In conversation with Louisa Ziane, co-founder of Toast Ale


    In this, the first of our Inspiring Entrepreneurs interviews for Start-up Day, we meet and hear from social enterprise entrepreneur, Louisa Ziane, the co-founder of Toast Ale. This trailblazing brewing company, motivated by climate change and food waste, produces ‘planet-saving beer’ with surplus fresh bread.


Louisa will discuss how you can build a viable, profitable and job-generating business that still keep your core values front and centre, as well as how to integrate these principles into your brand.

As the Chief Operating Officer on the Toast Ale team, Louisa’s focus is on the productivity and people in her business so she will also talk about how leaders can drive innovation and change as the team and the business grows.

Louisa will be interviewed by Toast Ale board member and BIPC Ambassador, Paul Lindley, himself a formidable founder of childrens’ food brand, Ella’s Kitchen, and author of Little Wins: The power of thinking like a toddler.

As Toast themselves would say, “Raise a toast. Save the world. Cheers.”

Speakers

Louisa Ziane

Co-founder of Toast Ale

Paul Lindley OBE

Founder of Ella's Kitchen

More Events

Inspiring Entrepreneurs: High street heroes


High streets are the beating heart of our local communities. Having a presence on the high street gives businesses a unique opportunity to connect with their customers, and the responsibility to meet their needs as these change and evolve. What additional service could you offer to those who interact with your brand in person? What extra impact could you generate by sharing your spaces with neighbours and fellow makers?

We have brought together a panel of three loved and respected local businesses, our high street heroes. Their founders will share practical tips through their inspiring stories and tell us more about their individual journeys.

Mary Otumahana, award-winning musician and founder of The RecordShop; a grassroots independent organisation based in Wood Green, that focuses on making an impact with a multipurpose music space located on the high street. By providing access to a recording studio and music career training, Mary is leading a mission to educate, inform and inspire inner-city youths to connect to their community through music.Hellen Stirling-Baker, founder of children’s store, Small Stuff, has led her business from an experimental pop-up shop to a successful, eco-friendly bricks and clicks model at the heart of her high street in Crookes, Sheffield. A perfect example that being a small shop doesn’t mean you can’t have big values; Hellen is a local leader who champions ethical suppliers and supports other retailers, often sharing her shop for community-building events. Hellen is the deserved winner of this year’s High Street Hero for the Small Awards 2022.Carolynn Bain, founder of Afori Books, the first Black-owned bookshop in Brighton. Carolynn almost did the opposite of most during the pandemic; inspired to stock only Black authors in response to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, she started her business as an online shop. Demand was so high however, that Afrori Books was approached to open a physical bookshop in Lighthouse, a local Arts-based charity, with fit-out costs successfully crowdfunded.

We are running this event with the British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA) who are also champions of high street businesses and are here to help, all year round.

Inspiring Entrepreneurs: Building the Black Economy


Join our panel of experts to learn how Black entrepreneurs are building empires online by using their influence and creativity.

You will hear from six inspiring entrepreneurs at various stages in their careers and across a range of industries, as our panel come together to discuss the considerations they took into account when building their businesses and the insights they have learnt along the way.

Whether you are just thinking about starting a business, a business owner who wants to learn more, or perhaps you wish to establish a stronger network, you’ll leave this event feeling inspired and engaged.

On the day, you can expect to:

Learn how the Black Lives Matter movement prompted the rise in Black enterprises and powered increased support for themUnderstand the financial reality of starting a business in today’s changing marketExplore Black-owned businesses in theatre and the arts and the importance of representation on the stageRecognise the power of the Black pound and how to convert this knowledge into assets for the Black economyLearn about the importance of social media for building Black businesses.
Following this will be an engaging and thought-provoking Fireside Chat – a discussion on community building with Black Pound Day founder and So Solid Crew member, Swiss.

