Beyond the Business: The value of community, connection and belonging

Amardeep Parmar is the cofounder and CGO of Bae HQ. Bae HQ is the ecosystem for high-growth Asian-heritage founders and investors in the UK. They run three programmes: Bae Accelerator, IncuBaetor, and Youth Startups. 12k+ people have attended their events and talks and they've released 300+ podcasts. Amardeep is also the author of Startups for Outsiders and an angel investor/limited partner.

I'm a builder at heart, drawn to the technologies reshaping how value, ownership, and trust work on the internet — particularly crypto, decentralisation, and AI. I co-founded KnownOrigin, one of the earliest digital art marketplaces on Ethereum, which eBay acquired in 2022. Post-acquisition, I moved into eBay's global Web3 and digital passport strategy. Before KnownOrigin, I cut my teeth building BlockRocket.tech alongside James Morgan — a blockchain consultancy that gave me deep, practical Web3 experience.

David Williams is a serial entrepreneur and business growth strategist who has spent fifteen years building organisations, movements, and communities that actually move the needle. Currently COO at Ideas Forums; home of the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, UK StartUp Awards, Ideas Fest, and the Fast Growth Index. David works daily with a network of over 100,000 businesses, tracking growth trends, spotting opportunity, and connecting ambitious founders with the people and platforms that accelerate them. Before Ideas Forums, David founded the Youth Development Agency. A Global Start-Up of the Year, scaling it from zero to operations across 25 countries. He has consulted on four continents, spoken at government invitation, and led programmes from the boardrooms of international schools to community projects in Sierra Leone and India. David brings unfiltered insight on what separates businesses that scale from those that stall; grounded in data, shaped by experience, and delivered without the theory.

Simone Roche MBE is an award-winning founder, innovator and community builder, leading We Are Power – a movement accelerating belonging and social mobility in the world of work. She started her career in the Royal Navy at 18 before building a diverse portfolio across organisations including Aintree Racecourse, Blackpool Pleasure Beach and the London 2012 Olympics, gaining experience in operations, events and leadership under pressure. Passionate about creating platforms for people and ideas, Simone also founded TEDxWhitehallWomen, driven by a mission to make role models more visible, accessible and seen. As Founder and CEO of We Are Power, Simone has built a cross-sector community of over 120,000 people spanning all genders and socio-economic backgrounds, creating more than £12.3 million in social value through events, programmes and storytelling. Alongside founding the Northern PoWEr Women Awards, the largest celebration of gender equality in Europe, she has also developed initiatives including PoWEr Pack, connecting future talent with industry, opportunity and confidence-building experiences. Simone was awarded an MBE in 2018 for services to gender equality and is an Honorary Captain in the Royal Navy. Outside of work, she is a Castellera, wannabe DJ and boat dweller.