Make Your Mark Blog

I really hope that Honda is an enterprising brand through its employees, not just its advertising campaign. Which I think is ace. They’ve inspired me today…

As we turn the corner of a new era, we need new people to help us continue with our enterprise message - As the new HR manager I am excited to have some great opportunities available to continue the enterprise message through our people. We are looking for people ready for new challenges and passionate about what we do - whether you are a self confessed enterprise junkie or want to embark on an amazing new journey you might just be in with a chance - so who’s in?

Vanessa

Enterprise Junkie - and - Make Your Mark HR Manager

We were asked by the British Council to help out in selecting the top 100 young people to get the experience of a lifetime. They get to spend 6 weeks this summer is China, India or Brazil getting to know the culture, people, businesses and schools.

As the experts in enterprise we assessing the candidates on their enterprise capability. So I devised a challenge for the candidates to work in teams to come up with an idea to raise the profile of an NGO in one of the host countries. The case studies were all real and gave the candidates a really good basis of info to come up with some amazingly innovative ideas.

They decided to do everything from run a network to keep volunteers involved in the programme year round to recycling wrist bands to create new ones for their NGO. My favourite PR stunt which they came up with was to project their logo onto Buckingham Palace.

All of the candidates really shone and came up with fantastic ideas and presented them really well to the panel. I’ve learnt that being a panellist is a really tough job - it takes a lot of energy and the afternoon break was really needed to keep my energy up.

Good luck to all the candidates and I’m sure they’ll have an amazing adventure when they get to their destinations. For more info on the Prime Minister’s Global Fellowships take a look at http://www.globalgateway.org.uk/Default.aspx?page=4120

A colleague in USA just stumbled across this on YouTube… Bilimoria with advice on being an entrepreneur… irreverent title, but fairly serious/inspirational content.

Check out dieselwall.com - they are looking for designs to go on huge buildings. The deadline for the huge Manchester wall (28 x 18m) is 18 May so there is plenty of time to think of some designs. The wall is huge and so is the opportunity. We might do one from Make Your Mark, maybe something around failure but it would be good to get lots of others submitted too. Any budding designers pls give us a shout! 

last week, the global entrepreneurship week planning team in london met up with several host organizations from western europe. we all met in paris and were hosted by les journees de l’entrepreneur (http://www.journee-entrepreneur.com/) and ernst & young, who very graciously provided us a brilliant meeting space on the 38th and 39th floor of their building in la defense.

there were 9 countries represented at the table, including france, spain, germany, denmark, holland, greece, norway, italy - and of course us from the uk! campaign experts from make your mark led 5 workshop sessions over the course of the day and a half, covering topics such as possible activities and evaluation through to PR and sponsorship. (many thanks to hannah, cathy, scott, anjoum and mike paice for that!)

it gave us all a very good opportunity to learn more about the campaigns in each other’s country, share some best practice, and generate some fantastic new ideas for the first global entrepreneurship week this 17 - 23 november.

i took loads of pictures and videos from the sessions but i don’t have the cable to transfer them to my laptop! i’ll do that tomorrow, so stay tuned

in the coming days i will be creating an online space where will upload all of the materials we used and talked about, and where everybody who attended can share their notes and continue the discussion virtually. if anybody’s got a suggestion for an easy-to-use online service that could do this, let me know! somebody told me about basecamp?

for me, the 3 biggest things that came out of the workshop were…

1. work in national coalition! we want global entrepreneurship week to be huge in every country, so people need to work in partnership - and usually with organizations bigger than themselves. by spreading the responsibility, you will divide the cost - and reach more people.

2. work better internationally! hosts need to communicate more with each other and we need an easy and effective way to do this. once the online workspace is up and running, let’s share all our stuff and keep in touch with each other.

3. go with the glow! i think we were all impressed by how much support ernst & young offered us in paris. build on this by working with ernst & young in your own country, as well as with our other global sponsors and partners. if you need intros, you know who to ask… (this goes for people in the uk, too)

chris

Having left the BBC Your Game event last Wednesday I continued onto the Spark Women’s Business Workout (also in Bristol) which was a really inspiring event for women who either want to set up a business or grow an existing one. Amongst others I met the founder of Sew Bespoke who makes custom wedding dresses and was keen to grow her business further. We also heard from Alex Lovell,  a local BBC presenter who inspired us with her story of how she got to make her mark in TV presenting and news reading. There was a real sense of support in the room and it felt like people were really benefitting from talking to others about the issues they were facing. Being an entrepreneur can be isolating so events like this are a great way to link up lots of individuals.

