On 1st April 2026, it will be 10yrs since I went self-employed in 2016 after spending 15yrs helping other people start & grow their business in various roles for Sage, British Airways, Generator North East, PNE Group, Shell LiveWIRE, Sage (for a 2nd time) & then Tech North (part of Tech City UK / Tech Nation).
Some of these roles were national but most were regional / focused on the North East of England which is what led me to want to start my own business with the primary focus of helping to make the North East of England & Teesside a more vibrant place to start & grow a business.
Initially, I provided community engagement, marketing & business development consultancy for startups & small businesses (plus some larger businesses) along with lots of free mentoring, advice & signposting to anyone who needed it.
5.5 months later, I was invited to do a talk at a Dynamo North East event on what I thought regional business leaders needed to do to attract & retain talent (& create a stronger ecosystem). My answer? To put on a big, 5-day event that everyone would benefit from called ‘Newcastle Startup Week’ in May 2017.
I’m happy to share that this got a very positive response with lots of people coming up to me afterwards saying how exciting it was & that they’d like to be involved.
Fast forward to May 2017 & after a huge amount of work, it was thrilling to have 600 delegates attend our 1st, 5-day, multi-venue Newcastle Startup Week festival!
We repeated this again with another 600 delegates in 2018 & then 800 in 2019 (when Steven Bartlett gave an awesome keynote before going on to become mega-famous)!
Since then, I’ve run almost 100 events including the Newcastle Scaleup Summit in 2017, 20 x monthly Founders’ Friday events between 2018-2020 which were re-launched as PLATFORM in January 2024 & the 5-day UK Startup & Scaleup Week festival in Sunderland last year which attracted 420 delegates & where Sara Davies MBE & Daniel Priestley were wonderful speakers.
2,000+ different people have attended these events so far & according to our CRM system, another 1,600 people have received some form of 1-2-1 business advice or guidance from me over the years (3,684 in total who I’ve helped in some way).
I also now have 37,759 Followers or Subscribers to my multiple LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & YouTube Channels where I share startup & scaleup-related information & advice plus weekly video interviews & podcasts with business leaders.
In short, I’ve done a LOT over the past 10yrs (including winning a few awards along the way which I’m very grateful for) & continue to genuinely LOVE what I do so THANK YOU to everyone who has worked with me, supported me, Followed or Subscribed to me, attended my events or just cheered from the sidelines. I really do appreciate it & am excited about the next 10yrs!
In the meantime, if you have enjoyed any of my events, learned something from me over the years, been directly helped by me or benefited in any way from the work that I’ve been doing, here’s how you can help me celebrate 10yrs in business…
1. Attend our 1-day PLATFORM Conference in Newcastle on 28 April
Building on our monthly half-day PLATFORM events, this new, full day conference will ‘focus on the people, processes, technology & finance that provide rocket fuel for scaling businesses’. You can see the agenda & book your ticket here.
2. Subscribe to our UK Startup & Scaleup Week YouTube Channel
Offering the best practical advice for starting & scaling a business in the UK, our YouTube Channel features weekly interviews with founders, investors & operators sharing real lessons you can use & (almost) daily tips & advice. Subscribe here.
3. Book a ticket for one of our half-day PLATFORM events this month
We’re running 2 x half-day PLATFORM events this month & we’d love you to join us. It’s Newcastle on Friday 20 March & Middlesbrough on Thursday 26 March. You can book your FREE ticket(s) for these & future events on our Eventbrite page.
4. Give us a positive Trustpilot or Google Review
If you’ve enjoyed any of my / our events over the years, I’d really love it if you left a positive Trustpilot Review or Google Review.
5. Make sure you’ve Liked or Followed our social media channels
We share information every day not only about our events but about other people’s events, funding, investment opportunities & business growth-related information that we think will help you be successful.
With this in mind, please Like | Follow us at:
- Facebook www.facebook.com/UKStartupWeek
- Facebook www.facebook.com/PlatformNEUK
- LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/ukstartupweek
- LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/platformuk
- Instagram www.instagram.com/ukstartupweek
- Twitter / X https://twitter.com/ukstartupweek
- Twitter / X https://twitter.com/platform_UK
+ don’t forget to introduce yourself & join the conversation in our PLATFORM Plus Facebook Group & / or PLATFORM Plus LinkedIn Group.
6. Vote for us in the Climb UK Awards 2026
If you think we deserve an award for the past 10yrs, please consider voting for us to win the ‘Ecosystem Growth & Opportunity Award‘ at the Climb UK Awards 2026. It takes literally just a few minutes to complete a very short form here.
Thank you for reading & for being part of the journey so far!
Paul Lancaster
Founder, Event Producer & Growth Consultant
PLATFORM | UK Startup Week & Scaleup Week
Stellar Business Events
https://platformevents.ai
http://ukstartupweek.com