What if you were to turn your hobby or passion into a full-time job? Where would you start? Is there any help out there and to whom should you turn?

In this edition of OxTalks – sponsored by leading national law firm, Mills & Reeve – host Howard Bentham is joined by Paul Wilkinson, multi-award-winning photographer and founder of Paul Wilkinson Photography.

Many of us have hobbies and interests outside of work that occupy our spare time, playing an important role in our social life, as well as our mental health and well-being. But turning your hobby into a career is no mean feat.

Joining the conversation to tackle this challenge is Paul Wilkinson. Paul has been named the UK Portrait Photographer of the Year and boasts an impressive client list including Cadbury, The Sunday Times Magazine and Le Manoir – but he wasn’t always a photographer and left behind a high-earning career to pursue his passion. Find out how he did it on OxTalks.

Enterprise Oxfordshire (formerly OxLEP) is an Oxfordshire County Council-owned company. It is our role to champion Oxfordshire’s economic potential, acting as a catalyst and convener to drive a dynamic, sustainable and growing economy. Our vision is for Oxfordshire to be a vibrant and inclusive world-leading economy – driven by innovation, enterprise, collaboration and research excellence.

Our work has made a significant impact, helping to create favourable conditions for economic growth in Oxfordshire. We provide support for hundreds of businesses and communities in the county, supporting their desire to grow and attract the best talent locally, nationally and internationally.

Visit our website / Access the Business Support Tool

OxTalks is recorded at the Oxford Podcast Studio and produced by Story Ninety-Four.

Mills & Reeve:
 
Leading national law firm Mills & Reeve is the sponsor of series two of OxTalks. Following the opening of their latest UK office in Oxford in 2022, Mills & Reeve is committed to driving the growth of Oxfordshire’s leading innovation economy. Their initial projects in the county have focused on sectors including education, life sciences, real estate investment, private wealth and technology.
 
Visit their website

How exactly do you start a business? What is realistic and what is fantasy?

In this edition of OxTalks – sponsored by leading national law firm, Mills & Reeve – host Howard Bentham is joined by Fiona Reid, Associate Professor of Bioscience Entrepreneurship at University College London, to explore her top tips for starting a business and becoming a successful entrepreneur.

The word entrepreneur sums up what it means to be proactive, innovative and passionate about business – someone who is ready to seize the opportunity. But accessing the tools and finding the means to start your own business is not always easy.

Joining us on OxTalks to tackle these challenges is Fiona Reid. Before joining UCL, Fiona was the founder and former Executive Director of the Oxford Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation for nine years at the Said Business School, Oxford University. She helps to build and fund science-based start-ups from the ground up with her wisdom and expertise.

Fiona has fifteen years’ experience teaching, and her expertise focuses on complex innovation spaces, the interface between science and business, and entrepreneurial thinking within organisations. She holds the belief that entrepreneurship can be taught. 

Learn more about the Oxford Entrepreneurs

Enterprise Oxfordshire (formerly OxLEP) is an Oxfordshire County Council-owned company. It is our role to champion Oxfordshire’s economic potential, acting as a catalyst and convener to drive a dynamic, sustainable and growing economy. Our vision is for Oxfordshire to be a vibrant and inclusive world-leading economy – driven by innovation, enterprise, collaboration and research excellence.

Our work has made a significant impact, helping to create favourable conditions for economic growth in Oxfordshire. We provide support for hundreds of businesses and communities in the county, supporting their desire to grow and attract the best talent locally, nationally and internationally.

Visit our website / Access the Business Support Tool

OxTalks is recorded at the Oxford Podcast Studio and produced by Story Ninety-Four.

Mills & Reeve:
 
Leading national law firm Mills & Reeve is the sponsor of series two of OxTalks. Following the opening of their latest UK office in Oxford in 2022, Mills & Reeve is committed to driving the growth of Oxfordshire’s leading innovation economy. Their initial projects in the county have focused on sectors including education, life sciences, real estate investment, private wealth and technology.
 
Visit their website

What makes a good leader? How exactly can you lead by example?