Having left Bristol I went to Paris to run a PR and Comms workshop for some of the people hosting Global Entrepreneurship Week across Europe. It was a great experience and I found out lots about the state of ‘enterprise’ in different countries. We had a shared vision to encourage more people to be enterprising, and it was interesting to hear about the different ways this was being approached. I am even more excited about Global Entrepreneurship Week than I was before and think it promises to be huge! And I hear the latest number of countries is 56!

I worry that I can be too London-centric in my work so last week was a brilliant opportunity to get a fresh perspective. And the cheese at the lunch hosted by Ernst and Young was also a highlight. Bon Apetit.

It’s been a busy week at Make Your Mark and Tuesday was a real highlight….it was our London Make Your Mark Meet-up, the event we run for Connectors, Ambassadors and Enterprise Week organisers. Lots of you came along to find out more about Enterprise Week in November 2008 and there was a real buzz down at the Unicorn Theatre near London Bridge.

If you couldn’t make it and you want to sample a piece of the action, check out this Animoto clip I’ve just created. 

If you want to make a clip like this then visit www.animoto.com. I’ve just spent two days on a Mediasnackers course and this is one of the things I discovered. There really are some amazing things on the internet, and they’re free too!

Just been on a v cool training course by the gang from http://mediasnackers.com/intro/

If you want to learn more about the potential of social media and all things digital then this is the course for you. We saw some inspiring examples of the power of shared content:

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/home.php - if this isn’t an enterprising idea which has been turned into reality I don’t know what is! We should use this as inspiration for Global Entrepreneurship Week (www.unleashingideas.org).

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8602472107022912201 I love the cup stackers. Over one million people have viewed this film. Unbelievable.

Hopefully you’ll begin to see Make Your Mark folk being more digital-savvy, using video and audio to inspire and empower. Watch this space…

And if you have any other examples of where people have used social networking and digital technology to make their enterprising ideas happen please tell us and share the inspiration!!

ps just found this - better version of evite for sending out invitations http://www.pingg.com/event/view/ZQzZ0Wc-zZ05v?new=true

Check out the latest BBC online blog http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7315598.stm

from entrepreneur and Make Your Mark ambassador Kulveer - who has just sold his company which he runs with his cousin for ‘millions of dollars’.

His move to Sillicon Valley in the States has undoubtedly played a part and I wonder whether we can ever hope to reproduce this fostering environment for tech companies in the UK. It’s a point which Kulveer raises within a view point he wrote for us last year.

http://www.makeyourmark.org.uk/policy/future_face_of_enterprise/who_else/viewpoints/stoz/

Let us know what you think…

Students from Trafford College who competed in the Make Your Mark Challenge national final in Dec 07 are now going to represent England at the Global Entrepreneurship Challenge at the European event in Germany.

Their tutor Amanda said ‘My students learned so much from the Make Your Mark Challenge in London that I am positive of a really strong result.

I cannot begin to tell you how much of an impact make your mark has had on us. We have quite a few clubs up and running now, and the Business studies results in January were nothing less than astounding.

Please keep doing these worthwhile things, as next year we are taking all of our A-Level students and all of our Business Students out of classes to take part in the Global Enterprise week. If I have my way, it will be the entire college.’

We wish them lots of luck and we’ll keep you posted on how the students get on this summer.

Women’s lives have improved beyond recognition in Britain and other rich countries in recent years - although we still have some way to go!

International Women’s Day, which took place last Saturday, is about celebrating the achievements of women and encouraging them to achieve their full potential - but what about girls and women in other countries?

To mark International Women’s Day ‘08 a number of Girls! Make Your Mark ambassadors from Wakefield went to a fundraising dinner hosted by Linda McAvan, MEP to raise money for women in Ethiopia who are suffering from a preventable condition linked to child birth. The money raised will go to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. The hospital was set up by Catherine Hamlin – an Australian doctor, back in 1959.  

