Welcome to The Great Big Small Business Festival!
Now in its fifth year, this exciting celebration of everything local business has grown bigger and better with each passing year. Headed by E-Factor and The Business Hive, the Festival brings together our local business community for a dynamic week of connection, learning, and recognition.
Festival highlights include:
The area’s largest business expo
The prestigious Great Big Small Awards ceremony
A variety of business workshops
Exclusive tours of iconic local industries
But that’s not all — the Festival is about you, the local businesses that make our area unique.
Every business has the opportunity to host their own event during Festival Week. Whether it’s a site tour, a skills workshop, a product showcase, or a behind-the-scenes demo, we want to hear from you! Your event will benefit from Festival-wide publicity and can help attract new customers and connections.
This is your chance to celebrate being part of the local business community, showcase what you do best, and reach thousands of potential customers.
Got an event planned? Let us know, and we’ll add it to the official Festival programme!
Let’s make this year’s Festival the biggest and best yet — together.
Friday 26th September
North Lincolnshire Great Big
Small Awards
18:00-Late
The North Lincolnshire Great Big Small Awards, entirely dedicated to recognising small local business and entrepreneurs.
Businesses like yours play such an important part in our economy and community, so we are thrilled to be able to shine a spotlight on local business and entrepreneurship and recognise the huge amount of work that goes into running a small business.
Click here to enter for an award and book your seats at the biggest celebration of local business in 2025.
Monday 29th September
Business Hive Live
08:30-10:00 (Breakfast Networking)
09:00-16:00 (Expo & Speaker Events)
The Great Big Small Business Festival (GBSBF) week kicks off with the unmissable Business Hive Live, a day created to ignite connections and unlock new business opportunities. It provides a platform for businesses, entrepreneurs, artisans, and creators to connect with customers, network with like-minded professionals, and gain invaluable insights from industry experts.
With over 50 exhibitors from businesses across Northern Lincolnshire and hundreds of professionals coming through the doors, we also have fantastic guest speakers covering a range of current and engaging topics.
We do hope you can join us for the biggest business expo in Northern Lincolnshire.
For more information on the event please click here.
Tuesday 30th September
Business Workshop - Mastering Presentations & Public Speaking
09:00-12:30
This workshop is for those who recognise the importance of clear and engaging communication. Whether presenting to a room of one hundred or a group of three, communicating an idea, a proposal or just relating information effectively, can have a significant impact on achieving the outcome you want for your business. The same is true of internal communication to staff and colleagues.
If you are in business, you are in communication, and this workshop is for you.
For more information on the event please click here.
Is Your Business at a Crossroads?
14:00-16:00
When you first start your business, there are never enough hours in the day and it seems you must be the Jack or Jill of all trades, sales, accounts, marketing, administration, customer service, the whole lot. Your hard work starts to pay off and you are winning new business and building up regular customers, all sure signs of success…
This brings with it a new challenge, and every growing business finds itself at the same crossroads. Should we stay as we are, maintaining the current level of business, or should we go for further growth? Invest in more staff? Buy in the services of a bookkeeper or accountant? Perhaps take on new premises?
For more information on the event please click here.
Wednesday 1st October
Orsted East Coast Hub Tour
09:00-10:15 (Tour 1)
10:45-12:00 ( Tour 2)
See behind the scenes of the Orsted East Coast Hub (ECH), the world’s largest offshore wind operations and maintenance base operating six offshore wind farms including the world’s largest, Hornsea 2. Today, the ECH located on the Port of Grimsby is providing enough green electricity for over 3.3 million homes and with Hornsea 3 and 4 to come, Orsted is on track to power 1 in 4 UK homes from Grimsby.
For more information on the event please click here.
Thursday 2nd October
Business Event - Unbreakable!
3 Incredible Stories of Survival to Success
08:30-11:00
This event is aimed at the wider business community, across all sectors, particularly those facing challenges and barriers both personally and in their businesses. These are difficult times, and sometimes the obstacles ahead of us can seem insurmountable.
This event aims to inspire the audience with tales from Steve King, Pasha Munro, and Paul Spence, who have each overcome huge challenges in their lives and are thriving as a result.
For more information on the event please click here.
Friday 3rd October
North East Lincolnshire Great Big
Small Awards
18:00-Late
The North East Lincolnshire Great Big Small Awards, entirely dedicated to recognising small local business and entrepreneurs.
Businesses like yours play such an important part in our economy and community, so we are thrilled to be able to shine a spotlight on local business and entrepreneurship and recognise the huge amount of work that goes into running a small business.
Click here to enter for an award and book your seats at the biggest celebration of local business in 2025.
Sponsorship Opportunities Available
