• Steven Bartlett amongst headline speakers taking to the main stage at festival for new generation of business owners

• Event looks to redefine the traditional business conference with modern networking culture taking its place

• People, planet and profit lead the agenda

A new business festival that focuses on people, planet and profit and aims to create a modern environment to bring together today’s generation of leaders is launching this summer.

Ideas Fest is being held over two days in August at the Wickham Music Festival site and has been founded to cultivate a new style of networking and insight sharing, which moves away from the formalities of conventional conferences or stuffy black-tie dinners.

Leading entrepreneurs including BBC Dragons’ Den and Diary of a CEO star Steven Barlett, Killing Kittens CEO Emma Sayle, and Calm app founder Michael Acton-Smith will come together to merge business and culture with live music, food, demos and workshops, pitch events and even a silent disco.

Talks and workshops will take place across four stages, with guests able to put themselves forward for the StartUps Will Save Us event where they can pitch their business to fellow attendees and a team of judges. A media marketing prize worth £5k is up for grabs by two winning businesses in the social and sustainability sectors delivering the best pitches, alongside invaluable feedback and guidance from some of the country’s leading business experts on the judging panel.

The themes and discussions taking place will be based on the three pillars of people, planet and profit, with an overarching goal to get the entrepreneurial community thinking and talking about how they can do good without jeopardizing their bottom line.

Ideas Fest founder Francesca James said she hopes that the event will go some way to redefining how people engage with the business community:

“The way we live and work is constantly evolving, and it’s clear that the new generation of entrepreneurs and professionals want to break free from the norms of business which can feel unnatural to many.

“The topics of work-life balance and flexibility are more at the forefront of discussion than ever before, and there is certainly a strong argument for changing the way we network and self-develop too. By bringing informality, fun and genuine social interaction into business, hopefully people won’t feel such a harsh divide between their work and personal lives and can form more sincere relationships with industry peers.

“Not everyone conforms to the traditional idea of a business person who wears a suit and speaks in acronyms, and we truly believe that Ideas Fest will offer a welcoming and inclusive environment for anyone in the UK enterprise community who wants to learn, collaborate and socialise with like-minded people.

“We’d encourage anyone in any corner of the business world to come along and get inspired - amazing things can happen when people share experiences together, and Ideas Fest will be the first of its kind.”

Ideas Fest is taking place on 3rd and 4th August 2022 in Wickham. Tickets are on sale now. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit ideasfest.co.uk.