
Unlock your full potential at a business conference with a difference
Join us for Shropshire Leadership Conference on Tuesday 16 April at Shrewsbury's Theatre Severn as we explore the Future of Leadership.
Leaders from across the region will gather for a mix of thought-provoking speakers and insightful masterclasses and workshops in a relaxed atmosphere that's just perfect for dynamic networking.
High-profile and influential keynote speakers, industry and field experts will take to the stage to inspire, challenge, and evolve your thinking about the future of leadership focusing on belief in potential, change and technology.
The event will feature exhibit stands, hands-on masterclasses, and interactive demos and wellbeing activities, as a reminder to prioritise mental health and resilience in the workplace.
Hone your leadership skills, challenge your thinking and network with an audience of leaders and represent your company at Shropshire’s most high-level business event.
Whether you’re a senior manager, Executive or on the cusp of moving up the ladder to a managerial role, you’ll take home ideas and inspiration that you will carry with you throughout your career.
Keynote Speakers

Michael Heppell - How to Be Brilliant
Michael Heppell is the international best-selling author of 6 books, including 'How to Be Brilliant'. His books have been translated into 27 languages and include the Sunday Times No.1 Best Seller 'Flip It'.
His passion is presenting. He has been described as ‘One of the top 3 professional speakers in the world.’
He works with individuals and organisations who are dissatisfied with being good and have a desire to be brilliant. Through his events and coaching, Michael has worked with everyone from Category B prisoners to business leaders; from Premiership footballers to TV personalities.
Davina McCall credits Michael as ‘The person who, in one hour, changed my life’.
Michael works with his wife and business partner Christine and in 2001 they set a goal ‘To positively influence one million lives’. Through presentations, training, books, audio programmes and coaching they hit this target several years ago and now have the goal to positively influence everyone they connect with.
John Williams - Future readiness
Helping you be ready to adapt to the ever-changing circumstances we face as leaders.
CEO John Williams is a problem solver and strategist who joined The Institute from a career in international business and leadership development across the UK, Europe, Middle East, Far East and North America.
John is a passionate advocate of servant leadership and deeply curious about emergent strategy, predictive analytics, punctuated equilibrium and other baffling business things – he is fascinated by the prospects for artificial intelligence and the future of work.
John holds an MBA from the University of Northumbria and has been guest lecturer in strategy and international business at universities in the UK and Europe for over two decades.

Joanne Lockwood FPSA FRSA FIEDP – SEE Change Happen
Joanne Lockwood, The Inclusive Culture Expert, A Guiding Light in Your Inclusion Journey
Joanne Lockwood is the founder and CEO of SEE Change Happen, a Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging Practice with a specialism in providing Transgender Awareness and support to organisations and businesses.
Her mantra is Smile, Engage and Educate and she passionately believes that “people are people” and, no matter who they are, deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

Masterclasses

Gemma Allies – Leading with Emotional Intelligence
Gemma is a corporate wellness provider who specialises in supporting companies through mindfulness training so that they are able to build better cultures that optimise employee engagement, reduce stress-related absence, and retain key talent.
In this workshop, attendees will explore current workplace wellbeing trends, insights and predictions that will support their own future strategy. In alignment with the theme of change, the session will explore how emotionally intelligent leadership can benefit organisations commercially, before empowering attendees to create an agile action plan that sets them up for success.
AI: Insights for Business Success – with Louise Welsby and Dr. David F George
Louise is a creative, commercial marketer with a passion for communication and collaboration who has been running Buy-From since 2015.
25+ years of communication experience has resulted in her leadership of a dynamic team with an unparalleled passion for business communication and growth. Louise, like the whole Buy-From team, believe in ethical marketing and love working with brands with purpose.
Training and education are central to Louise’s business ethos, and she has recently delivered a series of webinars for Marches Growth Hub with Dr David George on how to empower businesses to use AI.


Dr. David F. George and Louise Welsby: Navigating Adventures in Choice
Dr. David F. George, a startup entrepreneur, has a passion for adventure and possesses a diverse international career. As the Founder and CEO of choiceMaster, his mission is to simplify complex decision-making processes with a focus on enhancing the online shopping experience. His goal is to empower shoppers to make well-informed product purchase choices.
David's professional journey includes roles at renowned global corporations such as IBM, BMW, Ford, Mercedes-Benz Group, and Barclays Bank. These experiences have enriched his expertise in AI and Knowledge Engineering, allowing him to demonstrate the practical and valuable applications of these technologies across a range of industries, including banking, insurance, and automotive.

Service Animals – A Tool for Leaders
Service Animals™ is an online profiling and training tool that helps people understand their natural service style, how to recognise other’s profiles and develop techniques to adapt to them – the perfect tool for established or budding leaders and teams to build and deliver better business results.
Download Service Animals Guide for a brief introduction or follow this link to watch a brief video.
Service Animals will be leading an interactive workshop to enable conference attendees to learn more about the toolkit and how it can be of benefit to leaders to generate belief in potential, identify talent, create strong efficient teams and enable great leadership practice. More details coming soon.
Tickets now on sale
Join us at the Shropshire Leadership Conference 2024 as we come together again to bring high profile speakers to Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury.
Individual tickets are £99 and give you access to the full day programme of:
- Three exciting keynote speakers
- Access to interactive masterclasses led by industry and field experts
- Q&A session and demonstrations from leading market provider in recruitment, retention, talent management and development
- Lunch and refreshments
- Networking opportunities
- Exhibition areas
- Wellbeing activities
- Opportunity to inspire, challenge and evolve how you lead
Delegates will be able to arrive from 8:30am, for an official start at 9:30am. The day will draw to a close at 4:30pm, with an opportunity to network afterwards.
Tickets are now available.
If you’re looking to book tickets for groups of eight or more, or if you have any queries about the Leadership Conference 2024, please email us at shropshirehr@shrophire.go.uk


Event sponsor
We are proud to be working with Agility in Mind as our main event sponsor. The theme of this year's conference is Future of Leadership, supported by three subthemes of Technology, Wellbeing and Belief in Potential.
We believe that Agility in Mind share our values of supporting businesses to achieve better outcomes and through their activity align seamlessly with the themes of the conference.
Agility in Mind love helping ambitious organisations scale and grow. Using lean and agile tools and techniques, they partner closely with leaders, teams and individuals to help them become more efficient, product-led and deliver the right things quickly and efficiently.
Agility in Mind have an impact through shifting the mindsets of all those within the organisation, so that they can respond with more agility to changes in the environment in which they operate. The outcome is a business that culturally believes that they can own and create their own future.

Sponsors, advertisers and exhibitors
We are pleased to welcome on board Shrewsbury Colleges Group as a Conference Partner.
If you too, would like to be part of this exciting leadership event to showcase your organisation and enjoy networking opportunities, we have a range of options available to sponsor, advertise and exhibit at the event.
To find out more please contact Darren Griffin by phone: 01743 253063 or
Sir Clive Woodward, Shropshire Leadership Conference 2022
Our team of HR Professionals can advise on all aspects of HR management including how to effectively handle disciplinary and grievance issues, address performance concerns, organisational restructures and absence management.
We pride ourselves on ensuring our customers receive high quality advice and guidance to underpin successful HR management.
To find out more about our HR Services and how we can enable you to effectively manage your staff, please contact us
Call us on 01743 252 786 or email shropshirehr@shropshire.gov.uk
Visit us online or follow us on social media for more information.
