Profile: Michael Hayman

An event for entrepreneurs has helped to put Sheffield high on the business map. Deputy City Editor Ros Snowdon spoke to the man who provided the inspiration.

When Dragons’ Den star Peter Jones tweeted: “Wow how the city has changed! Inspired in Sheffield”, after last year’s MADE festival for entrepreneurs, it was a moment of triumph for Michael Hayman.

Hayman, the brains behind the festival which enters its third year this September, says: “When Peter Jones tweeted that it made me feel fantastic. It made me feel the whole idea was vindicated.”

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Under the Sheffield-born marketer, MADE is living up to the hype.

This year, to mark the fact that Britain is hosting the Olympic Games, the festival will focus on a ‘MADE in Britain’ theme, bringing together 3,000 British businesses with 50 high-profile speakers in venues across the city of Sheffield.

MADE has been described as ‘the Davos for entrepreneurs’ – not Hayman’s idea he claims – but it also hopes to emulate the fun and enthusiasm of the Edinburgh Festival.

This year 20 of the UK’s top entrepreneurs will come together to develop an action plan to help solve youth unemployment.

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The 2012 speakers will include Vince Cable, David Blunkett and Mark Prisk from the world of politicians.

Business speakers will feature Dragons’ Den star Peter Jones, managing director of Brompton Will Butler Adams, founder of Risk Capital Partners Luke Johnson, WANdisco’s chief executive David Richards, Yo! Sushi’s chief executive Robin Rowland and Wayne Hemingway, the founder of Red or Dead.

The festival gets its name from the old steel kitemark ‘Made in Sheffield’.

“Calling it the ‘Sheffield Business Festival’ wouldn’t have worked,” says Hayman.

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People are intrigued by the name. Made in Sheffield stands for the city’s industrial heritage and we thought it could stand for its future.”

Hayman and the city’s marketing director Brendan Moffett came up with the idea for a festival in 2009 when he was on the board of Creative Sheffield, the regeneration agency for the city.

“We were looking at how we could sharpen up Sheffield’s profile. We came up with the idea that if you’re a city, only three audiences matter – trade, tourism and talent.”

A decision was made to develop a Sheffield font, a post-industrial, distinctive identity that is now used on all the city’s street signs. “The city needed to promote itself in a cleverer way and that led to MADE,” says Hayman.

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“Leeds is known for professional services, but Sheffield is an entrepreneurial small business city. It’s the most business- friendly city in Britain.”

With this is mind Hayman and the then Creative Sheffield team came up with the idea of an annual festival for small businesses to come together.

Hayman, who is also on the board of the Edinburgh Festival, wanted to create a similar atmosphere in Sheffield.

“What makes Edinburgh special is you can walk down any alleyway and see things going on.

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“I felt this is what a big business event should be like. You want to see Peter Jones walking up Fargate,” he says.

Following his resignation from Creative Sheffield, Hayman set up MADE as a joint venture between Sheffield city and his PR firm Seven Hills (named after the seven hills of Sheffield).

The first MADE was held in 2010.

“There was a lot of nervousness about what could be achieved at our first one,” says Hayman. “Why would a London audience want to come to Sheffield? We decided why not? People go up a mountain to Davos.”

Hayman believes that Sheffield comes as a real surprise to first-time visitors.

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“People are amazed at how well the regeneration has been done. They go up there thinking of ‘The Full Monty’ and finding a really modern, tastefully regenerated city,” he says.

Hayman grew up in Sheffield in the 1980s at a time when the city was in decline and going through some of its hardest years.

“We want to showcase what’s been done to take the city forward,” he says.

This year East Midlands Trains will provide a special carriage on a train travelling from London’s St Pancras to Sheffield. The train has its own nameplate, The Entrepreneur Express, and will ferry business people, ministers, diplomats and journalists to the festival.

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Hayman still seems a little gobsmacked that the idea took off.

“It really worked!” he says. “There was no guarantee it would. I think it works because it’s based on the fringe idea of the Edinburgh Festival. We get to use people’s offices and restaurants – from Irwin Mitchell putting on lunches at their offices, to Coutts hosting a dinner at the Crucible, to drinks in the Winter Gardens – it feels like a grass roots festival.

“It’s coming from the bottom up. We have created a coalition of the willing.”

Hayman says he has received numerous emails from people who have visited MADE and been inspired to set up their own businesses.

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“MADE is a beacon of optimism in a very dark time,” he says. “People come to MADE, become inspired and have a go. You can network, find finance, find the right people to plug in to. It’s as much about the people there as it is the speakers.”

With a city of just 600,000 to 700,000 people, Hayman believes Sheffield is just the right size.

“It means that every street lamp can have a festival flag. In London with over eight million people you can have a major event that people don’t notice,” says Hayman.

This year MADE will take the Davos analogy a step further and create the E20 formed of 20 leading entrepreneurs.

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On the first day of the festival the E20 will tackle the problem of what Hayman calls “the missing million”, the million 18-24 year-olds who can’t find work.

The entrepreneurs will be asked to come up with an action plan that will make a difference in their community. The Thursday will be themed around ‘Made in Britain’.

“It will be about the British Dream – how you build a brand, how you get finance and how you deal with failure,” says Hayman.

The event will bring together 2,500 people at the City Hall ranging from successful entrepreneurs to people wondering what to do with their lives.

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Friday is to be dubbed ‘Going Global’, a smaller event for 500 people aimed at more established entrepreneurs who want to find out how to set up business abroad. The focus this year will be on India as an emerging country and the US as an established market.

Hayman was 40 when he set up Seven Hills in 2010, but he says that if MADE had been around when he was in his twenties he would have set it up many years ago.

He believes that one of the hardest things about setting up a new business is it is such a solitary experience, which is where MADE can offer back-up.

“This is like Glastonbury for entrepreneurs,” says Hayman, throwing another famous festival into the mix.

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“MADE makes people feel good. It gives them great ideas and they go away and make better businesses.”

Hayman comes from a long line of entrepreneurs. His father set up a vintage watch company in Sheffield and the entrepreneurial spirit runs in his blood.

MADE is also very much about putting Sheffield and the rest of Yorkshire on the map.

“Yorkshire is a very strong tribal county and its people are a reflection of that. There is a huge sense of identity based on that. It gives you a point of reference based on that. Yorkshire gives you very strong roots.”

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You can take the lad out of Sheffield but you can’t take Sheffield out of the lad.

Michael Hayman’s CV

Title: co-founder Seven Hills, chairman of MADE festival, co-founder StartUp Britain, chairman of entrepreneurs Coutts & Co

Date of birth: 03-01-70

Place of birth: Sheffield

Education: Birkdale School, Millfield, Queen Mary College, London School of Economics

First job: Barman

Favourite band: ZZ Top

Car driven: Jaguar XK8

Favourite film: The Royal Tenenbaums

Favourite holiday destination: Sheffield

Most proud of: MADE festival

Most extravagant moment: “Buying a ridiculously overpriced Aston Martin DB7 on my credit card in my early 30s to boost my romantic prospects.”

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