Business diary starts to open again after Covid - Nick Freer

Nick Freer Picture by Stewart Attwood

I was going to write a piece for this weekend on how a Scottish tech founder and one of his latest ventures is set to help fund journalism in Ukraine, but as the initiative is still in the finalisation phase it will be a matter of watching this space.

Writing this week, it seems hard not to reference horrific events in Ukraine and, for the Ukrainian refugees who land in this country, I hope our nation will welcome them all with open arms.

One of our client executives recently married a Ukrainian national, and God only knows what kind of stress they must be under at the moment worrying about family and friends, while another client, fast-growth fintech startup Stellar Omada, works closely with a development partner in Ukraine. Collectively, we have so many close links with this forward-thinking country and its people.

Business diary

Even as friends and contacts continue to go down with Covid, there is a definite feeling of things opening up again on the business scene. Tomorrow evening, I am attending the Lord Provost of Edinburgh’s delayed Burn’s Supper at Prestonfield House. I can’t actually remember the last time I donned a black tie and dinner jacket, so to say my outfit will need a dusting down is an understatement.

Next week, the companies selected for this year’s EIE22 investor conference gather at RBS Gogarburn, while the following week Startup Grind Scotland, and Equity Gap are each holding events of interest.

Funded by the Scottish Technology Ecosystem Fund, Startup Grind Scotland is taking twenty entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley in April for what will be a fantastic opportunity to connect with fellow founders, investors and tech groups based in the Valley and San Francisco. The architect of the ecosystem fund, Mark Logan, will address the lucky guys and gals who have been picked for the trip to California at a closed-door event at CodeBase.

Equity Gap’s ‘Leaders’ Club’ get together at The Royal Society of Edinburgh is open to founders or CEOs of high-growth, technology-led, early stage companies. The word on the street says that co-founders from both Skyscanner and FanDuel will feature on the day.

On the last weekend in March, the organisers of tech conference Turing Fest are running a careers event at the Biscuit Factory in Edinburgh, billed as an opportunity to network with some the UK’s most exciting startups who are looking to hire. Open to tech professionals of all levels, companies featuring on the day include Trustpilot, FreeAgent, and Machines With Vision.

Day job

Back at the coalface, this week we handled press announcements for Scottish legal firm Anderson Strathern, who appointed former Deloitte partner Mike McGregor as its new Non-executive Director while posting strong annual results, and Glasgow-based Smart Things Accelerator Centre (STAC), Scotland’s first Internet of Things (IoT) accelerator.

Next week, look out for announcements by Scotland’s largest creative agency, a fast-growing online pharmacy business that is in expansion mode in the UK and Europe, and a former private banker from Edinburgh who has co-founded a fashion tech startup in London.

Nick Freer is the founding director of strategic communications agency the Freer Consultancy