THE UK'S FESTIVAL FOR FOUNDERS

Event for business minds out standing in the field

- DYLAN JONES EVANS

As you read this, I will have enjoyed my annual pilgrimage to the Green Man Festival where, along with my partner, Frankie James, I will have lapped up amazing music, Welsh beers and incredible street food in Crickhowell. And it was here in 2021, just after the return from Covid, that we started talking about creating an event for entrepreneurs which would have a festival feel that would be very different from the usual business conferences held in hotels around the country.

In fact, the aim was to create a place where entrepreneurs could come together, swap stories, learn from one another and feel part of something bigger than their own business.

We didn't want something that was transactional in nature like many of these events where you turned up, collected a few business cards, listened to the same familiar speeches and then went home.

What we wanted was something that felt less like a business conference and more like a cultural moment that people looked forward to all year and which left them energised, inspired and ready to tackle the next big challenge.

And so Ideas Fest was born and there was never any question of it being in a bland hotel ballroom or an anonymous conference centre, as the whole point was to get people away from their usual surroundings and giving them a setting that encouraged open-mindedness and creativity.

That's why we landed on the idea of modelling Ideas Fest on the kind of atmosphere you find at Green Man or Glastonbury, except with entrepreneurs and innovators taking the place of rock stars and musicians.

We wanted the speakers to be inspirational but also accessible, the networking to be organic rather than forced and the conversations to carry on long after the scheduled sessions had finished.