Networking Event For Disabled Founders
2nd October 2024 House of Lords
It was a privilege to be invited to the House of Lords on the 2nd of October for a networking lunch, for disabled founders, hosted by Small Business Britain, in partnership with Lloyds Bank.
It was good to hear about the updates on the Lilac Review since it was launched. We also heard from a disabled founder and their journey into business and entrepreneurship.
It was a great opportunity to meet and connect with other businesses too.
6 Accessible Events To Enjoy This Halloween
October 2024
October is the month of Halloween. It also falls at a time when the schools break up for the half-term holidays. Halloween is the time of year when witches, ghosts, and monsters come out to haunt and scare us. For this spooky month, we share 6 unforgettable, inclusive events, activities and attractions for children and families to enjoy.
1) Accessible Waterways Day
5th Oct 10.30am – 6pm
UCL East London
If you are interested in making waterways more accessible for disabled people why not join the Accessible Waterways Association as they host a day where you can enjoy the surroundings of the canals and rivers with exhibitor stalls exhibiting how they are working towards making the waterways accessible as possible. To find out more and to book your free ticket, follow the link Accessible Waterways Day 2024 Attendee Registration
Accessibility
UCL is wheelchair accessible. If you have other access requirements you would like to discuss you can send an email to su.volunteering@ucl.ac.uk
2) Natural History Museum
11th October
South Kensington, London
The Natural History museum is back with it’s photography of the year exhibition. Visitors can enjoy a visual adventure into wildlife and see the breathtaking images of predators and stories of each image captured by photographers. Disabled visitors can attend in the morning away from the crowds from 10am until 11am. This event will run until June 2025.
To find out more and to book, follow the link Wildlife Photographer of the Year
3) Kew Gardens
18th – 27th October 6pm – 10pm
Richmond, London
If you like Halloween, Kew Gardens will be hosting spooky night trails and adventures with treats to enjoy and have fun. To find out more and to book your preferred date, follow the link Buy Tickets (seetickets.com)
Accessibility Kew Gardens offers a range of accessible facilities for deaf and disabled visitors.
- Mobility scooters and wheelchairs
- Accessible toilets
- BSL tours
- Hearing loops
To find out more, follow the link Kew Gardens Accessibility.
4) Blenheim Palace
25th October
Woodstock
Enjoy the fun this Halloween at Blenheim Palace with even more surprises for this year in their trail and spooky space, surrounded by pumpkins and spooky food burgers, fries and sweet treats with a twist to tantalise your taste buds. To book your tickets, follow the link Halloween at Blenheim Palace
Accessibility
The venue is committed to making sure that disabled visitors can enjoy and access the events while on site. Companion tickets for blue badge holders are free to gain entry and you don’t need to pre-book for a companion ticket. This will be given to you when you arrive. If you would like to discuss your access requirements you can give them a call on 01993 810530 or email customerservice@blenheimpalace.com. This event will run until the 3rd of November 2024.
5) The Royal Institution
27th October 11am – 4pm
Westminster
For the half-term holidays, the Royal Intuition are hosting a family fun day for children. They will get to learn from volunteers, scientists and researchers all about animals and their behaviours and how they adapt in their environment. To find out more and to book, follow the link Family Fun Day: Amazing animals
Accessibility
The event will take place on the 1st floor and has step free access with a lift and the closest accessible station is Green Park. Seating is not reserved in the theatre and if needed you can email their events team at events@ri.ac.uk. They can also help with getting you a free carers ticket and any access requirements you have.
An audio induction loop is available.
6) The London Transport Museum
10am – 6pm
Central London
If your children love trains why not take them to the London Transport Museum. The museum offers disabled children the chance to experience the museum at quieter times away from the crowds and sensory spaces for a calming and relaxing experience for visitors. To find out more and to book, follow the link Families with SEND | London Transport Museum.
Accessibility
Accessible toilets are available on the ground floor and the museum can be accessed via lifts to all floor with a few ramps in some areas. The venue offers induction loops and large print highlight tours are available for visitors who are visually impaired.
