To mark the 10th anniversary of the Small Business Charter (SMC), global banking group Santander hosted The Lord Young Talk – centred around celebrating a decade of empowering small business success through their business schools. And to add an extra special touch to the event, we secured them a fireside talk with Sarah Willingham.
Sarah Willingham is a British entrepreneur, investor, and television personality, best known for being a Dragon on BBC’s Dragons’ Den. She led the international expansion of restaurants PizzaExpress and Planet Hollywood before going on to become the co-founder of the successful restaurant chain The Bombay Bicycle Club. As an investor, she has supported various startups and emerging businesses, making her the perfect person to celebrate the SMC.
The event, which took place at Santander’s UK Head Office in Milton Keynes, saw her take part in two panel talks – the first focussing on the power of mentoring, the long-term benefits of mentoring for business owners and the next steps after a mentoring programme ends. During this talk she used her own experiences to provide engaging and insightful answers.
The second panel talk after lunch was called an ’impact chat’ where she was joined by some mentees from SMC who gave three areas of impact. Sarah then shared her advice on how they might overcome these certain challenges A quick-fire Q&A with guests then followed.
Sarah’s final involvement on the day concluded by presenting three awards to the ‘Most transformative Mentee’, the ‘Best Mentor for above and beyond support’ and ‘The Santander 2024 Award for business and transformation through Mentoring’.
With Sarah fronting talks and interacting with guests, The Lord Young Talk was a huge success and demonstrated the power celebrity talks can have for business events such as this.
To book Sarah Willingham for your campaign or event, please contact us on letstalk@celebritysauceco.com
