I’d love to share something very close to my heart.

When I started SPIN Ideas, and later created BASE Conference, it was never just about running events or building a business network. It was about changing the way we do business; to make it more human, more sustainable and rooted in shared values and real relationships, instead of competition or constant hustle.

Over the years, I’ve met countless entrepreneurs (especially women) who build their businesses with care, creativity and deep purpose. Yet too often, we face the same struggle: how to grow without losing ourselves.

As small entrepreneurs, we are told to “think big,” but rarely given the systems, recognition, or support to actually thrive. And yet, we are the backbone of every economy: the ones creating jobs, fostering innovation and keeping local communities alive.

We represent 99% of businesses across Europe.
We are the ones who adapt first, who care deeply, and who innovate with purpose.
And still, our impact is underestimated.

That imbalance is what drives me.

Through BASE Conference, I wanted to create a space where small and micro-businesses are not an afterthought, but the centre of the conversation. A place where knowledge, collaboration, and mutual support circulate just like in a healthy ecosystem, one built on trust, empathy and shared values.

At BASE, growth is not about doing more. It’s about doing better, with clarity, with systems that support flow and with relationships that sustain us over time.

Because when small businesses grow differently, sustainably, collaboratively and in alignment with shared values, the ripple effects touch everything. Communities become stronger. Economies become more resilient. And business becomes something deeply human again.

This is my invitation:
Let’s rethink what growth looks like. Let’s move away from the linear, extractive mindset that rewards only scale, and instead embrace a circular economy of relationships, where trust, reciprocity, and shared value become the foundation for success.

Let’s grow together, differently.

Veronica Guguian