Our Cultivate Business Workshop series is delivered by regional industry experts.
Ben Kinnaird
Ben has over 20 years of experience working with small businesses to global enterprises in marketing and web design. He also produces a marketing podcast interviewing smart and opinionated people, writes a blog with useful content, and works with Fastershire, providing business advice to over 150 companies in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, giving him an incredible wealth of market information.
Alison Pollecutt
Alison’s background is in project management and she has spent much of her career working in multinational corporate businesses, implementing client onboarding, IT and business improvement projects. Some of the clients she has worked with include Amazon, Honda, Toyota/Lexus and John Lewis.
Much of Alison’s project management career has involved using spreadsheets for areas such as managing project budgets, tasks, risk and issue monitoring, project progress and stakeholder communication. In addition, Alison managed a team who provided internal operational reporting within the UK and across European and global offices.
Alison loves technology and how it can be used to make our lives easier by creating efficiency and reducing human error. She believes in creating processes where the greatest effort is expended in the build (which is done once) so that updating a regular report/dashboard takes the minimum amount of time and leaves you free to see what the numbers are really telling you.
Gill Smith
Gill is cofounder of The Business Kitchen which provides practical training programmes to small business owners to give them the skills, knowledge and confidence needed to realise their business potential. Gill is passionate about helping businesses find practical solutions to their problems. She believes that one of the keys to success is taking consistent effective action and managing time. Gill has over 30 years’ experience in the corporate world. Her skills include project management, strategy, process improvement, financial management and automation.