In this edition of OxTalks – sponsored by leading national law firm, Mills & Reeve – host Howard Bentham is joined by Daniel Geoghegan, Chief Executive of Bicester Motion, as they delve into his career journey and how his organisation is shaping leaders of the future.

Almost everyone that has ever had a job will have had a boss. Leaders must inspire, cajole, motivate, be a great speaker and an even better listener, and of course, lead by example. So what exactly does it take to be a good leader?

Joining us on OxTalks to answer that question is Daniel Geoghegan. Dan has over 20 years of experience in business development to provide strategic direction in both his current and previous roles.

Dan is a passionate vintage car enthusiast with a keen interest in the preservation and promotion of the UK’s automotive heritage and has overseen Bicester Heritage since its inception.

Learn more about Bicester Motion

Enterprise Oxfordshire (formerly OxLEP) is an Oxfordshire County Council-owned company. It is our role to champion Oxfordshire’s economic potential, acting as a catalyst and convener to drive a dynamic, sustainable and growing economy. Our vision is for Oxfordshire to be a vibrant and inclusive world-leading economy – driven by innovation, enterprise, collaboration and research excellence.

Our work has made a significant impact, helping to create favourable conditions for economic growth in Oxfordshire. We provide support for hundreds of businesses and communities in the county, supporting their desire to grow and attract the best talent locally, nationally and internationally.

Visit our website / Access the Business Support Tool

OxTalks is recorded at the Oxford Podcast Studio and produced by Story Ninety-Four.

Mills & Reeve:
 
Leading national law firm Mills & Reeve is the sponsor of series two of OxTalks. Following the opening of their latest UK office in Oxford in 2022, Mills & Reeve is committed to driving the growth of Oxfordshire’s leading innovation economy. Their initial projects in the county have focused on sectors including education, life sciences, real estate investment, private wealth and technology.
 
Visit their website

Welcome to OxTalks, powered by Enterprise Oxfordshire (formerly OxLEP). OxTalks aims to give you more insight into the great work that Enterprise Oxfordshire does, empowering and enabling businesses across Oxfordshire and beyond to add value to their organisation and, crucially, to the communities they serve.

In the final episode of the series, our focus is the changing face of the workplace, with a particular emphasis on the new four-day week working pattern that many organisations are adopting.

If we take a long look back over our shoulders to the industrial revolution, the typical Victorian mill owner had folk working six long days a week, with Sunday as a day of rest with a chance to replenish one's soul in church. In 1922, it was the Ford Motor Company that experimented with the five-day week, something that became permanent in 1926.

Today, post-global pandemic, our working world is changing shape. The overriding mantra of those championing this new way of working is "don't think about the hours, think about productivity and outcome".

But is a four-day week the silver bullet? Is it affordable for businesses to pay for five days and only get workers' time for four? What is in it for bosses and owners of these companies when, on the face of it, the deal heavily favours the employees? And will the four-day week actually create further inequalities in our society?

Howard is joined by Abena Fairweather, the founder and MD of Legacy, an award-winning, sustainable events agency, that has been operating with a four-day week since 2018.

Abena Fairweather is a sustainable events manager and consultant and the founder of Legacy, a sustainable events agency and consultancy. Abena helps companies and event professionals organise virtual and in-person events, as well as supporting them to run more sustainable events through training, workshops, audits and bespoke advice.

Learn more about Legacy

Enterprise Oxfordshire (formerly OxLEP) is an Oxfordshire County Council-owned company. It is our role to champion Oxfordshire’s economic potential, acting as a catalyst and convener to drive a dynamic, sustainable and growing economy. Our vision is for Oxfordshire to be a vibrant and inclusive world-leading economy – driven by innovation, enterprise, collaboration and research excellence.

Our work has made a significant impact, helping to create favourable conditions for economic growth in Oxfordshire. We provide support for hundreds of businesses and communities in the county, supporting their desire to grow and attract the best talent locally, nationally and internationally.

