The Food Exchange in Birmingham on 16 September will match small businesses with buyers from large retailers, and feature entrepreneurs who have successful...

Seven reasons why you should attend the Food Exchange on 16 September

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The Food Exchange in Birmingham on 16 September will match small businesses with buyers from large retailers, and feature entrepreneurs who have successfully made it on to store shelves, plus experts on topics ranging from PR to pop-ups.

We've rounded up our top reasons to book a ticket. 

Bonus reason! Three lucky attendees will get to pitch their product live on stage to the national buyer from Selfridges. 

Find out more about the Food Exchange here

business.connected: boosting small businesses digital skills

Watch back: boosting small businesses digital skills&nbsp;

&lt;p&gt;My motto in life and work is 'Meet people, make friends, and help them.'&amp;nbsp;Getting to know people is the best way of finding out what makes them tick in terms of goals, ambitions, dreams, interests and life in general. I help people by listening to what they need, suggesting ideas, sending links, making introductions, adding value, and offering relevant products and services, where appropriate. When friends have a problem, I love to help them fix it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My varied portfolio career means I have knowledge, experience and contacts in many fields. I am an expert in book publishing, media, mentoring, writing, editing, marketing, crowdfunding, sponsorship, social enterprise and commercial start-ups.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'd love to get to know you better, so I can help you get to where you want to be.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Career highlights:&lt;br /&gt;
• Book trade professional since 1990&lt;br /&gt;
• Consultant Producer, YOU'RE BOOKED! (ITV book series)&lt;br /&gt;
• Pioneer, World Book Day UK&lt;br /&gt;
• Research Director, StoryCode (online recommendation engine for fiction, featured on BBC TV’s DRAGONS’ DEN)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Current roles:&lt;br /&gt;
• Founder, CopyGhosting Publishing Services (editorial, marketing, PR &amp;amp; digital agency)&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
• Editor &amp;amp; Development Executive, Insight Film Festival&lt;br /&gt;
• Founder, Jolabokaflod CIC (promoting Icelandic 'Christmas book flood' tradition)&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
• Director of Crowdfunding, CrowdPatch CIC: free crowdfunding platform for social enterprise&lt;br /&gt;
• Founder, The Wisdom of Coffee: a network for Meetup gatherings &amp;amp; a community that shares best practice about business, enterprise &amp;amp; alternative finance)&lt;br /&gt;
• Founder, Smart Crowd Productions: integrated arts, media, business &amp;amp; alternative finance production consultancy&lt;br /&gt;
• Director: Corporative Sponsorship, SMGlobal Catwalk, Inc: global fashion events brand&lt;br /&gt;
• Social entrepreneur, 12R Prizes: solving social issues and commercial problems via sponsored cash-prize comptetions&lt;br /&gt;
• Mentor, Founders and Mentors: networking platform, comprising forum, communities and courses for mentors to help pre-launch founders launch start-ups successfully&lt;br /&gt;
• Social entrepreneur, 12Ronnies: hub that provides founders, inventors and creatives a toolkit for launching a startup successfully&lt;br /&gt;
• Co-founder, CrowdMall: virtual shopping centre for ideas that do not yet exist&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Charities:&lt;br /&gt;
• Chairman, Seeds Creatives (charity): runs the ‘Artist in Your Own Residence’ collaborative network mentoring scheme for creatives in all disciplines&lt;br /&gt;
• Director, Arts Centre Group (charity): membership organisation for arts &amp;amp; media professionals&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Committees:&lt;br /&gt;
• All-Party Parliamentary Committee for Crowdfunding (chair: Barry Sheerman MP): meets quarterly at the House of Commons&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Author:&lt;br /&gt;
• Six published books&lt;br /&gt;
• Two books in progress&lt;/p&gt;

Serial entrepreneur

Pre-launch founders, inventors & creatives

Signposting for advice, tools and resources for members wanting to start turning an idea into a business.

I'm Darja, founder of DCM Designs. From my interior design studio in London, I create remarkable spaces that deliver on dreams. 
For me, the desires of a client are above everything else and it is my passion to re-imagine their vision. I have a multidisciplinary approach and focus on B2B, offering retail and pop-up store design services.

Quick chat

&lt;p&gt;Are you struggling with your window display; don&amp;rsquo;t know how to attract more customers to interact with your products; which artwork to choose for your display or any of the similar questions? I can help.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you have some quick questions about your retail design ideas and you would like to run them by a design professional, send me a message here or on &lt;a href="mailto:office@dcm-studio.com"&gt;office@dcm-studio.com&lt;/a&gt; and through any of my social m

&lt;p&gt;Accounting is our superpower. We are your new secret weapon in the battle to evolve your business. With our team of experts at your fingertips, all your accounting worries, from receipts to compliance and advisory, are a thing of the past. The team at Finance Box are able to take on whatever it is that you need. We can take on the simple bill processing through to all the compliance and further still to advisory services. Each service can be switched on or off as you need. Our pricing is super-transparent and you only pay for what you need at each service level.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'm Steve, CEO - but more commonly known as 'The Mechanic' as I am often building automations to make busines easier.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

Steven Case

&lt;p&gt;Accounting is our superpower. We are your new secret weapon in the battle to evolve your business. With our team of experts at your fingertips, all your accounting worries, from receipts to compliance and advisory, are a thing of the past. The team at Finance Box are able to take on whatever it is that you need. We can take on the simple bill processing through to all the compliance and further still to advisory services. Each service can be switched on or off as you need. Our pricing i

Seven reasons why you should attend the Food Exchange on 16 September

Bonus reason! Three lucky attendees will get to pitch their product live on stage to the national buyer from Selfridges. Apply now!

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