Apparently there is an election on the way.

I have not decided who to vote for yet but Luke Johnson makes some interesting points in his FT blog today. Explaining why he signed up to the Conservative Parties, list of executives who objected to increased taxes, Luke makes the point,

“Unquestionably this is no ordinary election. Britain has suffered 13 years of Labour rule, and the country is in a desperate state. It is like a company slithering towards bankruptcy. And, like any business that has to be turned round, there is one absolute rule to fix the mess: change the management. If there is no transformation at the top, then I fear we could become a bigger version of Argentina in 2001.”

Strong stuff and probably gives some indication of his political leanings.

Martin Leuw, CEO of Iris Software, takes a more balanced view in his blog carried in Real Business, and lists five things that he, as an entrepreneur, employer and wealth creator in the UK would want a government to address, namely:

Sir Tim Berners Lee, British inventor of the internet is on Facebook. Either he hasn’t got the hang of Facebook or Facebook has a built in reverence algorithm.

Either way, when the inventor of the Internet meets the future of the web, it is only right to show respect all round.

This is what Real Business thinks.

• Wow. Space Shuttle uses an Olympic Swimming Pool’s worth of fuel every 25 seconds on launch. #

Life would have been much quieter this weekend if Apple had not launched their new iPad. Great they have a new product out and all but I cannot help feeling a little bored with the hype and excitement. Yes it will change some people’s lives. Yes it is probably quite cool. Yes it is likely to improve the owner’s social, sex and personal lives in one fell swoop. Some people will hate it and everyone has to have an opinion on it. Whoopy do.

• Microsoft installing 10k servers/month in data centres globally – serious about Cloud! #bizsparkuk via @bindik #
• Personalised manufacturing direct to the consumer from a most unexpected source. http://bit.ly/PersonalBK #

Over the past three years we have met with well over 600 extraordinary individuals who have founded, funded or advised some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurial businesses. We are constantly amazed at the passion, drive, ambition and sheer ingenuity of the entrepreneurs and executives we have met in this time. We also think that we have put something back by offering an opportunity to connect, discuss business and enjoy some time together – sharing issues and working on, not in, their business.

We are always delighted to hear that people end up working together as a result.

After every event we run, we try to understand how we can continue to help build the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the UK. We ask what people want from events, conferences, seminars, workshops and discussion fora. Across multiple sectors – Hardware, Internet, Mobile, Cleantech, SaaS, eCommerce, Retail, Owner managed businesses – the answers are remarkably consistent.

• You attend events to meet others that can help your business grow and to get insights from others you respect.
• Entrepreneurs and CEOs want to be challenged, to share practical ideas that help their organisations thrive in the future.
• You don’t want a long-winded, waffle-filled event where you don’t get a chance to meet the people you want to because the room is over-filled with the wrong people.

In a way, it all seems so simple, though the devil is in the detail.

This summer, on July 15th, we will be holding our first BLN Growth Forum with the intent of putting some of the UK’s most accomplished entrepreneurs together with active investors and a few selected advisors who know their subject.

We want to produce a one day event that features speakers who will make you think. With the help of people behind some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurial businesses, we consider the key challenges & opportunities in scaling your business into a global organisation. We, like you, are not very keen on long winded panel ‘discussions’ in darkened rooms. It will also serve as an opportunity to meet & discuss ideas with peers from high growth businesses from across the UK.

From identifying big opportunities, financing growth, building great teams and getting customers to come to you and stay with you, this one-day event will help you ask hard, valuable questions about your business.

Alongside some core themes, we will be running a number of small, private workshops for a maximum of 20 delegates who will explore key issues that are important to you under the Chatham House Rule.

We will be publishing a full programme in April, but invite you to contact us with your thoughts on the things that you would like to hear about now.

Some themes for the Day

Strategy & Ideas

• Targeting growing, global markets, is critical to driving scale
• What are the giant problems in the world that entrepreneurs can solve today?

Marketing – or Business ‘Umami’

‘Umami has always been there; we have always enjoyed it, even craved it… yet we, as Westerners… just didn’t know what it was – let alone what to call it’. A & D Kasabian, The Fifth Taste: Cooking with Umami

• How can you make customers crave your product?
• Is social media new age nonsense or a smart way to lever your marketing budget?

Britain’s got Talent

• Do we have too much invention & too little ambition as a nation? What are we doing about it?
• How do you turn brilliant ideas into massively profitable businesses?
• How to build world class teams in transit from start-up to scale

Partner, predator or prey?

• Scaling strategies: Finance, partnering, acquisition.
• How can you make acquisitions work – as predator & prey?

We would love to know what is important to you – before it is too late!

Specialising in the .Net platform iMeta develops innovative software and provides effective advice for visionary companies who can’t afford to get their technology wrong.

The success of iMeta has been recognised with a number of awards including the Sunday Times Tech Track 100, Deloitte Fast 50 and The Sunday Times Best 100 Small Companies to Work for.

Contact: Ben Marsh, Managing Director

Telephone: 02380 763950

Email: bmarsh@imeta.co.uk

We like Real Business magazine (although we only really get the time to read the website these days). How chuffed were we today to discover that they had named us as number 3 in their list of,  ‘best places to meet entrepreneurs‘?

First a reality check. We are not entirely sure that we should rank 7 places higher than LinkedIn and 8 places above Twitter (two organisations that we could not exist without for different reasons) but it was very nice to be given some recognition and we really appreciate it. Thank you Kate Pritchard and Matthew Rock. You are very kind and we think you do a great job too.

It is nice that for whatever reason we get some recognition for what we are trying to do so I did want to take this opportunity of saying, ‘Thank you’ to my colleague Darren Harper who does such an excellent job in curating and delivering our events. We try hard to create value for people and are always open to ideas about what we can do to improve what we do.

Thank you to all of our sponsors and partners including BDO, Brown Rudnick, Calibre One, Deloitte, Farrer & Co, GJE, iMeta, Informatics Ventures, Intel Capital, Kleinwort Benson, Merrill Lynch, NESTA, Orrick and Taylor Wessing, for generous, appropriate and ongoing support. Thank you to all the investors that come to our events.

Mostly, we want to thank the entrepreneurs of the UK who take risks, work their backsides off, create wealth, employment and stuff we want to buy. You rock. Without you lot, everyone else wouldn’t have jobs. I hope they remember that.

We always will.