Last day at #fsbconf
When we got to the SECC for the last day of #fsbconf the exhibitor hall was extremely quiet and one would have been within reason to assume it was because of all the fun that was had at the Ceilidh the night before. However when we got to the main arena we realised why, everyone was listening to an Audience with the Board. Following this was Small Business Question Time with politicians and the audience discussing the topics effecting small businesses.
After these sessions we listened to the motivational speaker Molly Harvey. There was then the Closing Ceremony, with members of the board thanking everyone involved and we were also given a preview of what we were to expect for Torquay 2017. Most of us then made our way to the exhibitor hall and had lunch and networked with other members.
Networking with other members from other regions as well as our own has been one of the most useful parts of the conference. The insight into the fsb, the policies being discussed and lobbied and the lessons learnt from the other speakers, presentations and exhibitors have all been useful and interesting however building relationship with the people we are working alongside was invaluable and something I look forward to doing more of. Sometimes it was easy to be overwhelmed or jaded by all the jargon used by the presenters, but speaking with others that do similar roles to us helped me to understand we were not alone and why I am doing it.
After lunch some of listened to BSI talk about reducing the risk of cyber crime. They advised that 74% of small businesses have said that they’d been subject to some sort of breech. However the presenter told us that statistic only took into account those that knew about it, that the great hackers are those that we know nothing about.
He also pointed out the cost of recovering from a breech was between £75-311k which doesn’t take into account the qualitative damage to the brand and reputation of the company.
The threats, he advised were, External; for example criminal hackers, terrorists and industrial spies. Internal; authorised users, accidental and deliberate ie with an axe to grind. And also the internet. The things he advised we could do were – effective risk management, use the cyber essentials scheme and ISO27001. The presentation did continue into discussion about Business Continuity however we had to dip out early in order to register and make it in time for the AGM.
There is nothing much that I can report about the AGM. Despite speculation from those we were networking with over the previous days that there were going to be fireworks and explosions, there were none. All motions were passed without questions or discussions.
Other than to report on my journey back with my chairman this concludes the events of this year’s #fsbconf.
To be a fully inclusive commentary on my experience I do have some further blogs to write on the seminars that I attended on Thursday but have not yet provided detail for … these will hopefully follow … along with other observations, annotations and interpretations about small businesses, marketing and life in general that I encompass, that I have time and motivation to write about. What would you like to hear from me about?
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