The Sharestock September 5 speakers list is now close to its final shape, and with only 12 of the 100 seats on the lawn still available, anyone thinking of attending the annual investor day near Chester has little time left to decide.
Held on the banks of the River Dee between Chester and Wrexham, the event has sold down rapidly this year, and the draw is clear: both of the men regularly described as Britain’s Buffetts will appear on the same bill for the first time. Jim Mellon takes the stage just before lunch; Nigel Wray follows just after.
The Sharestock September 5 speakers: who’s on the bill
Beyond the headline duo, the session that many small-cap followers will want to hear is from Mark Slater, co-founder and Chairman of Slater Investments, which he established with Ralph Baber in 1994. Slater manages the Slater Growth Fund, which held assets of £330.8m as of 31 May 2026 and sits in the IA UK All Companies sector. Before founding Slater Investments, he worked as a financial journalist and, in 1992, helped research and edit ‘The Zulu Principle’ with his father, Jim Slater.
There is also a new bitcoin session pairing host Tom Winnifrith as the bear against Andrew Webley of the Smarter Web Company as the bull. Smarter Web Company trades on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and positions itself as Britain’s largest publicly listed bitcoin holder. Webley has said the Main Market listing represents the next stage in building a long-term British public company aligned with Bitcoin.
Barry Downes and Brian Kinane take on artificial intelligence: whether it is a bubble, which listed companies face the sharpest disruption, and how it will reshape working lives. Peter Brailey, rather than Winnifrith himself, will be putting two company bosses through their paces.
The company directors in the hot seat
One of those bosses is Cathal Friel, co-founder and non-executive Chairman of European Green Transition plc (AIM: EGT), which focuses on acquiring and optimising revenue-generating businesses in critical infrastructure across the UK and Ireland. Friel’s track record in building and selling companies is worth knowing before you hear him speak. He co-founded Amryt Pharma, which listed on the LSE in 2016 and was sold to Chiesi Farmaceutici for $1.48bn in April 2023. He also co-founded Fastnet Oil and Gas, which listed on the LSE in 2011, and previously chaired hVIVO plc until June 2025. European Green Transition trades on AIM under the ticker EGT.
The other company director facing Brailey’s questions is Chris Gilbert of Eco Buildings.
Returning attendees will know what surrounds the speaker sessions: the night-before pizza gathering, chef Vijay’s lunch, the cold salmon supper with home-made ice cream, Joshua’s croquet, and the tea-time Bara Brith. Regulars such as Lucian Miers and Evil Banksta are back on the roster alongside Winnifrith.
First-timers should know the venue is Winnifrith’s own Welsh Hovel, a private home by the river. Camping by the water is available for those travelling from a distance; logistics and the day’s schedule will be sent to booked attendees shortly.
The Sharestock September 5 speakers represent a broader range than the event has offered before, covering small-cap fund management, bitcoin treasury strategy, AI disruption, and AIM company building. With only a handful of seats remaining, the test for anyone on the fence is straightforward: if the Mellon-and-Wray combination plus the bitcoin bear-versus-bull debate and the Slater session would each interest you individually, waiting any longer risks missing all three.
