Staying aligned is crucial for business growth, especially for your leadership team. Our expert panel and top regional businesses gathered at Hope Street Hotel to share experiences and strategies.

Selling. It's integral to successful business but something that lots of us struggle with.

You've got a successful business, a roster of happy clients, and a team you can rely on. But you're ready to push on. To grow, to become bigger, better, and to seize the opportunities you know are out there.

Fermentation, robots fixing potholes, and connecting the dots for businesses across the region, just a couple of the things we talked to Gather’s new Community Manager, Sam Watson about…

You've seen the potential. They are ready to take the next step. You want to give them more responsibility. But how do you ensure the future leaders in your team are set up for success?

The truth is leadership can be lonely. When you're on the frontline making the big decisions, heading up the team, taking on the responsibility, it can be tough. That's why community matters.

You've grown as a business, but you're ambitious for more. You're up for the challenges, but not 100% sure how to tackle them. You'd love an experienced sounding board but haven't found the right person.

From supporting leaders to cultivating her garden, hear what makes our growth-focused Programme Manager Abi tick…

CIA agent turned entrepreneur Rupal Patel has navigated war zones, military briefing rooms, and corporate boardrooms in an all-action career. Check out what her session at the Beyond Leadership Gathering had to offer.

Are you an emerging tech business? Looking to secure funding to scale and grow? Baltic Ventures can help. We caught up with Community Manger Becca Harvey to get the lowdown on the hottest new accelerator in town.

Whether you're a seasoned mega fan or a wowed onlooker, it’s beyond doubt that Eurovision in Liverpool was an enormous success.

The robots are coming. Here to take our ideas, our business... and our client amends. Appealing as the last in that list might sound, the downfall of humanity may have been exaggerated. The creative human brain isn't redundant. Whisper it, AI could actually help us to do things better.

Looking to connect with graduate talent? Want free support with your recruitment? The LCR Grad Scheme can help. We caught up with project manager Greg Hunter to get the lowdown.

Should you be doing something else rather than reading this blog? Do you think you might struggle to reach the end of it?

The climate crisis is here. It's real. And it can be a bit overwhelming. A greener business has gone from 'nice to have' to 'key strategic aim' for every leader. We all have a role to play in the saving the planet – and our people, our clients, and our customers are increasingly demanding we take action.

Are you bringing in a new senior appointment? Someone you're looking to help shape the direction of your business and future growth?

March was B Corp month. A global initiative to spread the word that B Corp Certification isn’t just a box-tick, but an international movement of people going beyond to make their mark on the world.

Spoiler: the answer is yes. The leadership stereotype of tough, single-minded, and all-powerful is thankfully in the main a thing of the past. But when we think about leaders, kindness is still probably not the first quality that springs to mind.

ED&I consultancy The Unmistakables delivered a great workshop on the benefits of building a diverse team at our last Gather event. They busted some myths and gave some practical steps to drive change. Here are some of the key takeaways from the workshop.

Does it sometimes feel like your business has a revolving door? Do you want to not just attract but retain great people? At our recent Gather event psychiatrist we held a workshop exploring some of the science behind psychological safety and why it could be the key to stopping talent drain.

COP27 saw politicians, business leaders, and environmental activists join together in Egypt to try and push forward global action on climate change. No matter the size of your business we can use some takeaways from COP27 to kickstart your role in saving the planet.

Struggling to hire and retain talent? It's a challenge that regularly crops up in our conversations with the Gather community. So for our latest Gather event we assembled a line-up of leaders, experts, and talent to share their insight and experience.

63% of graphic design students are female, but 83% of Creative Directors in the industry are male. It’s a disparity that shows the inequalities in the industry and a mismatch that needs to be addressed...We caught up with Sarah Leech from Kerning the Gap to hear about how they are inspiring positive action in the Liverpool City Region.

Does the thought of navigating the world of intellectual Property (IP) fill you with dread? Do you have a niggling worry about cease-and-desist letters dropping through the door? Are you making the most of the commercial opportunities of IP?

How has your year been so far? Whether it's been a roaring success or a bit of a rollercoaster, as we head into the last quarter, your leadership batteries might be a little depleted.

We all like to say ‘yes’. It feels agreeable and collaborative. It’s part of human nature and it’s important for leadership. It can open new opportunities and make people happy. Throw ‘no’ in the mix and many of us struggle, in both personal and professional scenarios.

