What do you bring to the club?
I bring a different perspective from lots of different experiences. I am passionate about inspiring & empowering people to change the world. People get so overwhelmed by the magnitude of what needs to be done to be more truly inclusive, equitable and diverse, and the easiest things to do is do nothing. I set up 'Purpose Driven Impact' to provide simple solutions and actions you can take in starting to become more inclusive. Simple, no nonsense & non-judgemental training, consultancy, organisational restoration and supporting with strategies for success. I've had a varied career and worked across the UK, USA, Australia & Africa in the commercial sector, professional sport, international development and international sport for development & charity sectors. As former CEO of Special Olympics Great Britain, I led a major transformational change programme culminating in a new strategic plan called “Inclusion in Action” which sets the roadmap for the future of the organisation. I am passionate about inclusion, diversity and belonging and creating inclusive environments which inspire people to be the best they can be. I bring some great stories and expertise to assist with breaking down barriers and helping people to make small changes which will have a huge impact. If nothing else, I bring an Irish Mancunian sense of humour!
What makes you unusual?
I am so uncool, that I am probably cool! I can drive a tractor & a digger, and once assisted a vet with a c-section on a cow (my folks have a farm in Ireland). I played football for Man United ladies in my youth, I was an Irish Dancer before it was cool, I brought the King & Queen of Lesotho to a T20 Cricket Match in Durham and I've been the only female president of a professional football club in an African country!
What do you want from the club?
I want to have some interesting conversations which light a spark. I'd like develop relationships and network with people who also want to change the world. If I can help people to look at creating more inclusive and diverse environments in a different way and inspire people to take action, then I will be happy. As a new business owner with huge ambitions to develop my business, Purpose Driven Impact, I want to be in a position to create paid employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for those who live with an intellectual (learning) disability, and create more environments and platforms where they can share their inspiring and empowering stories. Collaboration, Networking, Storytelling, Inspiring & Empowering.

What do you bring to the club?
I bring two different design solutions to the members of Home Grown ... • -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- • -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- Through Eau Rouge Ltd. I create strategic, targeted and beautifully designed branding for businesses, plus any ongoing graphic design for print. I also design and build gorgeous and modern Squarespace websites. My websites are future-proof - We could start with a simple site designed to appeal to your target audience, and then - if and when it suits the business - add features such as a shop, a blog, a newsletter, or paid-for content in a membership area. I design websites that my clients can totally edit and update themselves, without it getting all too techie, or having to pay to outsource minor changes. • -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- • -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- As Jade Thomas Jewellery, I design one-off pieces of luxury jewellery, featuring diamonds and rare or unusual coloured gemstones. I have a range of ready-to-wear pieces on my website, but I also design bespoke commissions and redesign inherited jewels into new pieces.
What makes you unusual?
With my design business, the answer is that I'm able to step into the mindset of your ideal clients really quickly, in order to create designs that appeal to them. With my jewellery, most of my gems are so traceable that I can tell you the exact day and location they were discovered and show you an image of how each gemstone looked before cutting and polishing. They are truly one-offs and make amazing gifts or a treat to celebrate a success!
What do you want from the club?
Firstly, having a beautiful, safe and central location in which to meet clients or simply use as a base when in London is a fabulous benefit to me and my businesses. It's also an inspiring place to meet business owners and entrepreneurs, and it is so, so much nicer than staying in a random hotel room on my own - I've also made some fab friends here! The staff are wonderful, friendly and I'm so happy to be a member. Whilst we've all been at home the webinars have been inspiring and thought-provoking, but I look forward to staying at HG again when possible.

What does 29,565 days and the new face of retail have in common?

As humans, on average, we have around 29,565 days on Earth. What does that have in common with the future of the high street?

Firstly, we need to find out what the purpose of physical retail is.

Think back to 2008, when the UK lost the institution known as Woolworths, a stalwart of the high street; it was shocking! How could we lose the place we got our pick n mix! A few years later and the likes of Phones4U, Blockbuster and Comet, all household names in their own right, would also share Woolworth’s fate. It might’ve seemed surprising in 2012, but anybody paying close attention to the digital space knew this was inevitable. This marked the beginning of the transition from the physical high street to the online marketplace.

Retail marketer WARREN RICHMOND soon realised this.

The traditional physical retail business model no longer appealed to the new tech-savvy shopper, for whom convenience is above all.

The business model of physical retail is still designed around how to best sell products, though many of the people still going into shops in person end up buying online.

How does that link to the fact that we as humans (on average) have 29,565 days on earth?