To find out more about the venue's accessibility, follow the link Accessibility | London Transport Museum
Disability In The World Of Sport And Literature
23rd September 2024
In this episode of My Voice podcast, Zubee and co-host, Raya, had the pleasure of speaking to Danielle Brown MBE who is a 2 x gold medal winner paralympic champion in Archery, keynote speaker award-winning author and entrepreneur.
As the Paralympics have come to an end we thought it will be great to hear from a former Paralympian who’s competed at professional level and been through the challenges to winning gold.
She’s now retired from the sport but continues to help others through her work, providing training and consultancy to organisations in inclusion. We spoke to her about her journey and what inspired her to get into sport to becoming a children's author.
Follow the link to listen on Spotify: Disability In The World Of Sport And Literature
You can follow Danielle on Facebook, X, Instagram and LinkedIn
Disability And AI Revolutionising The Way We Work
14th September 2024
In the latest episode of My Voice podcast, our founder, Zubee and co-host Raya speak to Kiran, who is a disabled student studying computer science, specialising in AI and Robotics at the University of Hertfordshire.
She talks to us about her career and what interested her in learning about AI and the challenges she faced while studying as well as her achievements and future plans.
Listen now on Spotify by following the link.
My Voice Podcast Revolutionising The Way We Work
Breaking Down Barriers In Paraclimbing
23rd May 2024
In the latest episode, of My Voice Podcast, Zubee and co-host Raya Al Jadir are joined by guest speaker Anoushé Husain MBE, who is an ex-para climber. She shares her journey into the sport and some of the challenges she faced growing up.
Despite this, she went on to achieve a Guinness world record for climbing using one hand, has been awarded an MBE to surviving Cancer and much more.
Listen now on Spotify https://lnkd.in/e98ea3_z
SBS London Regional Business Bootcamp
13th May 2024 250 Bishopsgate
On the 13th of May we attended the SBS Regional Business Bootcamp in London organised by Theo and the SBS team. We enjoyed hearing presentations from Natwest on understanding your customer, Google Digital Garage on understanding Google analytics and SBS winner Fran on Instagram and influencers.
The SBS team had organised a special guest appearance from #SBS creator Theo Paphitiis who was interviewed by James Holian, Natwest's Managing Director of Business Banking. They spoke about SBS and how it started, how to grow your business and mental health.
This was a great opportunity for the SBS community to meet and network. We really enjoyed it and look forward to attending future events.
Ramadan Reflections From A Different Perspective
3rd April 2024
In the latest episode of My Voice podcast, we invite back Anjum Khan to speak to her and our co-host Raya, about Ramadan, what it means and why they cannot fast. We each share our individual perspectives and what the holy month means for us.
Listen now on Spotify, by following the link Ramadan Reflections and catch up on our previous episodes too.
We are always on the lookout for guests. If you are interested in sharing your story, please contact us.
Access My Events At The Small Business Sunday Event 2024
23rd February 2024
Access My Events attends their first Small Business Sunday #SBS event, organised by Theo and his team. This is an amazing opportunity for businesses in the #SBS community to network and meet with former and new winners. We share our journey from how it all started and what it meant to us to be in attendance among other amazing businesses, including hearing and meeting with #SBS creator himself, Theo Paphitis.
About Small Business Sunday
On the 24th of July 2023, we entered the Small Business Sunday, #SBS, weekly competition on Twitter. This is one of the UK’s leading business networks, founded by Dragons Den star, Theo Paphitis. We didn’t expect to win and when it was announced that Access My Events was a winner of #SBS, we couldn’t believe it. As a winner of #SBS you get a boost on social media through Theo’s large social media following and you get to join a large community of small business owners with the opportunity to attend an annual event organised by Theo and his team.
Planning Our Journey
When the event date was announced for the 23rd of February, we were very excited and couldn’t wait to attend, being our first #SBS event. We started to plan our travel and book accommodation in advance. While doing this, the excitement was building to the day of the event. We decided to travel a day before so that we could take it easy and be there on time because it was a full day from 9.00am until 5.30pm. For the first time we booked passenger assistance for our journey from London Euston to Birmingham by train and both ways Zubee had the assistance with no problems.
