Wednesday September 11 2024
Swindon & Wiltshire News
Olympic medal-winning athlete Fatima Whitbread will be among the guest speakers at the popular South West Expo, which will be making a return trip to Swindon’s Steam Museum next month.
Fatima broke the javelin world record with a throw of 77.44 metres in the qualifying round of the 1986 European Athletics Championships, coming home with a gold medal.
She also won a bronze at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and silver at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
She will share her stories from the sports world and talk about overcoming childhood adversity, and about her challenge to change the UK care system for vulnerable children through Fatima’s UK campaign.
Fatima completed her expedition to Mount Everest Base Camp in May and will be holding a national summit in 2025 to bring together people and organisations working in children’s services.
Great British Expos founder Alec Jones Hall said: “Wwe are delighted that Fatima has agreed to be the keynote speaker at the expo, which will encourage and inspire more entrepreneurs to achieve their goals. She is a symbol of strength. All businesses experience challenges and who better to inspire them on the morning and motivate than award-winning Olympian Fatima Whitbread MBE.”
Fatima added: “I am looking forward to being part of helping more businesses achieve a winner’s mindset to overcome their challenges to make an impact. I look forward to meeting everyone at the Breakfast’.bSharing the platform will be Stefan Thomas, the Amazon bestselling author of Business Networking for Dummies; Jamie McAnsh, the first person to climb Everest Base Camp with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, and the first disabled squash player to compete in a European Masters Tournament; and Vee Bharkhada, founder and managing director of Navigate Business Recovery Limited.
Workshops include How To Become Famous by public relations consultant Fiona Scott, and Social Media Success on Autopilot with Aida Social.
The Expo will take place in The Great Western Hall on Wednesday, July 17 from 10am to 3pm, following the Big Business Breakfast, which is being held at the same venue from 8.30am.
The Expo is billed as Swindon’s biggest business networking and educational event for small business owners and entrepreneurs.
Over 1,000 delegates are expected to attend, and up to 100 companies will be exhibiting.
