A new forum giving budding business men and women a chance to meet and swop ideas was launched last week.

SPACES - the porter building in Brunel Way which provides office space for numerous new businesses - was the ideal spot for the launch of the forum which is called StartupSlough.

StartupSlough is the brainchild of Rafiq Chohan.

Mr Chohan is the man who founded the Slough Business Awards - and a former assistant director of economic development on Slough Council.

He said: "Since 2010 Slough has grown from having 3,665 businesses to 6,130 in 2018. We expect this figure to have risen to well beyond 6,500 businesses in Slough currently. These numbers are likely to grow further as Crossrail's Elizabethan line to London launches next year.

"We want new start up businesses to start, succeed and grow. Slough is a very entrepreneurial town where success and failure are a natural part of the ecology. Evidence shows that with the right support and guidance risk of failure can be mitigated even at the prestart phase, but especially in the growth phase when it can be as tricky as not growing enough."

The new forum is expected to meet every two weeks.

Among those present to watch a celebration cake being cut at the launch was Suleman Baig, one of the co-sponsors of the new forum. He is chief executive of the Quadrin Group - a due diligence company that he launched himself as a new business only a few years ago.