When we arrived in Birmingham, we took an Uber to the hotel and the Uber had dropped us off at the wrong hotel because there were two hotels with the same name. When we eventually got to the right hotel we checked in and went to have a bit of a walk around to explore the area. For Zubee, it felt like a mini holiday because she has not had the opportunity to go out of London much and to see some of the well-known shopping centres and restaurants in Birmingham. Event day had arrived, we took an Uber to the event venue, which was not very far and went straight to the reception area located on the 4th floor to get our name badge and were then taken into the hall to our reserved seats towards the front of the stage.
Event Day Highlights And What Went On
It was a real privilege to be among so many amazing businesses in the network from former and new winners. The event was opened on the main stage by guest speaker, Kypros Kyprianou, CEO of Theo Paphitis Group, followed by the creator of SBS himself, Theo Paphitis. It was amazing to hear him speak and how he started SBS, to it becoming a large community supporting small businesses. He said it’s all about planning for the week ahead and it was on a Sunday that he was sitting in Mrs Paphitis’s kitchen thinking how he could help entrepreneurs and small businesses because he knows how lonely the entrepreneurial journey can be. It was back in October 2010, that he created SBS, this being the 11th event, which has since grown with 4000 plus Small Business Sunday winners.
It was interesting to hear some of the stats from Theo, on the winners with 80% being female and 53% sole traders. It was a very motivating and inspiring event with a lot to take away from the day with expert advice sessions from the SBS partners and sponsors with breakout presentations throughout the day. The room was full of so much positive energy. There were many highlights from the event some of which were, hearing from Theo himself, a former SBS winner who turned an idea into a £1 million business, the Natwest panel of entrepreneurs talking about their journeys into entrepreneurship and business success to meeting with Theo and having our photo taken while being presented with our award.
Special Fireside Chat Guest Stacey Solomon
Finally, Theo welcomed Stacey Solomon to the stage for a fireside chat, followed by a Q&A. It was wonderful to hear about her journey from X Factor, presenting on TV, becoming an influencer with 6 million followers, to investing in her very first business, and what it means to her to support small businesses. It was the first time that the winners were so touched by a guest that Theo had to try and take control as she was getting side tracked during the Q&A, and some of the winners were getting very emotional while speaking to Stacey, and even giving her presents. She got off the stage and allowed the winners to take photos with her. It just showed how much Stacey's words meant to the winners.
You can read our article in the latest issue of Business Connect Magazine, which also features an interview with Theo about #SBS in the Press and Media section of our website. It was great to meet with the Business Connect team in person and to see our article in print at the event.
We would like to thank Theo for choosing and awarding Access My Events, to be part of this amazing network and we look forward to attending again next year.😊
If you are a business that would like to be in with a chance of winning, follow the link to our SBS Winners Blog to find out what it meant to us to be chosen as a winner and how you can enter for free. To see images from the event, go to the gallery page of our website.
Small Business Sunday Event 2024
23rd February 2024 ICC Birmingham
All Small Business Sunday winners get an invite to an annual event that is organised by Theo Paphitis and his team. It's an amazing opportunity to meet and network with like-minded business owners and get expert advice from the SBS partners and sponsors.
It was a real privilege for us to attend our very first #SBS event at the ICC in Birmingham on the 23rd of February. As a winner of SBS, we got the opportunity to meet with Theo and have a professional photo taken while being presented with our award. Below are some photos from the event.
Have a read of our blog about our SBS win and what it meant to us when it was announced that we were a winner, and how you can enter for free.
Overcoming Barriers To Being Awarded An MBE
17 February 2024
In the latest episode of My Voice Podcast, our founder and host Zubee speaks to her friend, Isaac Harvey MBE about his education, growing up with a disability, the challenges he faced, and how he overcame some of those challenges to achieve many amazing things, including carrying the Olympic torch to being awarded an MBE.
👉Listen now on Spotify Overcoming Barriers To Being Awarded An MBE
If you would like to be a guest on the show or would like a transcript of the recording, please email us at myvoicepodcast1@gmail.com
You can follow Isaac on LinkedIn