Day one was enjoyable sharing the speaking platform with Mark Constantine, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Lush, Ben Phillips, Managing Director of Steamer Trading Cookshop, Tom Joule, CEO of Joules and chaired by Luke Johnson, Chairman of Risk Capital Partners & Columnist Financial Times.

We enjoyed an open discussion about ‘Releasing the retail entrepreneurial spirit’; something which I’m very passionate about and feel has been key to the success of Hotel Chocolat to date! The thing I remember most clearly, however, was Mark asking what time we got up that morning to prove how hard working entrepreneurs are. Slightly embarrassing to have to admit to 9am thanks to a late night of arguing and Pinotage with Fredik Ahlin, our Creative Director.

It was also amazing to see the power of social media with live tweets being projected onto a huge screen at the conference!

Thanks to everyone who attended our session and who tweeted.