Dartington Hall will be the venue for this year’s Fast Track 2 Growth Business Festival.

Open to every business in Devon, the annual event is now in its third year, offering an array of business growth focused seminars and 1-1s with specialists in business strategy, customer service, sales, marketing, finance, accounting, legal and HR.

The free festival has four themes for this year, ‘Making Business Intelligence work for you’, ‘Personalisation in customer service, HR, sales and marketing’, ‘B2B and B2C Growth Planning’ and ‘Building a business on trust’.

Taking place on Wednesday April 24, experts from Astley Media, Commissioning HR, Devon County Council, Momentum South West, Nat West, PKF Francis Clark, Stephens Scown and South West Business Support Solutions will be hosting ‘learning seminars’ and 1-to-1 advice sessions.

Dan Pritchard is managing director of PR and Marketing agency Astley Media, which founded the programme. 

He said: “The Business Festival is always popular and I’m sure this year will be no exception. The speakers and seminars are tailored to regional businesses intent on growth in difficult times, so I’m sure the learnings will be invaluable.”

Councillor Rufus Gilbert, Devon County Council Cabinet Member for Economy and Skills, said: "The County Council is a proud supporter of the Fast Track to Growth initiative. We want to see local businesses thrive and FT2G is helping to promote growth among local firms, which in turn is excellent news for Devon's economy.

"This year's annual FT2G Business Festival promises to be another successful event. It's an opportunity for businesses to make the most of a range of experts who will be on hand to offer free advice through informative workshops and one to one sessions."

James Court, NatWest Business Growth Enabler for Exeter, Mid and East Devon, said: “We’re really excited about supporting this year’s Fast Track to Growth Business Festival. NatWest supports more than 135,000 businesses in the South West and we want to do more to help SMEs in the region launch their own companies and grow their businesses.

“Funding is often key to getting a business off the ground so we’ll be looking at what steps entrepreneurs should take when approaching a bank for finance. We’ll also look at growth mind-set.

All businesses make mistakes, but it’s how they react and learn from them that empowers a business to move forward. We’ll discuss how the most successful businesses embrace failure and how to bring this way of thinking to your own company.”

Along with talks, seminars and 1-1 sessions, there will be speed networking opportunities and the chance to apply for one of 20 places on the free Fast Track to Growth Intensive Support Programme and Pitch, with the top prize providing £10,000 worth of on-going business support up for grabs.

Free places must be booked in advance for the festival, which runs from 9.30-4pm at the historic Dartington Hall, located just off the A38 near Totnes. To book go to https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fast-track-to-growth-business-festival-2019-tickets-55758164170