The 21st anniversary of Wella’s Business Network Live took place in the West Midlands recently at the stunning Belfry hotel & resort.
Wella Professionals held its two day event for more than 200 delegates, in a bid to build some serious business motivation and networking opportunities. TV celebrity hairdresser and presenter, Michael Douglas, hosted the two day conference, which saw salon owners, their teams and Wella personnel, including the newly appointed General Manager of Coty Professional Beauty, UK & Ireland, Stefan Laux, gather for the annual event which for many is the highlight of the calendar.
Day one commenced with multi award-winning speaker, Geoff Ramm, who engaged the audience on the topic of ‘How to Deliver Celebrity Service’. His hilarious but informative session “There’s always room for improvement. The high street is not dead – are you letting a computer outsmart you?”
“If you think you’re offering an A-List service, ask yourself if an A-lister came into the salon would your service still be the same? Honestly?” said Geoff in his brilliant session.
Other speakers included Holly Tucker, MBE, on her mission to build her brand, Not on The High Street. “As a business owner, you have the power to change people’s lives. That is the most liberating thing,” she said.
Journalist Farrah Storr delivered an interesting session on her career highs and lows launching magazines and stepping out of your comfort zone to achieve greatness. “When faced with a challenge and being in a ‘discomfort’ zone; that is when the magic truly happens. Having constraints can force you to be more creative,” she said.
Talking about the art of communication and the importance of listening, hostage negotiator Richard Mullender got the crowd interacting and working together in various exercises to demonstrate just how important listening really is. “Everything starts with listening. All great communication comes from listening,” he said.
Other speakers included the founder of the ‘#do something for nothing’ campaign, Joshua Coombes, who told his moving story of helping others, which began by cutting the hair for homeless people and has taken him all over the world.
Arguably one of the highlights of the two days was a moving presentation from TV adventurer, Ben Fogle. Sharing many of his adventure stories, including climbing Everest, Ben’s moving speech was emotional and poignant. “I’ve never been so beautiful or terrifying. Being so close to death teaches you to live more in the now, to look up, and to smile,” he said.
Times columnist Phillip Collins covered some great business topics in a highly amusing session which the audience related brilliantly to. To close the amazing two days, Levi Roots, who is best knows for his Reggae Reggae sauce ended with an upbeat and extremely empowering session on his rags to riches story. “For me now, looking back on this fantastic journey, the moral is to be yourself. Just be you and never try and be something you are not.”
“This has truly been an amazing two days. We have had so much fun together but are all walking away armed with more tools to help grow our businesses, with bundles of inspiration and hopefully the motivation to get us through to next year, when we will be back. Thank you all for being part of this remarkable event.” said Sheila Jackson, Director of Education and Events.