Women in the UK are powering ahead in business and in other areas of life but unless we do something less fortunate women in other countries will struggle to get off first base. Find out more

Who’s in the picture? Jennie Flockton, Jane Walton - campaign leader for Make Your Mark, Rimas Morris – who is part of Into Africa, a company that specialises in eco-friendly and fairly traded trips to Kenya and Tanzania, and Linda McAvan MEP. 

The Sheila McKechnie Foundation is offering three awards for young people:

Shout Out! sponsored by the City Bridge Trust
This award is aimed at 15-18 year olds living in London encouraging them to get involved in community action by developing their campaigning skills. Young people will be considered if they are at the campaign vision stage – meaning they have had an idea but not started taking action.  It’s even better if they have started their campaign, but we will consider young people at both stages.
Five awards will be granted to individuals or groups (of up to five people).Each award winner or winning group will receive:
*       a campaign skills workshop
*       a campaigning resource pack
*       a coach who will advise them on how to plan their campaign
*       advice sessions
*       £100 bursary to further their campaign.

Young Activist sponsored by the YMCA and Foyer Federation
This award supports young campaigners, both individual and in groups, aged 16-24 living anywhere in the UK, who are campaigning on community issues to which they are personally connected. We want to encourage applications from those who have limited experience of campaigning but who have the drive and passion to change something in their community.

*       Each award winner and winning group will receive a package of support including:
*       a comprehensive assessment of their campaign objectives
*       advice from a senior campaigner about how to take forward their campaign
*       the chance to work through shared challenges with other campaigners
*       mentoring sessions reviewing the progress of their campaign.

Global Action in Memory of Guy Hughes Award is for students aged 18-24, who are working on International campaigns around global justice, challenging the root causes of poverty, international conflict, environmental destruction or human rights abuses. This award was established in 2007 in memory of Guy Hughes who was an inspirational campaigner, former Head of Campaigns at People and Planet and founder of Crisis Action.  The support programme for this award is similar to what the people receive in the Young Activist award.

To apply for this award and to read about last year’s award winners, please check out our website www.sheilamckechnie.org.uk . 

I just had an int’l conference call and wanted to give everybody really quick update on some of the Global EW activities that are happening around the world. Please make sure your seats are in an upright position!

In France… They’ve already gathered about 40 organizations to help with their campaign. They mainly represent schools, non-profits, unions and business organizations. They’ve hired one person to work exclusively on Global EW and they are currently working on setting up some fundraising events. They also are interested in holding a big European event for Global EW inNovember with their president, Nicholas Sarkozy

In Italy… The lead host is setting up a single not-for-profit organization to formally join up all its existing coalition partners, who will form a board of directors, to simplify and coordinate fundraising efforts. They plan to reach a lot of young people through a great partnership with Junior Achievement Italy. They’re currently trying to build relationships with government (although it’s difficult right now due to some political instability) and are planning a launch event in April/May in Milan.

In Germany… They’ve focused on getting social networking groups up and running and building grass-roots engagement online. There’s one on www.xing.com and another soon on www.studivz.com – one of Germany’s largest online student networks.

In Greece… They’ve organized a big event next week. The Secretary General of the Ministry of Development is opening the event and it will take place at the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The event will be targeted mainly at university students and recent grads. They’ve got good relationships now with student unions, career centres, and AISEC.

In Brazil… They’re travelling all over their (rather large) country, drumming up support for their campaign. They also recently met with some of the country’s largest retailers, with a proposal for them to produce and stock some Global EW swag at their stores.  Check it out…!

Cool, eh?

Chris

If you need to be in Silicon Valley to progress your web company then this is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for!

Web Mission 2008 will see 20 UK Web 2.0 companies travel to San Francisco to explore new opportunities for growth with key people in Silicon Valley. This event will showcase innovative UK web talent, seek meaningful assistance for companies ready for expansion, and provide a platform for those involved to gain valuable media and business exposure.
http://www.webmission08.com/

http://uk.techcrunch.com/2008/02/08/web-mission-launched-to-showcase-uk-startups-in-silicon-valley/#comments