Inspiring the next generation of business leaders at the Sussex Business Show

As a father to a fiercely independent and ambitious daughter, Sonny Cutting has always sought to collaborate with entrepreneurs who are powerful, different and who speak out about equality. Watching his daughter look up to strong women gives Sonny hope that her future will be just as bright

With International Women’s Day on the 8th of March, we’re very excited to celebrate the female business leaders who will be sharing their wisdom with us later in the year at the Sussex Business Show.

Sonny has actively sought only the most inspiring voices to speak at the Sussex Business Show as both Keynote Speakers and Masterclass Leaders. Our lineup brings some of the most impactful voices in the industry to the stage.

Inspired by a talk – Karen Dobre

Sonny met Karen Dobre a few years ago and was enthralled by a talk she delivered at the Acumen Business Convention in Brighton. A year later, Sonny asked Karen if she’d deliver a keynote speech for the Sussex Business Show.

Karen’s voice for equality is loud, empowering and one that’s had an impact across industries.

As an Equality Activist and an Elected Director, Karen’s journey for equality has led her from modelling in the fashion industry, to being a trained counselling therapist – including setting up and managing an internal counselling service for PolyGram Records (now Universal), to becoming a unique voice on the Lewes FC board and more.

With zero interest in the footballing world originally, she came across Lewes FC’s equality initiative in 2017, was a board member for a number of years and now finds herself delivering talks at business and sports conferences regularly on equality and inclusion in football and its effect on driving gender equality in the wider world too.

If that wasn’t already an impressive-enough resume, Karen has also led on multiple campaigns and created the club’s Sister Ships programme to build a network of organisations keen to support the club in solidarity with its equality stance.

We’re thrilled she’s taking to the stage to inspire at the Sussex Business Show as a keynote speaker.

A different way to do business – Sara Osterholzer.

Sara believes that there is a different way to do business. One that can be both profitable and also positively impact people and the environment.

She wears many impressive hats: impact-entrepreneur, good business optimist, and startup mentor, including co-founding The Good Business Club and most recently, Second Voice Pro.

Having been in the world of startups, social enterprise and ‘good business’ for nearly a decade, Sara has been part of the founding team of multiple startups, designed and delivered an accelerator programme, organised 100’s of business support and networking event series, and has facilitated workshops, peer sessions and training for entrepreneurs and small business teams.

Sara now mentors solo-founders so that they can set up sustainable businesses even if they don’t have a team around them, helping them launch their offers into the world and secure the resources they need to be able to build that team.

As a powerful changemaker, Sara is demystifying how to create a sustainable business and we can’t wait to hear from her onstage as a keynote speaker.

Connecting Brighton – Lyndsey Clay

Lyndsey Clay, Owner of Connected Brighton, is featured in the top 100 inspiring female leaders in the 2024 f:Entrepreneur campaign. Which is no surprise to anyone who has crossed paths with her.

Passionate about connecting people and business, she started Connected Brighton in lockdown 2021 – an in-person social events company in a socially distanced pandemic to help people connect locally. After quickly gaining a following, she diversified into singles events co-creating The Single Sessions whilst continuing to build Connect Brighton as a franchise model to see other cities benefit from the amazing community.

Adding even more bows to her hat, Lyndsey is also a qualified coach and a powerful storyteller, helping people discover their niche in life, work and business.

Hearing Lyndsey’s story will give you chills (in a good way!), and we know she’ll be an unstoppable force as one of our Masterclass Speakers.

Community-led for digital growth – Grace Prior

Co-founder of Silicon Brighton, Grace moved to Brighton at the beginning of 2021 and is now supporting the local community with digital growth. As a community-led initiative supporting digital growth to those in the South East, Silicon Brighton works hand-in-hand with the local tech community.

Grace’s background in diversity, equality and inclusion strategy led to her belief that individuals should have opportunities to network, train, up-skill and develop. For free.

Helping people to take their careers and businesses to the next level drives Grace daily and is just one of many reasons as to why Grace is a must-see keynote speaker.

Hear from the above and more on the 26th of September

Our four female speakers will take to the stage, alongside a few more carefully curated speakers, at the Brighton Dome in September. You won’t want to miss the wisdom, inspiration and advice. Sonny’s daughter will certainly be popping in to hear some of the incredible female leaders, and to be encouraged that the business world can be her oyster too!

https://www.sussexbizshow.com/