The University of Greenwich has staged its first workshop for members of the business community who are deaf or hard of hearing.
The two-day event dealt with subjects including effective social media, networking, public relations, marketing, sales and building customer relationships.
The workshop attracted 15 business leaders from the London region and used British Sign Language interpreters throughout the talks and discussion groups. The event was held in partnership with Positive Signs, a London-based interpreting and communication support agency.
Jerry Allen, Business Development Manager for the university’s Business School, says: “This was a new and original event to support deaf or hard of hearing entrepreneurs. It proved a great success and was very well received. We realised that this was an area of the business community that didn’t have the support, or awareness, that it merited.
“Many of those attending reported that their business needs had not really been addressed before in this way.”
Speakers included Paul Simpson, a Lecturer in Public Relations in the university’s Department of Marketing, Events & Tourism, and Rob Robson, Principal Lecturer in the university’s Department of Systems Management & Strategy.
The free workshop was part of the FLASH innovation programme, run by Greenwich Research & Enterprise (GRE) and the university’s Business School. The aim of FLASH is to allow businesses of all kinds to benefit from the university’s resources, research and expertise, and includes follow-up consultancy for those taking part.
The FLASH programme also seeks to establish long-term working partnerships between the university and small and medium-sized businesses, self-employed people and sole traders across London. Other recent workshop topics have included include presentation skills, networking and making innovative use of LinkedIn and Twitter.
A range of new FLASH workshops are now available at the university in September and October: http://enterprise.gre.ac.uk/employer-services/flash/workshops
Workshops are staged at Hamilton House, 15 Park Vista, Greenwich SE10 9LZ: http://www2.gre.ac.uk/about/travel/hamilton-house
For information about studying at the University of Greenwich’s Business School:
http://www2.gre.ac.uk/about/schools/business
FLASH is open to all businesses in the London region which employ fewer than 250 people and have an annual turnover below €50m, or balance sheet below €43m. Part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Institute for Sustainability’s FLASH programme, workshops are free for London-based businesses.
Story by Public Relations