So you want to be a B Corp? Fantastic. From the outside looking in, it looks little daunting…. But who better to offer words of advice, inspiration, and a touch of caution, than those in the Gather community who have been there and done it?

Tech Climbers mission is to showcase trailblazing businesses in high growth regions. This month sees the official launch of Tech Climbers 2023 in the Liverpool City Region. So what's Tech Climbers all about? How can you get involved? And how do you get a place at the launch event on the 6 October? We grabbed a chat with Anna Heyes at Active Profile to get the lowdown...

At our recent leadership gathering author, coach, and all-round productivity ninja Grace Marshall led a fascinating session about struggle. How we’re programmed to see it as a battle and a fight, how our obsession with perfection gets in the way of progress, and how struggle could actually be where the magic happens. It’s the subject of her new book and we caught up with Grace to hear more about it…

Sun, sea, sand, sneaky email checks, and secret slacking... sound familiar? When you're leading a business, it can be hard to take a proper break. The guilt, the worry about ongoing projects, the addiction to alerts, emails, and progress reports.

At our recent leadership gathering, Rose Long delivered a workshop on the power of breathing. In just a short session we learned some invaluable techniques and why breath plays such a vital role in managing stress and boosting resilience. We caught up with Rose to find out more and to pick up a few tips…

No business exists in a vacuum. More so than ever we're affected by – and can affect – global challenges. At our recent Leadership Gathering an expert panel discussed what global challenges like climate and innovation mean for businesses.

Purpose driven growth. Is it really possible? How easy it to achieve? Is becoming a B Corp worth it? At our recent Leadership Gathering we got together an expert panel to give us their take on these questions and more.

Meaningful connection is key to a well-functioning team. It's all too easy to become fragmented when everyone is focused on individual goals, to become blinkered when deadlines loom, and to become detached when challenges arise. But when everyone is communicating authentically in a psychologically safe environment, the whole team – and business can thrive.

How can we connect better with the right talent and start to drive positive change? Here are some tips.

Brilliant for our mental health and invaluable in the workplace... how can we prioritise creativity and get better at it.

3 days. 70+ Sessions. 60+ Global Brands. 6 Boroughs. 9 Venues. All where leaders, business owners, and students gathered together at The Good Business Festival to listen to key speakers discuss and engage in topical issues. Two weeks on from The Good Business Festival (TGBF), the Gather team and partners reflect on what resonated with them from the festival…

Research and Development (R&D) tax relief is back on the agenda thanks to Rishi Sunak’s recent Spring Statement. But what exactly is it? Are you making the most of it? And what changes are afoot?

When you're a leader it can sometimes feel like you're an island – managing a business, navigating challenges, and making the big calls when it matters.

Heard about The Good Business Festival? Had your interest peaked but not sure what it's really all about? Wondering whether it will be a good use of your time?

If there’s one thing 2021 taught us, it’s to expect the unexpected. But even in times of flux, it’s key to look ahead. So what might the next 12 months hold? Let’s take a look at some trends to watch out for…

Successful football squads aren’t packed full of flair players, orchestras won’t work without a brass section, a bee colony only needs one queen – for a team to work, you need the right balance. In well-performing teams, you'll usually find that each member has clear strengths and clear responsibilities that complement others. So when you’re building a business it’s important to consider not just individual talent but the balance of your whole team.

It's been quite a year. We've all probably learnt a lot about our business, about our teams, and about epidemic curves. But how has your professional learning been? As we look ahead to a new year, thoughts often turn to fresh goals and personal development, but it can be hard to keep the momentum up as life kicks in. The key could be to make learning part of your everyday routine.

Across the City Region there’s a huge ecosystem of support for businesses. But what exactly do they do? And how can they help you? We’re going to introduce you to some of them, first up, we caught up with George Wright and Lynsey Barnes from the Liverpool City Region Finance Hub which covers Halton, Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral, the six boroughs of the Region.

25,000 politicians, business leaders and activists descended on Glasgow to try and move forward action on Climate Change.

As a leader it's easy to get caught up in looking after the team, focusing on the business, getting drawn into the day to day. But who is looking after you? Who is making sure you're in the best position to steer the ship?

A productive and collaborative team: it’s the dream. A dream that – whether you’re back in the office full time or trying to make a success of hybrid working – is not always that easy to achieve.