Visit our website / Access the Business Support Tool

OxTalks is recorded at the Oxford Podcast Studio and produced by Story Ninety-Four.

Welcome to OxTalks, powered by Enterprise Oxfordshire (formerly OxLEP). OxTalks aims to give you more insight into the great work that Enterprise Oxfordshire does, empowering and enabling businesses across Oxfordshire and beyond to add value to their organisation and, crucially, to the communities they serve.

In this episode – which is the fifth in this series – OxTalks looks into the importance of SMEs for both the Oxfordshire and UK economies.

Small and medium-sized businesses are the ‘engine room’ of the UK economy and it is of vital importance that they continue to be backed.

They account for around 99% of the business population in the UK and – although that drops to just under 90% in the city of Oxford itself, attributed by Oxford City Council to the lack of workspace available for start-ups – SMEs still play a very critical role in Oxfordshire.

Nationally, SMEs employed nearly 16.5 million people and in 2022 had a turnover of £2.1 trillion, which is just over half of the UK's total according to government figures.

In this edition of OxTalks, host Howard Bentham is joined by Emma Gibson – South Hub and Reading Office Senior Partner at KPMG Law – to discuss the importance of providing support to small businesses, particularly in the current economic market, as well as the role of environmental, social and governance (ESG) in business growth, plus SMEs being able to create a legacy.

Enterprise Oxfordshire’s Rob Panting also features in this episode, outlining the support delivered to the Oxfordshire SME community by the organisation.

Emma Gibson has 20+ years of experience in the industry, having previously run her own business. She is also a hit with the legal press where she was previously named as a Hot 100 Lawyer. Emma has extensive experience of operating in corporate finance, with particular emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, corporate compliance, reconstructions and reorganisations as well as advising on fundraising and family-owned businesses.

Learn more about KPMG Law

Enterprise Oxfordshire (formerly OxLEP) is an Oxfordshire County Council-owned company. It is our role to champion Oxfordshire’s economic potential, acting as a catalyst and convener to drive a dynamic, sustainable and growing economy. Our vision is for Oxfordshire to be a vibrant and inclusive world-leading economy – driven by innovation, enterprise, collaboration and research excellence.

Our work has made a significant impact, helping to create favourable conditions for economic growth in Oxfordshire. We provide support for hundreds of businesses and communities in the county, supporting their desire to grow and attract the best talent locally, nationally and internationally.

Visit our website / Access the Business Support Tool

OxTalks is recorded at the Oxford Podcast Studio and produced by Story Ninety-Four.

Welcome to OxTalks, powered by Enterprise Oxfordshire (formerly OxLEP). OxTalks aims to give you more insight into the great work that Enterprise Oxfordshire does, empowering and enabling businesses across Oxfordshire and beyond to add value to their organisation and, crucially, to the communities they serve.

Oxfordshire is home to some of the world's best and most innovative technologies, helping to address many of the planet's most pressing issues, most recently demonstrated via the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine.

An eminent leader at the forefront of Oxfordshire's world-renowned innovation ecosystem discuss why investment into sectors championing transformative technologies is critical for everyone's future - not just in Oxfordshire or the UK, but worldwide - and following on from COP27, the role that Oxfordshire has to play in helping to create a cleaner future for everyone.

In this episode, Howard is joined by Tim Bestwick to discuss his work at the UK Atomic Energy Authority and Oxfordshire's integral role in driving forward the development of fusion technology.

Tim Bestwick is the Chief Technology Officer and Director of Strategy, Communications and Business Development for the UK Atomic Energy Authority, based at the Culham Science Centre in Oxfordshire.

At UKAEA, Tim's main responsibilities include working with private sector fusion companies, intellectual property, and commercialisation of UKAEA technology. He is also Non-Executive Director of the Harwell Science & Innovation Campus, and is passionate about driving forward the development the science campuses at Harwell and Culham.

