North East businesses are invited to attend this free conference to help ‘re-think! Future Access to Finance’ in our region.

This interactive event is ideal for SMEs, banks, and business angels to attend as delegates to discuss the findings of a substantial research project carried out by Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University and to help identify actions that will help improve access to finance in our region.

The conference will be addressed by Lucy Armstrong, Chair of Capital for Enterprise and Chief Executive of The Alchemists; and by Herb Kim, CEO of Codeworks, Founder of The Thinking Digital Conference and one of the MediaGuardian Top 100 2010. The event is held in collaboration with North East Access to Finance Limited, and sponsored by Ward Hadaway and Deloitte.

The event is expected to attract a wide audience of business people and will:

• Provide a platform to disseminate the key research findings for the study carried out by Newcastle Business School that has explored the demand and supply side of SME access to finance in the region, drawing on the perspectives and experiences of SMEs, Banks and Business Angels.
• Engage participants in an interactive way to identify key actions that will help us to build a more cohesive, transparent and simplified environment for accessing finance in the North East: focusing on such areas as the demand and supply constraints around SME access to finance; finance related support and products – are they right; and most importantly – how the landscape can be improved and what we can all do to change things.