Poke Marketing is a creative agency that look at things a bit differently. We sat down with founder Andrew Binns to hear about their approach, their experience with Gather, and how they are using creativity to support diversity and inclusion in a male-dominated environment.

COP26 is upon us. World leaders are descending on Scotland to reach new agreements on how to tackle climate change. It's a pressing, it's urgent, and it's nearing the top of everyone's agenda. Climate change isn't something governments can thrash out over a couple of single malts while the rest of us carry on regardless, it's something we all need to play our part in – on an individual and corporate level.

Against all odds we had a great summer of sport. Football almost came home, the Olympics and Paralympics were a huge success, and British tennis got a star that keeps on rising in Emma Raducanu.

With a summer of fires and floods, and COP26 soon kicking off in Scotland, the challenges of climate change are hard to ignore.

No one likes to fail – and it can be even harder to face, let alone embrace, when you're a leader.

The little red number that haunts your phone, the incessant pinging, the constants alerts. Emails, emails, emails. Many of us feel overburdened, overwhelmed, and stifled by them. What should be an effective and easy communication tool has become a source of stress and anxiety.

All businesses are different. They have different challenges, different team dynamics, different opportunities. There's no blueprint for success, but there is an approach that will benefit everyone: alignment.

Management can be tough. Navigating relationships, juggling priorities, maintaining a culture, working through challenges. Throw in a global pandemic and it gets a whole lot tougher.

With success stories like Peloton, Harry’s, and Birchbox, the subscription economy has been steadily growing over the past few years, but this growth has dramatically accelerated over the pandemic. Enforced changes in buying behaviour has seen consumers looking online not only to buy their pre-pandemic brands but also looking at new ways to buy and new brands that can help them buy in better ways.

Leaders lead and teams follow. It’s the natural order of an organisation. But is it the best way to a smooth and successful business? Maybe not.

Integrity, good judgment, discipline, communication, there are lots of things we need to work on to be better leaders. But one trait that can be overlooked is empathy. Often dismissed as a 'softer' skill, it can play a key role in helping you to build a successful business.

It feels like we’ve been talking about millennials for, well a millennium, but there’s a new generation on the block, in the market, and in the workplace.

A Deloitte study found that 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe a distinct culture is important for the success of a business.

We do it every day, running a business relies on it, it's the key to maintaining relationships, but communication can be a tough skill to master.

It can seem like a real battle to make the time we have count. So how can you be more productive? Get more from less time? Feel like you’ve won the day? Check out some top tips.

Coaching isn't a new phenomenon, but more and more businesses are looking to embed it in their culture. Taking it beyond one-off development sessions to something that impacts the whole company, not just leadership teams.

Gather is a place for the digital, creative and tech community to connect, unite and grow. It’s about practical support and advice but also about connecting with like-minded leaders who face the same challenges as you. The challenge of racial diversity – or lack of it – in our sectors is a challenge we need to tackle together.

When a conference is called 'The Olympics of tech' and boasts speakers including Nicole Kidman, David Beckham, Chelsea Handler and Liam Payne, you know it's not your average conference. Check out the best bits...

As leaders we face vital decisions each day – in an increasingly unpredictable world. So how can we make sure we have the clarity to be smart and strategic?

Boards, shareholders, compliance – probably not the things that made you start your business, get you out of bed in the morning, or give you a kick when you talk about them over dinner. But while corporate governance might not be the most glamorous side of your business, it has the potential to make or break it.

The world has changed – and will undoubtedly continue to do so. A new focus on balancing purpose and profit was already emerging, and in the wake of a global pandemic will arguably become even more relevant.

Buzz word or vital leadership trait? Integrity is more than a 'catch-all' for good leadership, it's a quality that's more important than ever...

For many of us success over the past 12 months has been keeping our heads above water, but if you've steadied the ship there are lessons we can learn from crisis innovations.

How can we challenge the lack of diversity in our sectors? Check out the first in our series of blogs looking how we can all play our part.

Fresh insight, new ideas, the sound of Antarctic seals... check out ten podcasts and books that will (possibly) change your life and (definitely) help you and your business.

Conscious consumers are on the rise and employees are looking for the places they work to align with their values. So, should businesses be shifting their focus to do more 'good'?

Whether it’s embraced or enforced, remote working isn't going anywhere. Martina Gobec shared her tips for keeping your team engaged, motivated and thriving.