What a day we had at our Amazon Milspo Live conference 2026.

Military spouses and partners in business joined us from from across the forces world to meet, network, collaborate, and support – and it was epic!

A huge thanks to Amazon for hosting us and understanding what we all know – that military spouses and partners are the backbone of the U.K. armed forces and a crucial part of the UK‘s defence effectiveness – some of us are also running some pretty impressive businesses too.

A special thank you to the brilliant panel speakers, some of the most remarkable women business owners I know – Sophie Milliken MBE, Emma Gray and Susan Bonnar who shared their brilliant insights into running a business.

Thank you to the UK Ministry of Defence for and the The Veterans’​ Foundation for attending and the background support to Milspo that made the day possible.

And of course a huge thank you to those is a travelled far and way to join us at Milspo Live 2026. For juggling childcare, deployments, train delays, the underground and of course the usual juggle of military life just to be there.

Thank you for trusting me to show you a different side of military life – one that’s not so bad when you surround yourself with the right people. Thank you for joining with the workshops, learning from our impressive speakers, and of course for sharing your business dreams.

Never forget how brilliant you are.

My Welcome Speech, 10th February 2026

First off, thank you all so much for being here. We have got a great day planned

We must start with a huge thanks to the Ministry of Defence, the Veterans Foundation, and of course Amazon, who are very kindly hosting us today. These, three, epic organisations recognise just what we all know.

That military spouses, partners and other-halves really are the backbone of the UK armed forces – and without them they wouldn’t be able to do what they do to protect the UK.

We are going to have an incredible day of business building, workshops and networking and you are surrounded by an amazing gang of Milspo’s who are going to make that happen. A special thanks to the Milspo team, especially Rachael and Caroline for all of the hard work making this happen.

The agenda for today

Refreshment Break

11:30 Creative Workshop with Jess: Ditch the “Just”: Own Your Business & Build the Success You Deserve.

12:45 Lunch & Networking
Lunch is kindly provided

1:45 – 2:45 Expert Panel with Emma Gray, Sophie Milliken MBE, and Susan Bonnar

2:45 Closing Pep Talk – A short and energising send-off to wrap up the day’s learning and inspiration.

3:00 – Late The day doesn’t end there! We’re being hosted for a Networking Reception and an exclusive tour of the Amazon offices.

So, as you can see, it’s going to be a fun one.

But maybe at some point today, doubt will set in.

Doubt as to whether you’re worthy enough to have a successful business.

Doubt as to whether you even deserve to be in this room at all.

Feelings that you are a little bit out of your depth, perhaps.

Maybe you think back to the times when others have doubted your abilities. When you were first called a dependant, maybe? And then, of course, the many, many times you’ve been called a dependant since then.

Perhaps when you’ve told people you want to have your own successful business, they’ve called you silly – or questioned why you are doing it.

Maybe everyone’s just assumed that as a military partner, you don’t have any aspirations, and you should just be content keeping the home fires burning, waiting for their return.

I have genuinely lost track of the times people have forgotten to ask me what I do in favour of talking about my husband’s work. And let’s not get started on the name-calling.

I’ve had them all. My least favourite was at a posh military awards dinner, you know the type -flashing lights, usually some sort of military band, chock full of veterans, the odd Chelsea pensioner wheeled out for optics, medals everywhere, and then little old me – There I am, completely out of my depth, talking about Milspo and then being called ‘one of those whinging wives’ – that was a fun evening.

But what those people don’t realise is that behind every plus-one, dependant, and whinging wife stereotype is an individual with the potential to do the most amazing things, and all of us in this very room are doing just that.

Whether you’re a seasoned business owner who’s RUN their business through a million house moves, deployments, and last-minute juggles or you’re new to business life and are joining us as you’re just beginning our start-up course, or somewhere in the middle, today is for you and it is going to be something very special – but, a day for just military spouses and partners are rare. They just don’t happen enough.

Which is rather odd when you consider that there are – according to the latest approximate MOD stats – around sixty thousand current UK military spouses and partners.

That’s right – sixty thousand under the radar, underutilised, probably forgotten members of the Armed Forces Community.

Sixty-thousand others, just like you, who no doubt have felt themselves not worthy. Who have been called ‘just a dependant’. Infuriating, isn’t it?

We don’t have any medals; we don’t have a ministry dedicated to our welfare; we have very little representation – which considering that the MOD stated that military spouses are “integral to operational effectiveness and retention” seems like a bit of an oversight if you ask me.

But one thing we do have is the Milspo community. We know the power of this community because we are inspired by it every day.

Milspo has had an amazing time since we last met up here for Milspo Live. We secured funding so that we can keep running our hugely successful business start-up course, which by the end of that funding means we will have helped over 240 military spouses start a new business – some of our graduates are here today.

The Veterans Foundation is again supporting Milspo into 2026, so that the brilliant co-working, networking, webinars and more can keep on delivering for the community.

Our Find a Milspo directory has over 40 brilliant businesses that we are showcasing each week, plus, in just a few days the whole website is having a 2026 glow-up making sure that the businesses you pop on there look their very best.

And, the place where it all started – the little InDependent Spouse podcast, that was just going to be a small project is now in its eighth year with the eighth series coming very soon, and more loved than ever.

This little self-driven, social enterprise, created out of the frustration of being ignored and patronised, is now making waves. Times are changing, and people are taking notice – not bad for a winging wife really?

And once again Amazon have noticed the hugely valuable contribution we make to not only the self-employed economy but to the defence capability as a whole.  We are bloody brilliant – so it’s time we believed that.

I want you to take a minute now and think. Consider all those negatives that have been said to you before and how they have held you back – you are better than those labels.

That voice that tells you aren’t good enough. Time to silence that.

That voice that tells you you’re going to play small. Tell it you no longer believe it.

That voice that tells you that you are just a dependant, just a plus-one, just a whinging wife – well, you can certainly tell that one to do one.

You are here. In Amazon HQ, of all places. You have earned this spot. This is the place you are meant to be.

Or perhaps think of it this way.

You are a military partner, which means at some point, you’ve either sent your most loved person to a war zone, or you’ve at least confronted the reality that you will have to do that soon. That’s tough! To be able to do that is so brave, and really, in comparison, creating an amazing, successful business is certainly going to be a little easier.

So, take today as your opportunity to be brave – to do the things 60 thousand others would love to do. Take time to explore your business dreams and goals, and let’s create something epic together.

Learn from our panel speakers. Meet others just like you, get to know each other during our networking lunch, embrace the creative session later, and start building on those business dreams.

Today is your day, and we’re going to help you in any way that we can.

You can do this. You will do this – and we can’t wait to celebrate your success!