Any Other Business – 14/05
SOME of the capital’s tech heavies gathered at the LSE for the opening of the market yesterday to launch Summit: The Future of Growth, an event run by Seven Hills this Friday to talk, well, growth. Angel investor Sherry Coutu was there, along with education minister Elizabeth Truss and Decoded founder Kathryn Parsons – banging the drum for teaching kids to code. Having been at the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award the night before, Parsons was feeling a bit unprepared when summoned to give a speech. “I had no idea I was going to have to speak, I would have gone home earlier last night if I’d known!” she told The Capitalist. Well, for someone caught on the fly she did a remarkable job…you would never have known.
HOUSE of Fraser is currently holding something of a retail X-factor. Ten small retailers have been chosen to battle it out against each other in pop-ups at the store’s Oxford Street flagship, and the retailer who sells the most over the next two weeks will win a one-year contract to open a concession at the store. The competition is pretty fierce and one retailer has already felt the burn of competitive disappointment. Celebrity chef Aldo Zilli showed up to support Alison Cork’s “Alison at Home” stand (the pair go way back), but with the rain tipping down outside, he ended up giving neighbouring stand Squid London a leg up when forced to buy one of their colour-changing umbrellas on his way out. Damn mother nature.