Do Business Better – Merseyside Women of the Year

Presented by Ellen Kerr

DO BUSINESS BETTER CONFERENCE 2026

The Do Business Better Conference, presented by Ellen Kerr, is returning to Blackburne House on Wednesday 14th October 2026.

Expect networking, inspirational speakers, and valuable advice from expert guests.

Focused on your Network Information Money Self belief

The conference will focus on four foundational pillars of success and explore the essentials needed to allow anyone to do business and life better.

Bringing these four strands together with expert speakers, real stories and a business marketplace, it will be an interactive day filled with engaging, thought-provoking learning sessions and practical take-homes.

If you would like to enquire about being a sponsor, hosting a stall or speaking at the event, please contact ellie@mwoty.co.uk

Event Schedule

Headline Sponsor

Event Sponsors

All schedule timings are subject to change by the organisers. To learn more about our speakers, click here.

9:30 am

Registration

Arrive, register, grab a tea or coffee, browse the marketplace and enjoy some pre-event networking before the conference begins. The conference is headline sponsored by FPC

10:00 am

Opening

Ellie’s welcome to the conference.

10:15 am

Good AI, Better Business

A panel curated by Gavin Sherratt from Goodship* discussing the world of AI, how it is changing the working world and how it can be used to grow business and do good. Gavin will be joined by:

Debbie Edwards – Founder, Love Pioneer Media Ltd

Rosie Djurovic – Head of AI at Brabners

Stephanie Power – Journalist, Producer and Co-host of Married to the Machine Podcast

See full speaker bios here

10:45 am

BIPC for your Business

Geraldine Fuller is the Business Engagement and Marketing Manager at the Business & IP Centre Liverpool (BIPC). In this session she will share information on the services that BIPC offers and how they can benefit your business.

10:55am

Build Networking Relationships Better

Denise Chilton is an award-winning business and leadership coach, championing women in business to step up with confidence into leadership roles and build successful, fulfilling lives – both professionally and personally. In this session she will share tips on how to build networking relationships better – and practical ways to make the most of your networking breaks at the conference.

11:05 am

Break

Networking

Enjoy a tea or coffee and conversation with fellow delegates.

11:35 am

Financal Resilience

Curated by headline sponsor, FPC, this three-part session looks at financial resilience and our relationship with money, combining lived experience with practical guidance to help you feel more informed and in control.

Fireside conversation - resilience, confidence and financial security

A fireside conversation led by Moira O’Shaughnessy exploring how our relationship with money changes through different stages of life and business and what personal experience can teach us about resilience, confidence and financial security.

Are your finances working as hard as your business?

Running a successful business means constantly balancing the demands of today with planning for tomorrow. But when owners are focused on customers, people and growth, their own financial and tax position can easily fall down the priority list.

In this session, Laura Leslie, Partner at DSG Chartered Accountants, will share practical financial and tax considerations for business owners and highlight the areas that are worth reviewing regularly, particularly in a changing economic and business environment.

Laura will explore how business owners can make better use of the information already available to them, understand the financial health and value of their business, identify opportunities to improve efficiency and plan more effectively for tax, investment, growth and the future.

Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of the financial questions they should be asking, the areas they may be overlooking and the practical steps they can take now to strengthen both their business and their personal financial position.

What's Your Business Worth Without a Will?

Business owners routinely plan for growth, change and opportunity, but many have not considered how their business and personal affairs would be managed if the unexpected happened. In this session, Carol Mason, Partner at Morecrofts Solicitors, will explain why a professionally drafted Will is one of the most important documents a business owner can have. She will explore the potential impact on family members, fellow shareholders, directors and employees when succession plans are not in place and highlight the legal arrangements that can help protect both personal and business interests. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of the steps they should take now to safeguard their business, support their loved ones and ensure their wishes are carried out when it matters most.

12:40 pm

Interview with The Girls Network Ambassador

Donna Scully from Carpenters Group interviews an ambassador from the Girls Network on mentorship and the topic of self-belief, its importance and how to develop it.

1 pm

Lunch

Lunch, networking and browse the marketplace.

