MORE than one hundred business owners attended a family business conference in Cumbria.

Organised by Sue Coulson, of Coulson Associates, the Rheged Centre based conference featured talks from family business owners, workshops and question and answer panels.

“Family businesses are vital to Cumbria’s economy and community," Ms Coulson said. "Learning from the best and sharing stories with other family businesses brings real benefits. Feedback has been excellent and the conference will certainly be an annual event, forming part of our calendar of family business focussed events."

Main speakers included Sarah Dunning of Westmorland Family who presented with Rob Gray of branding company Squad and also Anthony Keen MD of Barrow based engineering firm SN Group. Both speakers spoke honestly and emotively of their experiences of working in the family firm.

John Stevenson MP for Carlisle and chair for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Family Business opened the event via video link.

Mr Stevenson described family businesses as 'the backbone of Cumbria' and the event as 'an absolutely terrific initiative and one which should have probably happened many years ago.'

William Robinson of national brewery Robinson’s has already been confirmed as a headline speaker for next year’s conference.