities – measures to monitor and actions to take.

There will be particular emphasis on cost-effective/free ways to do the above.

How to start a business: The basics
2022-11-16 14:00 - 16:00
Whatever your reasons may be for considering being your own boss, Business Gateway is here to support you and help you decide if this is the right path for you. Helping you consider your plans from exploring your potential customers to looking at the key activities and costs involved.
We will cover:

Personal finance planning – how much do you need to earn?
Researching your market – who your customers are, understanding your competition and what the trends are within your chosen field
Business structure – what are the core business structures? How to decide which is right for you and how to register as a business
Creating your start-up action plan – an outline
Marketing
Pricing
Naming the business
Basic bookkeeping
Forecasting
Financing, banking, insurance, and VAT
Tax

The Secret to Successful Tendering - How to win contracts and boost your business’s revenue
2022-11-16 14:00 - 16:00
Join this specialist webinar to learn how to win public and private sector contracts that will help you increase connections and revenue for your business.
Our expert, Judith Stewart, will explain the differences between private and public sector tendering, ways to get your business tender-ready, and how to build your reputation with the people who matter so that you’ll come away with a roadmap to success.
Francis will help you to find all the support and training with SDP to help you for tendering for public sector contracts.

The Secret to Successful Tendering: 1-2-1 Surgery
2022-11-17 09:00 - 17:00
Book a space on this specialist surgery to get a one hour 1-2-1 appointment with our expert Judith Stewart. You’ll be able to ask advice on how to win public and private sector contracts for your business.
Booking this event will secure you a space, one of our team will be in touch with you after booking to arrange a time for your one hour appointment. Judith can help explain the differences between private and public sector tendering, ways to get your business tender-ready, and how to build your reputation with the people who matter so that you’ll come away with a roadmap to success.

Planning & scheduling your online content
2022-11-17 10:00 - 12:00
Businesses who plan their content in advance, aligning their channels with actual business objectives, customer themes and national events, and then schedule it to ensure it reaches the target market at the right time, on the right platform – hugely increase the chances of achieving impact.
In this webinar, you will learn how to:

Plan content based on your business and your customer needs
Evaluate current social media dashboards and management tools
Create a social media content calendar and schedule updates automatically
Reach more people through automating your blog and email newsletter content
Implement simple automation techniques to increase efficiency

Having great content is just the start. This webinar will help you better organise and setup your content strategy through simple planning and effective scheduling, to achieve great business results.

Scale up Visa route
2022-11-17 11:00 - 12:00
The government has recently introduced the Scale-Up visa route, which gives certain employers another visa option to help access international talent.
Join us to learn more about this new route and how it could help you access international talent.

How to generate and increase sales
2022-11-17 14:00 - 16:00
Sales are the lifeblood of every business. This webinar focuses on a pragmatic approach to sales strategy and delivery and is designed to fit with the needs of small businesses in both B2C and B2B environments.
We will cover:

Why a clear understanding of what an ideal customer looks like, and a good understanding of their problems, needs and wants is key to sales success
How to develop your sales platform using digital tools, platforms, and techniques
The different motivations potential customers may have and how to identify which ‘buttons’ your business needs to press
The key phases in prospecting, qualifying, and converting sales prospects
The value of a ‘sales funnel’ and how it can be used to help plan and achieve sales
Why keeping the customers you already have is the best sales strategy of all
The importance of appropriate customer service in retaining customers

Photography for online business
2022-11-17 18:00 - 20:00
During this webinar you will:

Discover the basic ‘dos and don’ts’ of taking your own pictures, editing them and uploading them onto digital platforms.
See some real-life examples of posts that demonstrate good, bad and indifferent use for businesses.

e-Commerce with Shopify
2022-11-18 11:00 - 13:00
Shopify is a powerful all-in-one e-Commerce website builder that makes setting up an online store simple and straightforward. In this webinar, we will explore Shopify’s features and pull together the building blocks for your first e-Commerce website.
By the end of this webinar, you will be able to:

Understand the essential features that a website needs to have to sell physical and digital products online
Understand what Shopify is and how to use the features it offers to build a secure and powerful e-Commerce website
Use the Shopify page builder and work with free themes to get the design and style of your website on-brand
Understand how to manage orders and deliver great customer service
Understand how to launch your new e-Commerce website and ensure all essential building blocks are in place using a pre-launch checklist

Build a customer focused business
2022-11-18 14:00 - 16:00
Did you know that a returning customer will typically spend more than two thirds more with your business than a brand new one?
Did you know that retaining just 5% of your customer base can give an increase of over 20% in profits for your business?
Having an effective strategy in place for your business to deliver great customer service is critical for your business.
We will cover:

Why good customer service is critical for business growth
What are the essentials of delivering great customer service and how should this be delivered?
How to effectively manage different types of customers and their expectations
How, why, and when you should measure the service a business delivers
How to use the service provided to promote a business and enable growth

How to write and develop your business plan
2022-11-19 09:00 - 11:00
New and established businesses will require a business plan for getting a loan, grant or just to consider the direction they wish to go in. This webinar will teach you what you need to include and how. We will walk you through what should be included within a business plan, how a business plan is used to improve your prospects for a loan or a grant, and how you can develop a business plan to meet your needs.
We will:

Provide a structure for a business plan
Review each section of what should be included within the business plan
Explain when and how to use a business plan
Explore the connections (and importance) between the words and the numbers
Look at how to identify and manage cashflow within the business planning process

Get impact & engagement with social media analytics
2022-11-21 14:00 - 16:00
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn & Pinterest are widely used social platforms, but often account owners aren’t looking at the metrics provided within them. Those metrics will inform you of reach, impressions, demographics and more, all of which can help towards improving the impact of your posting and targeting.
This webinar will help you understand how to access those metrics, and how to use them to improve your social media delivery.

Fife & Tayside Procurement Surgery
2022-11-22 09:00 - 13:00
Local suppliers are invited to attend clinic appointments lasting 20 minutes, available from 9:00am to 1:00pm by prior appointment only. The appointments shall be conducted via Webex, hosted by the Supplier Development Programme.
Procurement Surgery Aims
Procurement Surgeries will:

Signpost and prepare businesses to local support, aiming to increase their confidence when tendering with the public sector;
Assist suppliers in gaining knowledge of local supply chain opportunities across Fife and Tayside;
Help the Councils build relationships with suppliers and break down barriers to bidding;
Raise awareness of the opportunities within public sector procurement, such as Regulated Procurement Pipelines; and
Support suppliers in becoming “tender ready” with the Supplier Development Programme to better understand and respond to the “ask” from local authorities in procurement.

Bookings for Procurement Surgeries must be booked in advance by SMEs by logging into the SDP website and answering the required questions that are part of the booking process.
This event will say it is fully booked, it is not. If you are interested in attending please register. Suppliers will be placed on a waiting list in the first instance, and allocated a time slot by the Supplier Development Programme.
Due to high demand for these sessions, eligible SMEs are asked not to book more than one procurement surgery per financial year. Should an eligible business register for more than one procurement surgery, it will be allocated a place at the next procurement surgery with the local authority area in which it is based.
Please note: these Procurement Clinics are open to eligible SME businesses based within Angus, Dundee City, Fife and Perth & Kinross Councils only.
