Press Release

Business leaders from across the Thames Valley gathered at the Hilton Hotel in Reading Thursday evening to attend the Thames Valley Business Leaders' Dinner.
More than 170 guests attended the event, which was co-hosted by Shoosmiths, KPMG and NatWest.

These annual dinners are an important platform for local business leaders to exchange views on topical issues, network and to share best practice.

Attendees at the event were addressed by keynote speaker, Matthew Syed, an award winning journalist with The Times author of two best-selling books ‘Black Box Thinking’ and ‘Bounce’.

Matthew spoke about the impact on performance between a fixed mind-set and a growth mind set, and the importance of looking for incremental gains, drawing upon business and sporting examples.

Shoosmiths corporate partner Emma Gibson, said: 'It is always a pleasure to co-host these dinners and this year will mark our 7th to date.

‘The Thames Valley region is a rich and diverse tapestry of businesses. Listening to and offering our clients and contacts a different perspective on how businesses can improve upon their current processes and how we should best respond to change was very refreshing.’

Andrew Morgan, Thames Valley senior partner at KPMG, said: ‘Once again it was great to hear the range of issues that are affecting business leaders in the Thames Valley, and there were some thought provoking points raised by Matthew Syed around cultural change and learning from mistakes. It’s clear there is a determination to build on the strengths of our region and a real appetite for further investment here to ensure we can make best use of all opportunities.’

Robin Barnes, regional director of Thames Valley for NatWest, said: 'We were delighted to bring together the region’s business leaders for this prestigious event. Mathew Syed provided some thoughtful and powerful insight as to how the audience could become world beaters by embracing and learning from failures in their businesses.’