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Video: Welcome to the new rock ’n’ roll at festival of enterprise
ONE of Britain’s most successful businessmen proclaimed that “entrepreneurialism is the new rock ’n’ roll” yesterday as leading entrepreneurs joined Government ministers and business students in Sheffield for a national celebration of enterprise.
Peter Jones, the star of BBC TV’s Dragons’ Den, told the Yorkshire Post that he was “blown away” by the MADE festival and said “there is so much drive and enthusiasm from this area of Britain”.
Organisers predict that around 3,000 delegates will attend MADE with Michael Hayman, the chairman, saying he “didn’t know of any other city that has got it together like this”.
He added: “We have such a fantastic business friendly message. Sheffield has a big appetite for recovery.”
Mr Jones told festival-goers that he wanted to inspire a cultural shift in UK society to match the American Dream of the United States, where enterprise is much more deeply embedded in daily life.
“It’s a huge cultural challenge,” he said, adding a dose of realism to proceedings.
“The reality is that although you want to start a business, only five per cent do.
“We are inspirationally reserved as a nation.”
There was little of that reserve on display yesterday though as Mr Jones was greeted with rapturous applause by the audience, which included many young stu- dents.
The telecoms entrepreneur now has 15 enterprise academies across the UK, which he said are “encouraging young people to do something for themselves”.
Business Secretary Vince Cable returned to the festival after attending the launch last year.
He told the audience: “I thought it was such an exciting event and so positive that I wanted to come back again. There is real energy here.”
He repeated comments from earlier in the week comparing the economic challenge facing the UK to war and said entrepreneurs would provide the weaponry to fight back.
Dr Cable said he was optimistic about the manufacturing sector. He added: “There are a lot of manufacturing companies expanding, training people and getting to export.
“There’s a real enthusiasm from young people to get into manufacturing.”
He said the combination of rising costs in Asia, the weak pound and advantages in sourcing locally meant that supply chains were returning to the UK.
“That’s where a lot of the growth is going to come from,” he continued.
MADE festival organisers brought together a diverse group of entrepreneurs from different sectors and arranged a special train from London – the ‘Enterprise Express’ – with on-board speed-networking.
The networking continued at the three venues around Sheffield’s Winter Gardens with familiar faces from TV’s The Apprentice wandering around with sharply-dressed students, business people and journalists.
Yesterday’s programme featured a host of debates and sessions designed to inspire young and old alike to start new businesses or refresh existing ones.
Many of the delegates were from further education coll- eges.
Mr Hayman said: “This is like an MBA in a day for some of these young people and they are going to go away with their lives transformed.”
The Business Minister Mark Prisk told delegates about his own experience setting up a business in the last recession of 20 years ago.
He said it was one of the best things that he has ever done.
He said: “My message to you is go for it.
“If you can make it now, you can make it anytime.
“It does not matter where you come from, if you have the ambition, ability and determination you can make something of your life.
“You can literally make your own fortune.”
Homegrown businesswoman Emma Harrison, the founder of the welfare-to-work group A4E, told the audience about her schooldays as “the naughty girl” who failed her A-levels.
She set an ambition to become the world’s largest organisation that improves people’s lives with a business plan focusing on scope and geography – or “more stuff in more places”.
This year, her company is set to turn over £250m.
She was introduced by Sheffield MP David Blunkett, the former Home Secretary.
Attraction to run and run
PR man Michael Hayman was on the board of the Edinburgh Festival when he had the idea that “we should do this for business”. That was 19 months ago.
Since then, he and his organisation, Seven Hills, have staged two MADE festivals in Sheffield, the first attracting 1,000 people and the second, running from Wednesday until tomorrow, an estimated 3,000.
He wants it to become “the most significant festival for business in Britain”.
He said yesterday: “The buzz is absolutely brilliant.”
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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