Learn more about the UK Atomic Energy Authority

Enterprise Oxfordshire (formerly OxLEP) is an Oxfordshire County Council-owned company. It is our role to champion Oxfordshire’s economic potential, acting as a catalyst and convener to drive a dynamic, sustainable and growing economy. Our vision is for Oxfordshire to be a vibrant and inclusive world-leading economy – driven by innovation, enterprise, collaboration and research excellence.

Our work has made a significant impact, helping to create favourable conditions for economic growth in Oxfordshire. We provide support for hundreds of businesses and communities in the county, supporting their desire to grow and attract the best talent locally, nationally and internationally.

Visit our website / Access the Business Support Tool

OxTalks is recorded at the Oxford Podcast Studio and produced by Story Ninety-Four.

Welcome to OxTalks, powered Enterprise Oxfordshire (formerly OxLEP). OxTalks aims to give you more insight into the great work that Enterprise Oxfordshire does, empowering and enabling businesses across Oxfordshire and beyond to add value to their organisation and, crucially, to the communities they serve.

Some of the world's most-talented people work in the county with a host of globally-significant companies calling Oxfordshire home. Last year alone spin-outs, start-ups and social enterprises from Oxford University Innovation generated over £30 million of income.

Many of these people, and the organisations they work for, are delivering critical responses to major issues within fields like energy, medicine and emerging technologies.

But as one of the most expensive locations to live in the UK, how can we ensure that Oxfordshire retains - and importantly develops - the world's best talent for the benefit of everyone, nationwide and internationally?

In this episode, Howard is joined by Chas Bountra and Dr Rajarshi Banerjee for their thoughts on mapping out a clear and affordable path to building a successful business in Oxfordshire.

Chas Bountra OBE is Pro-Vice Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Oxford. He is also Professor of Translational Medicine in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine and Associate Member of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford.

Chas is an invited expert on several government and charitable research funding bodies, and an advisor for many academic, biotech and pharmaceutical drug discovery programmes. Prior to working at Oxford, he worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 19 years, where he was involved in the development of candidate drugs for several diseases, including novel treatments for cancer chemotherapy and IBS.

Dr Rajarshi Banerjee or "Banjo" is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Perspectum. Banjo has many years of experience in running clinical trials and working in multidisciplinary scientific teams to develop applications for cutting-edge imaging technology and is a keen advocate of smart trial design. He received a BM. BCh. in Medicine and a Ph.D. in Cardiovascular Health from the University of Oxford, as well as an MSc. in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Learn more about Perspectum

Enterprise Oxfordshire (formerly OxLEP) is an Oxfordshire County Council-owned company. It is our role to champion Oxfordshire’s economic potential, acting as a catalyst and convener to drive a dynamic, sustainable and growing economy. Our vision is for Oxfordshire to be a vibrant and inclusive world-leading economy – driven by innovation, enterprise, collaboration and research excellence.

Our work has made a significant impact, helping to create favourable conditions for economic growth in Oxfordshire. We provide support for hundreds of businesses and communities in the county, supporting their desire to grow and attract the best talent locally, nationally and internationally.

Visit our website / Access the Business Support Tool

OxTalks is recorded at the Oxford Podcast Studio and produced by Story Ninety-Four.

Welcome to OxTalks, powered by Enterprise Oxfordshire (formerly OxLEP). OxTalks aims to give you more insight into the great work that Enterprise Oxfordshire does, empowering and enabling businesses across Oxfordshire and beyond to add value to their organisation and, crucially, to the communities they serve. 

With major retail locations, an award-winning World Heritage site and an area of outstanding natural beauty, Oxfordshire has a visitor economy offer like no other – but like all four corners of the globe, following the Covid-19 outbreak, its tourism industry has suffered from a lack of footfall. 

Working with its local destination management organisations, Enterprise Oxfordshire has recently-launched a new programme, aimed at promoting Oxfordshire as a ‘staycation’ of choice in the UK. But is there more we should be doing collectively? 

In this podcast, we find out in the company of Dominic Hare from Blenheim Palace, why the county’s visitor economy must be supported and highlight its criticality to many other related sectors too, helping them to be both profitable and successful. 

