{"id":5432,"date":"2025-05-28T17:38:35","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T16:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/?p=5432"},"modified":"2025-05-28T17:38:35","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T16:38:35","slug":"kents-chancellor-and-alumna-yolanda-brown-closes-business-summit-with-fireside-chat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/2025\/05\/28\/kents-chancellor-and-alumna-yolanda-brown-closes-business-summit-with-fireside-chat\/","title":{"rendered":"Kent\u2019s Chancellor \u2013 and alumna \u2013 YolanDa Brown closes Business Summit with fireside chat"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>On Tuesday 13 May the University hosted its ninth Kent and Medway Business Summit, welcoming businesses and policymakers to our Canterbury campus for a day of discussion around the big issues shaping Kent and Medway\u2019s economy.<\/h3>\n<p>The event, delivered in partnership with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kentinvictachamber.co.uk\/\">Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce<\/a> and headline sponsors <a href=\"https:\/\/leveretsgroup.co.uk\/\">Leverets<\/a>, highlighted the breadth of what the University has to offer the business community and its important role in connecting local communities to drive positive change in the region.<\/p>\n<p>Following a day panel discussions, workshops, and \u2018netwalking\u2019 sessions \u2013 which included insightful conversation and collaboration around the future of Kent, the local skills landscape and AI in business \u2013 the summit drew to a close with a fireside chat between Kent\u2019s Chancellor, YolanDa Brown OBE DL and Susie Warran-Smith CBE DL.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/files\/2025\/05\/1X8A9698.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5436\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/files\/2025\/05\/1X8A9698.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1366\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The conversation allowed YolanDa to discuss the journey that took her from Kent Business School student to an exciting and wide-ranging career as a musician, broadcaster, author, and entrepreneur. Her inspirational story of launching Soul Mama \u2013 her immersive dining and music space based in London \u2013 through a Guinness World Record breaking crowdfunding campaign, resonated particularly well with guests and showcased her business prowess.<\/p>\n<p>In her capacity as University Chancellor, YolanDa also reiterated the importance of our alumni connections, maintaining that her first priority is to \u2018bring the alumni closer\u2019 to the University and to champion the community to be \u2018an inspiration for our current students\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The University extends its thanks to everyone that supported the event alongside its partners and headline sponsors, with special thanks to session sponsors\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.walker-construction.co.uk\/\">Walker Construction<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dodgemsandfloss.com\/\">Dodgems and Floss<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.akita.co.uk\/\">AKITA<\/a>, and the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.iod.com\/\">Institute of Directors<\/a>, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fsb.org.uk\/\">Federation of Small Businesses<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.medway.gov.uk\/\">Medway Council<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.gov.uk\/\">Kent County Council.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Kent and Medway Business Summit is set to return in 2026 when the University looks forward to welcoming everyone back. Look out \u00a0for updates here or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/kent\/business-news-sign-up\">sign up to receive Kent\u2019s business news.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/files\/2025\/05\/1X8A9003.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5435\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/files\/2025\/05\/1X8A9003.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1366\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Tuesday 13 May the University hosted its ninth Kent and Medway Business Summit, welcoming businesses and policymakers to our Canterbury campus for a day &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/2025\/05\/28\/kents-chancellor-and-alumna-yolanda-brown-closes-business-summit-with-fireside-chat\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80151,"featured_media":5433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[118124],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5432"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5432"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5439,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5432\/revisions\/5439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}