Enterprise UK Blog

Last week I managed to bag myself a ticket to the media140 Third Sector event held at We Are Social in London. The event focused on how Social Media is and can be used in third sector organisations with talk and debate from leading advocates in the industry. Safe to say being a bit of a social media geek I lapped up the opportunity to engage with like minded thinkers and was interested to see how charities and organisations across the spectrum of size and notoriety approached this. Here were some of things I took away..

Back in the office having attended the Flying Start Rally event at Southbank University.

With over 250 people taking their seats in the auditorium, the event was hosted by the very funny and very talented marketing guru, Dan Sodergren.

“sucessful marketing is 10% an idea and 90% execution”

So after a whistlestop session on guerilla marketing with top tips on how to make the most of your shoestring marketing budget, guess who walks in to a hushed audience of budding entreprenuers?

Our friends at NCGE Flyingstart are running an awesome event during GEW09.
With a line up confirmed to include David Lammy, James Caan, Caroline Marsh, Imran Hakim and hosted by MYM Ambassador, Dan Sodergren, this looks to be a real gem during an already action packed week.

So whether it’s a Dragon’s Den or a Secret Millionaire you want to meet or maybe hear from the Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property, find out more about how you can become a successful Entrepreneur & Dragon Slayer or get tips from a Marketing Guru, the choice is yours

Nominations for the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion 2010 have now opened.  Lord Mandelson suggests that ‘recipients of The Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion (QAEP) are outstanding individuals who are inspiring tomorrow’s entrepreneurs and giving them the skills and attitudes they need to succeed’ and that ‘they hold the key to unlocking Britain’s entrepreneurial talents and they deserve all the praise and thanks we can give them.’

Last year’s winners of the Award included Make Your Mark Ambassador Jamie Murray-Wells and longstanding MYM friend Charles Cracknell, as well as others including lecturers, teachers and practitioners. If you feel that someone deserves recognition for their role in promoting enterprising skills and attitudes then nominate them now!

I went to an interesting panel discussion last week hosted by Weber Shandwick. The title was ‘What’s so hard to reach about the hard-to-reach?’ It quickly became clear that the consensus was that groups were only hard to reach if companies and organisations didn’t make an effort to reach them, and that there were plenty of opportunities to do so.

The key points raised were the importance of  ‘integrated communications’, using a variety of methods to reach different groups (not forgetting face-to-face) and ‘partnerships’ – working with organisations or media who do have a route into certain communities. They also discussed how groups did not want to be labelled by their ethnicity or age, something we have also seen through our own research into enterprise behaviours.

If you are we want your feedback.

Make Your Mark is currently in the process of developing a student alumni scheme for young people who have taken part in the fabulous MYM activities such as Make Your Mark Challenge, Make your Mark Club and Make Your mark with a Tenner.

This is going to be the chance to support young people to make their ideas happen. If you are a teacher or a student take a few minutes to fill in the relevant questionnaire

Questionnaire for tutors

Questionnaire for students

It’s very rare that I watch a programme which really inspires me but last night I was lucky enough to catch Mary Portas Queen of Charity Shops and it honestly left me buzzing. I’ve been thinking for a while that charity shops should be taking advantage of the recession and making it sexy to buy second hand goods from them. And as I mentioned in my last blog I did ‘grow up’ in a retail environment so I’m probably inclined more than some to get over excited about the programme.

Yesterday saw the finale of the Make Your Mark in the Markets competition and a few of us trotted along to find out more. We ended up in the very plush surrounding of a parliamentary reception and chatted to some of the finalists whilst sipping tasty juices and eating scrummy cakes.

It was then time to find out who the winner was so we all trooped into the hall. After a suspenseful silence (as suspenseful as some of the best reality talent shows, only with more cake) Denise announced that Matthew Crawford of Easy’Nuh was to be crowned king of the Markets!

Ambassadors Kiss Me Cupcakes at the Met Academy Launch at Aston Villa FC

Last night saw the launch event of the eagerly anticipated MET Academy at Aston Villa Football Club – entitled Creating Young Stars.

Recently we  held more Ambassador training at our London premises. We saw media know-nothings turn into media extraordinaires with the Media and PR Training run by  Media Trust. Also more of our ambassadors undertook the Advanced Public Speaking and Presentation Training  with James and Al from SpeakersBank. Check out the previous blog about the training sessions and what other ambassadors had to say.

Missed the Advanced Public Speaking Training you say??  Never fear! We’ve captured a short clip of James outlining the points that were covered … Have a look! It could help you turn into the next Barrack Obama!

Week 4 – Top “Online Marketing” Tips from PureOnlineGenius.com

Most small businesses owners wear many hats. It’s not unusual for the entrepreneur to be in charge of sales, marketing, business development, operations, taking out the rubbish and filling up the water cooler!
Many rightly believe they don’t have the time it takes to do justice to their online marketing.

So boys and girls, here’s a list of free (or virtually free) time saving tools which do a lot of heavy lifting for ya!
Uploading to Multiple Video Sites
www.tubemogul.com
www.videopostrobot.com
www.videouploadpro.com
www.vidmetrix.com

Updating Multiple Social Networks
www.ping.fm
www.retaggr.com
www.sendible.com
www.hellotxt.com

The months of March and April have seen some of our ambassadors take part in Media Training and Public Speaking and Presentation courses which have proven to be a great success and very worthwhile.

Here’s what some of our Advanced Public Speaking stars from yesterday had to say:

The winners of the 2009 Make Your Mark Enterprising Young Brits Awards were announced today (Tuesday 24 March 2009) at a very swanky ceremony at the Institute of Directors (IoD), London.

They were each presented with a trophy and £1,000 prize money by Chancellor Alistair Darling, who made time to chat to finalists and hear their positive stories.

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) is proud to support the launch of Diaspora, the non-profit music foundation that will aim to ensure equality in music exists for everyone at Rich Mix in Bethnal Green on Tuesday 31st March 2009.

Chaired by UKTI’s International Business Specialist for the Music Industry and Diaspora ‘fellow’ Phil Patterson, the event will involve a panel of representatives from music associations and trade bodies across London.

This panel has been selected from some of London’s best musical minds in response to the needs of an audience including upcoming artists, record labels and music organisations who have the potential to become leaders within the music industry.