Beyond the Horizon: Celebrating the South West and Embracing Global Opportunity

Date: Friday 8 August 2025

Location: Ashton Court Estate, Bristol

Partners: Institute of Directors (IoD) South West; Hewlett Rand; Business West; Bristol Junior Chamber; Tech West England Advocates; Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) and others.

A huge thank you to those of you who joined us at sunrise to talk about how we can turn the South West’s strengths into global opportunity. Against a backdrop of balloons lifting off, the two panels focused on how directors, exporters and founders could shift from interest to actual implementation. The China Bureau, co-convening partners, and the hundreds of participants bridged our international culture with commercial acumen to articulate insightful takeaways…

So, what did we learn?

Use existing networks and start small.

“Exporting is not a leap; it’s a series of well-supported steps.”

—Dr Yildiz Tugba Kara, Society 5.0 Institute; IoD: International Trade Group

Get the paperwork and protection right.

Catherine Stephens, Head of International Trade Services at Business West, stressed trade strategy, customs and origin documents, letters of credit and compliance consultancy… “it's understanding a whole new language of international trade. You've got to learn about Incoterms, valuation methods, HS codes and preference as well as many other regulations, processes and procedures...”

While Sean Clarke, Managing Director of Aardman Animations, emphasised contracts, translations and registering trademarks early. As “in China, for example, it's more a case of you register first versus you can demonstrate that it's your brand…”

Partnership beats pitch.

Proof, pilots and trust matter more than promises; accessing missions, tradeshows, and foreign funding streams through bespoke networks open doors you won’t open alone. —Richard Lowe, Hewlett Rand; Tech West England Advocates

“Culture is probably the most important thing of any business, and every business has its own culture.” —Martin Thatcher, Managing Director of Thatchers Cider Company

Apprenticeships and nurturing juniors help firms scale without losing innovation; “Young people have joined us on internships - they're now running departments on this site” — Ben Hardy, Managing Director - Richmond Event Management; Executive Director - Bristol International Balloon Fiesta

“‘tone from the top’, it's being visible about how you're doing it as an individual to inspire your colleagues and workforce to do the same” —Neil Johnston, Partner at Albert Goodman

We talk about the region, not just the city. When going to Asia, “Bristol” isn’t always recognised—whereas identifying as ‘West England’, a fertile multi-sector corridor, we gain gravitational scale and relevance. —Richard Lowe, Tech West England Advocates

We picked-up on key events and opportunities…

• TWEA × Hewlett-Rand: UK Tech Mission to Hong Kong & Shenzhen — 3–7 November. For founders seeking customers, partners, investment or supply chains. The pre mission roundtables announced at the breakfast were scheduled for the following week; if you missed them, reach out to TWEA/Hewlett Rand for updates on the content of proceedings and planned onboarding sessions. Register your interest now to be considered for the cohort

• IoD South West: Next IoD Bristol networking — 1st October at RSM, Temple Quay. Members can use the Business Information Advisory team for targeted research and contacts; sector/country Special Interest Groups (e.g., Japan, Sustainability) are open to join. A delegation to Turkey is also in planning.

• Business West is offering practical sessions on customs procedures & documentation, introduction to exports, digital carnets and benefits of free trade agreements (from £50 + VAT).

• Bristol Junior Chamber: Bordeaux mission (Oct) and Hanover exchange; BJC Breakfast on Thu 25th September at the Clifton Club (low-stakes way to try an international mission).

• Bristol Initiative: Members’ evening at Gloucestershire County Cricket Club — 2nd October (Local Growth Plan), and Bank of England breakfast briefing on — 13th November.

• And of course – most importantly – our China Bureau will be holding our annual Mooncake Festival in October — a relationship-first platform to host partners and align cultural exchange with trade conversations. Partner hosting slots available. Ideal to invite clients/partners with a China/APAC interest.

The West of England’s credibility in advanced engineering and creative IP travels well; our trade missions have included briefings and tours with major firms and tech parks. Recognising this, we invite you to pull on our Asia-Pacific partners to look for evidence (pilots, references, local agents) and opportunities for relationship-building. Joining our affiliated repeated visits and targeted delegations work better than cold outreach.