NewStartScotland

I have to admit, I am not that well organised when I go to business exhibitions. My approach is very much a case of wait and see what strikes me as interesting.

If I was more structured, I should probably be pretty clear about my goals for going to these events. I would be certain about what companies I would be visiting, and who I wanted to talk to. But I don't. I go and hope for the best, looking for new ideas and a little inspiration.

And so it was with my trip to the NewStartScotland exhibition at the weekend. Billed as an event for people who have the dream of setting up their own business, or expanding what they are doing already, I thought this would be a great place to get ideas for the future. It was also being run by the BusinessGateway, so it should be pretty focused on the needs of the small business.

So how disappointed was I when after an initial wander around the Hall I see nothing of note. Sure if you are in the market for a web design company, or a printer or a car hire company then you are laughing. Or if you were wondering which of the numerous public sector organisations can help then you would probably have got on well with BusinessGateway, Careers Scotland, Campanies House, Highlands & Islands Enterprise, Revenue & Customs, etc., etc. all represented.

But where are the ideas, the motivation the inspiration?

Give them their due, they did have an array of speakers for their half hour seminars, and if you were looking to spend the whole day at the event then you could have attended six of them covering all manner of topics. But the way my time fell, the first I found were part way through a lunch time seminar, and at the end of that it was three quarters of an hour till the next ones (none of which rocked my boat).

And now a couple of days after the event I still find myself scratching my head about the purpose of this event. Who was it aimed at – certainly not small businesses like my own, or those people looking to start a new business, for I don't know what you will have learned that you couldn't get from the BusinessGateway anyway. It is almost as though the BusinessGateway had committed to running some sort of event and this is the box ticker that arrived.

If this is the quality of their output, then there is perhaps little wonder that Scottish Enterprise is having to radically restructure and refocus on actually delivering their key objectives.