Well actually, there are 2 ways it links:

What do we do in those days?
How can retail help us live a better life every day?

We spend most of our time, 26 years in fact, in bed, and over lockdown, we’ve spent even more time than usual resting at home. Our next big-time spender, at a whopping 13 years, is work. So this begs the question:

What do consumers want and need going forward and how does retail help promote the tools to support doing work?

4127 days are spent looking at a screen; that’s 11 years and 4 months.

What is retail doing to educate about the dangers of excessive screen time?

1583 days are spent eating; that’s 4 years and 6 months.

Retail is trying to sell you products to cook and prepare food. Instead, they should be selling us the idea of good, tasty and nutritional diets. Basically the food itself! That’s the exciting bit.

485 days are spent exercising in your lifetime; that’s 1 year and 4 months.

1146 days are spent on holiday.

395 days are spent on romance and finally…

365 days are spent socialising.

So what’s left and how does this affect retail?

There are 4595 days left. That’s a lot of time that retail needs to fill with great and innovative products! That leads us back to our question, what is the purpose of physical retail?

There are 4 things to consider:

Humans want to discover.
The online purchase trend is here to stay.
There is too much digital choice.
A new breed of innovative brands are on the rise.

If we consider that, then you realise that to change physical retail to cater towards the new shopper, you have to change the purpose of physical retail.

At Situ, we aim to change retail into theatre and education. This means that the new purpose of retail will be measured not only by-product stock, but by the experience, you provide in helping others discover things for a better life.

In conversation with the host of the Home Grown property series, Pippa Wotmaugh was joined by speaker Warren Richmond is the CEO & Founder of Situ Live & Revium Group and Chair for Retail Marketing Group.

To continue learning you can watch the full event here

Warren Richmonds’ career has, and will always focus on storytelling and the desire to deliver the best possible experience for shoppers.

Why not connect with Warren on LinkedIn here.

I sleep there, I eat there, I meet friends there, I have business meetings there, I like it, It's my club! Gregg Wallace

It’s always a delight to meet, network and entertain amidst the generally relaxed vibes that radiates throughout Home Grown Gladstone Small

Home Grown is immersed with an overflowing energy, unrivalled facilities yet the club has a certain uniqueness. Luke Reed

What a special delight and home from home! I stay here whenever I come to London and their Scale-up events are on the money. John Courtney

We are all crying out for opportunities to bump into other people, to spark ideas off them that make us happier, more fulfilled and more imaginative: Home Grown is a forum for just this creative serendipity. Tas Tasgal

Home Grown is more to me than just my office in London. It’s a community. It’s a place to network with other business people. But most of all it’s got that super friendly and positive vibe that you just can’t wait to get there each time. Neil Thompson

For people worth meeting

Ngan Nguyen

Harry Hortyn

Claire Trachet

Gavin Lacey

Lenna Lou

Georgie Fitzpatrick

Colin Horton

Lewis Malka

Sahil Chopra

James Campbell

Melonie Dando

Dr Abdalla Kablan

Adam Godfrey

Dylan Salamon

Russ Tucker

Daniel Buehler

Dennis Fredrickx

Dillan Gandhi

Leah Fennema Hall

Nic Pillow

Catherine Dupéré

Lucy Aldis (Shaw)

James Higgins

René Carayol

Josh Pollack

Daniel Glazer

Dr Kate Tomas

Duncan Casemore

Animesh Ghosh

Rose Miller

Liall Medina

Freddie Pritchard-Smith

Michelle Carney

jonathan chandler

Peter Hill

Paul Denley

Fiona Glen

John Brown

Justin Byrne

Dayana Nikolova

Matt Dibben

Darren Wareing

James Cooper

Nicole Brule-Walker

Kinson

Simon Hughes

Benji Hassell

Martin Norbury

Jaime Morgan Hitchcock

Jack Murphy

Tash Grossman

Bertie Heyman

Mike West

Sandip Patel

Feyi Fakoya

Andrew Rear

Louise Swanne

Sonja Sofia Schmidt

Huw Crwys-Williams

Chris Huddleston

Nicolas Croix

Jeff Gosling

Janine Mostyn

Phil Lewis

Ravinder Sandhu

Donnie Bachan

Jonathan-Robert Perry

Mark Gillett

Dominic Warman

S Shridhar

David Kitchener

Steve Schrier

Alexi Pittalis

Pavan Patel

Max Li

Alexandra Groszek

Mary Steadman

Ian Tollett

Victoria Proud