Emma's fans

Emma Harrison has a new fan - James Caan of Dragons' Den fame. In a piece in the Telegraph he says: "Recently, I was impressed to read about Emma Harrison - founder and chairman of A4e, the largest supplier of Government training contracts. The company works with public sector organisations to help train people and get them back into work. The last government's Flexible New Deal scheme targeted people who have been on jobseeker's allowance and out of work for more than a year by creating an individually tailored programme. Emma tells me that last year A4e assisted 17,681 people into work, helped 10,695 people gain a qualification, worked with 13,523 employers to improve the capacity of their workforce and helped build 79 thirdsector organisations." I'm intrigued by the verbs there - "assisted", "helped", "worked with"; and by the absence of the financial figures.

There were other fans tweeting from the Institute of Directors bash last night where Emma was a speaker. It seems that she gave good advice to the assembled business leaders, such as, "Do four new things every day" and "If you haven't got a vision, go and get one", for which they were no doubt grateful.

A stellar line-up for the IoD

Should you be in London on 28 April and eligible to attend the Institute of Directors Annual Conference at the Royal Albert Hall you may be interested in the star-studded line-up of speakers. They include Vince Cable MP, Dame Kelly Holmes and Archbishop Desmond Tutu - and A4e's Emma Harrison. If you're not a member the cheapest ticket for the event will cost you £360. But no doubt it will be well worth it.