About our panel

Rachael Twumasi-Corson, CEO and founder of Afrocenchix Ltd. At 19 Rachael co-founded Afrocenchix, an award-winning ethical start-up that creates safe, effective, vegan certified products for Afro & curly hair.Emmanuel Asuquo, founder of The Eman Effect UK, is a renowned, financial adviser, media personality, wealth building entrepreneur and international speaker.TJ Atkinson is a Property Investor, who specialises in transforming homes into beautiful, creative masterpieces. Alongside growing his portfolio, TJ supports people in his community with getting started in property.Indie Gordon is Head of Program at Foundervine and founder of Halo safety app. She aims to empower today's and tomorrow's companies, ensuring they’re tech-enabled and can weather the storm of any social, economic or environmental change.The panel will be moderated by Khai Shaw, co-founder of the theatre company Nuu Theatre. Khai has collaborated with the English Touring Theatre Company and the Bush Theatre.

Fireside Chat

Swiss is the founder of Black Pound Day, the UK's biggest economic movement that supports Black-owned businesses. He is a cultural influencer, business leader, author, and highly acclaimed musician and member of So Solid Crew. Alongside his passion for music, Swiss founded the Black Pound Day movement to support awareness and growth of the Black businesses and economy in the UK and global diasporic communities. Recently, Swiss opened the first permanent retail store at Westfield London, Europe's biggest shopping centre, and continues to actively support hundreds of businesses across the country.The chat will be moderated by Jacqueline Brown, BIPC Business Support Programming Manager, serial entrepreneur and founder of businesses Africa Fashion Guide, Wax and Wraps and M.O.R.Empire. Since 2011, Jacqueline has helped start-ups to build and launch sustainable fashion businesses from scratch with coaching, digital tools, community and connections.

Start-up Day 2021

The Business & IP Centre’s Start-up Day is back for 2021, during Global Entrepreneurship Week, with involvement from over 30 libraries around the UK and over 50+ speakers.

10.00 – 10.04 Lord Parkinson
10.05 – 10.15 Introduction from Dr Joanna Abeyie MBE
10.15 – 10.55 How to understand sustainability trends in the UK right now
11.00 – 11.02 2 minute silence
11.05 – 11.50 The Remakery - Surplus materials, workspace and ecosystem
11.10 – 11.55 BIPC Glasgow – Making a difference – starting and running a business with environmental impact
11.15 – 12.05 Introduction to intellectual property
11.55 – 12.40 Sustainable in the City
12.00 – 12.25 BIPC Norfolk – The Regenerative Business Revolution – Entrepreneurs wanted!
12.10 – 12.45 Getting started with sustainable photography
12.30 – 13.05 Lunch and learn – swap skills for starting-up
12.45 – 13.30 Santander - The Business of Sustainability
13.00 – 13.30 How to put sustainability at the heart of your business
13.10 – 13.55 BIPC Liverpool City Region – The power of sustainable business
13.35 – 14.20 The Sustainable Start-up: building climate conscious principles into your business from day one
13.45 – 13.55 Santander key notes
14.00 – 14.45 BIPC Cambridgeshire & Peterborough - Getting real with sustainability
14.25 – 15.15 Circular Economy Panel: prosperity in a world of finite resources
14.40 – 15.15 BIPC Northamptonshire – Doing good and making money
15.00 – 15.45 Community as a service
15.20 – 16.05 A guide to sustainable business with the British Library
15.25 – 15.55 BIPC Greater Manchester – Is a co-operative business model right for your business
16.00 – 16.50 Sustainability oh so white
16.00 – 16.45 BIPC North East – Developing a sustainable/green brand

You only need to register once to get access to the full day of events. You can then choose which sessions you attend.

Business headshot editing service
What you need to do:

Select your head shot photograph.
Compose an email with the image attached.
Put your name in the subject field (so we can keep track of the images).
In the email let us know what you might want changing, e.g. cropping to square or resizing to reduce the file size, making black and white, adjusting the exposure/brightness etc. Or just let us decide.
Send to BIPC@samlanephotography.co.uk
We will then adjust your image as requested – or ‘touch it up’ as we would recommend.
And then we will email it back to you as soon as we possibly can, and certainly within 24 hours.



Don’t forget to follow #BIPCStartUpDay across social media to keep updated on what all of our speakers have to say throughout the day.

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