Jane Hunt and Kath Sutherland have been very busy this month, highlighting the issues faced by disabled people in a number of presentations and panel debates.

On 8th November, Kath presented “What are you talking about puddings for?  The benefits of plain language in advice” at the International Enterprise Promotion Convention.  The presentation was extremely well received and served as a timely reminder to business advisors and policy makers to ensure that the information that they were producing for entrepreneurs was accessible and in plain language.  Further information about the event can be found on the Convention Website and you can also  view the summary  or download the presentation

Jane presented to a delegation from  the Youth Division of the Social Promotion department at the Fukuoka prefectural government in Japan. The delegation was lead by the governor of the prefecture, Mr Aso. The rest of the delegation were young people, aged 18 to 35, who live in the prefecture and who wanted to get involved in volunteer activities or study projects in social welfare, education and the environment.  As part of their educational trip to Europe, the Fukuoka prefecture delegation wanted to visit charities and hear about their activities and their funding procedures and case studies on how they help people.

Jane met with the delegation on 16th November and was able to tell them about the work of the ADP and the Disabled Entrepreneurs’ Network.  The delegates were very happy with the information they received and showed a keen interest in our work.

Finally, Kath was asked to be a speaker at the SMEs, Research and Innovation Conference, “From Idea to Market:  Turning Knowledge into Profit”.  The conference was an initiative of Wallonia and Directorate General Research of the European Commission in cooperation with the Belgian EU Presidency. 

Kath attended in her role as an Equalities Consultant and the Founder of her own small business, START Ability Services.  Her work came to the attention of the Directorate through her recent accolade as UK Ambassador for European SME Week 2010.

The objective of the Conference was to address the needs of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) around the twin themes of Research and Innovation as a background.

Each of the 4 sessions gave plenty of opportunities to help European Small and Medium-sized Enterprises to describe as well as share their own experiences with the audience. 

The final session was a live webcast and a number of conclusions were drawn which it is hoped will support small and medium enterprises to access appropriate support and finance throughout every stage of business development from start up to growth.

Further information about this prestigious event, which was attended by HRH Prince Philippe of Belgium is available at the SME Conference website