Two of the North East of England’s most active entrepreneurs and early stage investors have joined forces to create STELLAR BUSINESS EVENTS, a unique new networking and events business that brings ambitious business owners and leaders together in an inspiring, friendly and supportive environment.
The new, Sunderland-based business incorporates Paul Lancaster’s highly-regarded ‘UK Startup Week’ festival (previously called Newcastle Startup Week) and monthly PLATFORM events. Joining the business is well-known local entrepreneur and angel investor Neil Stephenson with the ambition to add commercial acumen and scale up experience to the proposition.
The pair are good friends and have been working together informally for a number of years, regularly referring clients and business opportunities to each other.
Speaking of the new venture Paul Lancaster said “Since 2016, I’ve grown an events business which is strongly rooted in the North East of England but has huge reach nationally and it’s our intention to scale out our offering into new markets and new geographies. Over the past 12 months we’ve run 21 x PLATFORM events in Newcastle and Sunderland that have attracted over 700 business owners and leaders and we intend to expand this to Teesside in Q1 of 2025 and then up to Scotland shortly after, giving us a truly Northern UK footprint.”
“In addition, our 5-day, multi-venue UK Startup Week festival is due to take place in Sunderland between 2-6 June 2025 with a series of energising events that will inspire and educate people how to start and grow their business in the North East and wider North of England. Our last Startup Week festival in Newcastle attracted just over 800 delegates from across the UK and we expect a similar number in Sunderland in June.”
Neil Stephenson said “I’m excited to be working with Paul to build out this proposition nationwide as I understand the value of good networking to find customers, partners, employees and sometimes even investors. I’m also hoping we can find opportunity to develop a new Angel Investor Network alongside the events as a way to help seed fund the next generation of businesses. The ever-expanding tech / digital / e-commerce market and the new AI and Virtual Reality worlds bring huge opportunities to build new and exciting businesses at scale. We aim to be right at the centre of that new revolution”.
Paul and Neil are keen to talk to any business owners, leaders and investors who would like to use their PLATFORM or UK Startup Week events as a way to raise their profile and reach potential customers or clients. They are also interested in having conversations with anyone who would like their help and advice on how to run successful roundtable discussions, launch events or other business gatherings in 2025.
Find out more at https://ukstartupweek.com/stellar/ or email paul@ukstartupweek.com
