Pictured: (l-r) Neil Carberry of the CBI, Tom Hindmarch of Duncan & Toplis, Jane Everingham of Mercia, Tim Godson of Duncan & Toplis, Marcus Wright of NatWest, Peter Townsend, Managing Partner at Duncan & Toplis, and Freeserve co-founder Rob Wilmot

Company directors were given the latest information on Wednesday (19th October) on employment policy, social media, auditing, tax and the economic outlook at a special Directors' Briefing in Lincoln.

The event, hosted by Duncan & Toplis at the Bentley Hotel, featured guest speakers including Neil Carberry from the CBI, Freeserve founder Rob Wilmot, Mercia Managing Director Jane Everingham and Marcus Wright, economic advisor with NatWest.

The event was chaired by Peter Townsend, Managing Partner at Duncan & Toplis.

"At Duncan & Toplis our primary aims include supporting and informing local businesses," he said. "Judging by the comments received from the delegates it seems that the high-calibre speakers who joined us for the day did address many of the real issues currently concerning local businesses."

Rob Wilmot, who co-founded the Internet service provider Freeserve in the late 1990s, gave delegates an insight into how LinkedIn can add value to their business and also spoke about the stock market flotation of Freeserve and its £1.6bn trade sale to Wanadoo in 2000.

Neil Carberry of the CBI talked about the importance of preparing the UK's young people properly for the world of work and about the need for reform of the welfare system to provide ordinary people with an incentive to work.

"The Duncan & Toplis Director's Briefing was a really informative, motivating and interesting event for me, not to mention entertaining!" said Simon Shaw, Managing Director of Optima Graphic Design in Lincoln.

"All the speakers were great and I left feeling better informed and with a good to-do list.

"It was a day well spent to enable more informed planning for my business and a valuable checklist going forward."