2:05 pm

Joyful Body: Move. Reset. Rise.

Ready to shift your energy?

After lunch, our attention and alertness can naturally dip. This session, led by award-winning movement artist, creative producer, ADHD coach and founder of Joyful Journeys, Ithalia Johnson, will use the power of movement, music, joy and laughter to re-energise the body, reset the mind and reconnect with the room.

The science: move your body, shift your state. Movement can boost alertness, lift mood and sharpen focus. No dance experience. No pressure. Just movement, music and laughter.

Move your body. Change your state. Let joy be your foundation.

2:15 pm

Employers, Education and Skills for Better Business

Skills are fundamental to business growth, productivity and innovation. In this session, Elaine Bowker, Principal & Group Chief Executive at the City of Liverpool College, will explore how employers and education providers can work together to address skills gaps, develop a strong and diverse talent pipeline and ensure that training keeps pace with a rapidly changing economy. Drawing on practical examples from The City of Liverpool College, she will demonstrate how meaningful employer partnerships can help businesses secure the skills they need while creating life-changing opportunities for people across the Liverpool City Region.

2:30 pm

The Business AI Checklist

Flatdot Marketing is a Liverpool-based SEO agency that has worked with businesses across the North West and beyond since 2019. From its studio on Jamaica Street, the team covers SEO, content, technical auditing and AI visibility. Search has changed. This session is a ten-minute walkthrough of how to audit your own site’s AI visibility with checks you can run before you leave the room.

2:40 pm

Sales Made Simple

Lauren Fox is a sales transformation consultant who helps B2B Tech & AI founders make sales make sense. With over a decade of experience building and leading sales teams across SaaS, enterprise technology and AI – including as EMEA Sales Director at Peak AI in this session she will share how she works with founders and leadership teams to simplify sales, strengthen commercial foundations and scale sustainably. Her approach is built around clarity, simplicity and Spirit-led sales.

2:50 pm

Purpose and Self-belief

You don’t start where you finish. In this session David Wafer, director of McIver Scott Executive Recruitment, brings his impactful high performing insight as to why – wherever you start then or now – should never determine how far you go. He will share where he found purpose and how you can find yours for you and your business, and his thoughts on why emotional intelligence is the biggest opportunity and the biggest risk to your business.

3 pm

Break

Networking

Enjoy a tea or coffee and conversation with fellow delegates.

3:25 pm

Social Value Partnerships

Liam Starkey is the Founder of Not For Profit Consultancy (NFPC). This session will focus on bridging the gap between businesses and grassroots organisation. How businesses can turn good intentions into meaningful social value through the right community partnerships.

3:35 pm

Investment Growth

Sue Chambers is a Senior Investment Manager at River Capital, where she plays a key role in deploying funding between £25,000 and £100,000 to regional SMEs through the British Business Bank’s NPIF II Smaller Loans fund. In this session she will interview Louise Kemp of Nineteen Agency about the challenges of starting and growing a business and how funding has helped them.

3:45 pm

Keep Steppin': The Power of Self-Belief

For more than 30 years, Miguel Doforo has worked across creativity, business and community, experiencing the highs, the setbacks, the closed doors and the moments when the only option has been to keep moving forward.

In this session, Miguel will explore self-belief through his personal philosophy of “Keep Steppin'” — what it has meant throughout his own journey and, more importantly, what it could mean for you.

Drawing on his work through See You See Me, Miguel will explore the importance of being seen, seeing yourself, recognising your own value and refusing to allow circumstances, labels or setbacks to define what happens next.

The session will also connect self-belief with the conference’s wider pillars of NETWORK, INFORMATION and MONEY — because who we surround ourselves with, what we learn, the decisions we make and whether we believe we can take the next step are all connected.

Keep Steppin’ isn’t about pretending everything is easy. It’s about finding your next step when it isn’t.

Expect an honest, energetic and thought-provoking session designed to leave you asking:

What does Keep Steppin’ mean to me — and what is my next step?

4 pm

Event Close

Final reflections and thanks from Ellie Kerr