Engage scaling businesses actively hiring and building workforce capability
The Festival of Entrepreneurs returns to the NEC, 3–4 November 2026.
5,000 founders, 200 speakers and 150 partners gathering to scale serious businesses.
If you provide recruitment, HR advisory, workforce systems, payroll, benefits or wellbeing solutions, this is where growth-stage founders look for partners to help them build and manage expanding teams.
A founder audience in active headcount growth phases
83% are founders or senior leaders. 35% run £1m+ revenue businesses.
The Festival attracts businesses moving from early traction into structured growth.
A significant proportion of attendees operate in the 1–50 employee range — a phase where:
• Hiring accelerates
• Processes formalise
• Compliance becomes critical
• Retention and engagement impact performance
Founders attend to solve operational bottlenecks — including talent acquisition, workforce planning and HR infrastructure.
These are decision-makers responsible for hiring budgets and workforce strategy.
Recruitment agencies, HR consultancies, wellbeing providers and workforce specialists joined the Festival to connect with scaling founders.
The 2026 edition expands content around team building and workforce development, reflecting sustained demand from growth-stage businesses.
HR and recruitment partners at the 2025 Festival included:
Headcount growth creates operational complexity
63% of founders attend to meet new partners with expertise that can drive their growth.
As businesses scale, workforce challenges move quickly from informal to strategic.
Across the programme, themes include:
• Hiring for growth and capability
• Retention and engagement strategy
• HR systems and infrastructure
• Benefits and wellbeing
• Employment compliance
• Workforce planning
Founders attend to identify practical solutions that support sustainable team expansion.
Exhibit within a high-density founder environment
• Stand options from 6sqm to 72sqm
• Positioned around high-traffic stages and networking hubs
• Premium shell scheme stands and turnkey options
• Access to pre- and post-event marketing exposure
The floorplan is designed to drive movement and maximise meaningful interaction.
Lead practical discussions around hiring and workforce growth
• Deliver applied sessions grounded in experience
• Share hiring frameworks and workforce strategies
• Align with programme themes around team expansion
• Extend reach through professionally recorded sessions
Advisors who demonstrate credibility and depth resonate strongly with growth-stage founders.
“The Festival of Entrepreneurs was a great event, there was real interest in applied AI with established Founders who are scaling their businesses and we made valuable connections. We have rebooked for the next one!”
— Dominic Kos, Founder of Cleverfox AI“Festival of Entrepreneurs was a fantastic event for Strategus Consulting. It was great to meet so many entrepreneurs and founders and hear their ambitions. Follow up has also been excellent, with over 85,000 people viewing our FOE related episodes of the Leaders in Strategy Podcast. We will be back in 2026 with a much bigger stand”
— Mike Harris, CEO of Strategus"We exhibited at last year's Festival of Entrepreneurs and picked up many leads for our fractional c-suite services, so this is a highly recommended event"
— John Courtney CEO, BoardroomAdvisors.co “Our presence at the Festival of Entrepreneurs was a real standout this year. The energy around our stand was fantastic, engaging, inviting, and full of meaningful conversations with entrepreneurs, innovators, and partners who were genuinely excited about what we had to offer. Overall, the event was a brilliant platform for us.”
— Linsey Luke, Head of Business and Stakeholder Engagement, FSB“I had a fantastic experience at the Festival of Entrepreneurs. It’s a rare event that brings together such an open, ambitious and generous group of founders, and the energy across the day really reflected that. I left feeling inspired, with several valuable new connections and conversations that I’m confident will turn into long-term relationships.”
— Mark Rushmore, Co-founder of SURI“The scale and energy in Festival of Entrepreneurs was fantastic, and we really appreciated the opportunity to be part of it.”
— Jay Lad, Business Growth West Midlands
A national platform hosted at the NEC Birmingham
The Festival draws founders from across the UK, with strong representation from London and the South East alongside a growing Midlands base.
The 2026 event doubles in scale — expanding the exhibition, the content programme and the curated networking zones.
The Festival is becoming an essential knowledge exchange and marketplace for scaling founders and the partners who support them.
40% of exhibition space already allocated
Early movers get the advantages of prime exhibition stand locations and alignment with speaker topics.