Dominic Hare is Chief Executive Officer at Blenheim, the award-winning World Heritage Site located in Woodstock, Oxfordshire. Having been at the organisation since 2003, Dominic has led strategy across all three business lines at Blenheim, including Blenheim Palace, Blenheim Estate Homes, and Blenheim Estate Land.

He is passionate about promoting Oxfordshire internationally, and advocates for this in his role as Director at Experience Oxfordshire, the official Destination Management Organisation for the county.

Learn more about Blenheim Palace

Enterprise Oxfordshire (formerly OxLEP) is an Oxfordshire County Council-owned company. It is our role to champion Oxfordshire’s economic potential, acting as a catalyst and convener to drive a dynamic, sustainable and growing economy. Our vision is for Oxfordshire to be a vibrant and inclusive world-leading economy – driven by innovation, enterprise, collaboration and research excellence.

Our work has made a significant impact, helping to create favourable conditions for economic growth in Oxfordshire. We provide support for hundreds of businesses and communities in the county, supporting their desire to grow and attract the best talent locally, nationally and internationally.

Visit our website / Access the Business Support Tool

OxTalks is recorded at the Oxford Podcast Studio and produced by Story Ninety-Four.

Welcome to OxTalks, powered Enterprise Oxfordshire (formerly OxLEP). OxTalks aims to give you more insight into the great work that Enterprise Oxfordshire does, empowering and enabling businesses across Oxfordshire and beyond to add value to their organisation and, crucially, to the communities they serve.

Despite being home to the world's best university for a seventh year running, Oxfordshire has many communities that suffer from deprivation, major cost of living difficulties and a lack of opportunities. The county contains 17 wards, specifically in Oxford, Banbury and Abingdon, that fall into the 20% most deprived areas in England. For those struggling communities, what are the barriers they are facing? Are there realistic solutions? And is there the will to fix this?

This week, Howard speaks to Andy Edwards, one of the key players at Makespace Oxford, who are helping to reimagine spaces, and locations for the benefit of all. We'll also learn just what Enterprise Oxfordshire are doing to support this change through its latest batch of business support programmes.

Andy Edwards is the Executive Director of Makespace Oxford and Co-Founder of Transition By Design.  He is passionate about working at the intersection of art, design, and activism to find creative solutions to social and environmental issues.

His professional experience includes project management of architecture and construction projects, leading research programmes, hosting conferences, and offering technical advice on design and post-disaster reconstruction projects.

Learn more about Makespace Oxford

Enterprise Oxfordshire (formerly OxLEP) is an Oxfordshire County Council-owned company. It is our role to champion Oxfordshire’s economic potential, acting as a catalyst and convener to drive a dynamic, sustainable and growing economy. Our vision is for Oxfordshire to be a vibrant and inclusive world-leading economy – driven by innovation, enterprise, collaboration and research excellence.

Our work has made a significant impact, helping to create favourable conditions for economic growth in Oxfordshire. We provide support for hundreds of businesses and communities in the county, supporting their desire to grow and attract the best talent locally, nationally and internationally.

Visit our website / Access the Business Support Tool

OxTalks is recorded at the Oxford Podcast Studio and produced by Story Ninety-Four.

Welcome to OxTalks, powered by OxLEP. OxTalks aims to give you more insight into the great work that OxLEP does, empowering and enabling businesses across Oxfordshire and beyond, to add value to their organisation and, crucially, to the communities they serve.

OxLEP:

As the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP), it is our role to champion Oxfordshire’s economic potential, acting as a catalyst and convener to drive a dynamic, sustainable and growing economy.

Our vision is for Oxfordshire to be a vibrant and inclusive world-leading economy – driven by innovation, enterprise, collaboration and research excellence.

Our work has made a significant impact, helping to create favourable conditions for economic growth in Oxfordshire. We provide support for hundreds of businesses and communities in the country, supporting their desire to grow and attract the best talent locally, nationally and internationally.

Visit our website
Follow us on LinkedIn
Follow us on Twitter @oxfordshireLEP
Learn more about the OxLEP Business Support Tool