Scale Up Dinners

A free dinner series for founders, CEOs and Managing Directors who are serious about growth. Real conversations, no pitching, no panels.

Currently in York, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield & Manchester

What to expect

Each Scale Up Dinner brings together a group of leaders from scaling businesses across the region.

Hosted by Open Velocity in collaboration with Barclays Eagle Labs, the evenings are designed to be candid, useful and free from the usual awkward forced networking or self-interested presentations.

There’s no agenda to push and no one trying to sell you something.

Carefully curated, intimate dinners

Peer-to-peer conversation

Free for qualifying business leaders

Our next event: Sheffield

Thursday, November 26th, 6 PM – 8 PM

Discovery Café at the plaza of Pennine Five

Block 4, Pennine 5 Campus, 20 Hawley St Sheffield S1 4WP

Agenda

06:00 PM – 06:30 PM – Arrive and networking
06:30 PM – 07:00 PM – Introductions
07:00 PM – 08:00 PM – Get stuck into food and conversation!

Who this is for

The majority of attendees are running businesses with £1m–£20m+ in revenue. All of the leaders who attend are the most senior person in their business when it comes to growth decisions. There isn’t always someone inside the business to test thinking or explore challenges with. This is that room.

To protect the quality of conversation for everyone in the room, we review each registration before confirming a place.

To attend, you need to meet at least one of the following criteria:

Five or more employees
£500k or more in turnover
£100k or more raised or currently raising in funding

If you’re unsure whether you qualify, register your interest and we’ll be in touch.

Hear from our guests

“I attended my first Scale-up dinner in May this year and was made to feel so welcome by the team. It was a great event, had a lovely dinner, met some inspiring business owners from across the city and learned about opportunities I’d love to get involved in. I came away energised by the evening.”
Dr Helen May, Director and Founder, The Innate Coach

“These dinners create the kind of conversations that are hard to find anywhere else – honest, practical, and full of usable insight. Every time I leave with some new perspectives, valuable connections, and renewed energy.”
William Hogge, Founder and CEO, The Inhaler Tailer

“The York Scale Up Dinners are one of the few rooms where the conversation is actually useful. These are warm and friendly evenings with open and honest discussions around common frustrations and challenges that scale-ups face.”
Kristan Bullett, CEO, Humans Not Robots