Challenges big and small for Gloucestershire businesses were laid bare and tackled at a major event in the county.

Issues ranged from the county's ageing population, lack of affordable housing and a "need to allow Ecotricity to build a business park at junction 13" to understand the value of PR, make sales and get inspired about business in China.

This was the vibrant world of the Growing Gloucestershire 2018 conference - an annual focal point of the county business community organised by Gloucestershire Professionals.

"There are some massive challenges for us," said David Owen, the chief executive of business powerhouse GFirst LEP.

The list went as follows - a lack of housing, a shortage of employment land, the need to enhance skills training, the challenges in developing across the whole county and demographics - not least an aging population and a shortage of young people coming into Gloucestershire.

"In 20 years' time we will have 80,000 more people aged over 65. But we will have only 3,000 extra people of working age in Gloucestershire," said Mr Owen.

He laid out the infrastructure projects being achieved by GFirst LEP - from Farm491 near Cirencester to the massive proposed cyber park development near GCHQ, from the £3 million pumped into the redevelopment of Stroud Merrywalks Shopping Centre to the work to improve traffic flow in and out of Gloucester and Cheltenham.

"These are just some of the challenges There are a lot of naysayers in the county who are quite happy with their lives and the way the people they socialise with live their lives," he added.

"But Gloucestershire has an entrepreneurial history and spirit we should be proud of.

"We should be getting behind the proposed eco business park at Junction 19."

He was not the only keynote speaker at the event, which was organised by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

Jonathan Nicholls chaired the conference and was also one of the seminar speakers. Mr Nicholls is also chairman of the CIMA Gloucestershire.

Fellow Gfirst LEP man and the founder of Stroud business Green Gourmet, Adam Starkey, gave delegates a tantalising, exhilarating and at times unsettling glimpse into the future with a look at the pace of change of technologies.

Will Kintish, the international expert on business networking skills brought everyone back to the present with an energetic and captivating discussion about how to get the most out of networking.

And in what was a reflection on how enthused the audience of the day was - a near-full lecture theatre was also there to be inspired by the talk by Peter Milligan, professional speaker and business psychologist.

The enjoyably frenetic pace of the day's programme saw the estimated 200-plus business people move from sponsors stands to excellent seminars by the likes of Iain Garfield, of BPE Solicitors, Remi Ashton and Lee Baston of Ocere Ltd, Jonathan Nicholls, of J Nicholls & Associates, Rachel Harper, of Omega Resource Group, Dennis Hu, of Make it China Ltd, Louise Jenner, of The Dream Biz Coach, Tristan Wilkinson, of My Digital Journey, Richard Byford, of the CMI, Sarah Bryars, of Target and Debbie Bird, of AbleGrowth Ltd.