Enterprise UK Blog

A report on the World Entrepreneur Society’s 2009 Summit, from Make Your Mark Ambassador Vernon Kerswell.

I had the privilege to attend this event as a Make your Mark Ambassador. Dedicated to entrepreneurs, it was organised by the World Entrepreneur Society, held at the prestigious Goodenough College, London. The theme… “What keeps you awake at night?”

This event, now in its second year, was organised to bring together great minds to share, learn and celebrate enterprise. It was largely attended by entrepreneurs who had made it in their business. Executives rolling up for a prompt 9am start armed with their Blackberries and iPhones in hand, twittering as they went.  It was also well attended by the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, some of whom had fledgling businesses and others who had just begun their journey. With a ticket price of £120 (£55 for students) it made this event even more exclusive, and for those just starting out, even in a recession, it was a good investment for those wanting to meet like minded people.

Vernon’s day:

3.00am – Received a wake up call from China (8hrs ahead. Ah… the benefits of globalisation)

5.00 – Leave Manchester, train to London

8.30 – Arrived at WES

9.00 – Talk: managing through challenging times

11.30 – Group workshop ‘Getting out of your Head’ Kaospilots (read ahead)

14.30 – A choice of 3 workshops, Vernon attended a talk: Young entrepreneurs, what have you got to lose?

16.30 – Talk: Investment and Growth Panel – a panel of successful entrepreneurs

19.30 – Evening dinner

The highlights:

To kick start the day we had a talk from a panel of leading business executives including head of Microsoft Europe Jan Mühlfeit. He emphasised that web 2.0 presented new opportunities for business.

There was a lot of discussion around the recession; Andy Reinhardt gave a keynote speech on managing your business through the downturn, because what is happening right now is affecting us all. This was a common topic through the event and I would say there was fear about the uncertainty. Many of the successful entrepreneurs who had made fortunes in the boom time have had their wealth battered by the severity of this downturn. However it was well noted that as major businesses have failed, time is ripe for entrepreneurs to make their mark out of the crumbs falling off the table. It was refreshing to hear the saying that it was the entrepreneurs of today who will lead us to tomorrow’s prosperity.

There was talk about emerging markets and the role of a globalised economy and the shift of power for the past few decades from West to East. For years people were talking about this, smug and happy in the comfort of a booming economy without realising the implications of economic power going from West to East. Now this has actually happened, the west is in a serious recession whilst countries such as China still project growth of 7% GDP – did anyone see that coming? The importance of avoiding protectionism was mentioned, because although developing countries have benefited from globalisation, many of these countries rely on thriving western economies for continued growth. They also mentioned the importance of avoiding a rerun of the 1930’s where radicalisation, racism, power struggles and political fascism took hold in times of change and insecurity.

A highlight of the day was a workshop run by Kaospilots, an International business school which provides innovative courses in entrepreneurship, leadership, motivation and creativity. Having flown over from Aarhus, Denmark, ‘Get Out Of Your Head’ was the theme for this workshop. They started with a motivational team building exercise then split off into five groups, rotating every 5 minutes. I went from building a paper aeroplane to a clever and logical ‘not to do’ list to even doing monkey impressions! I learnt after the workshop that the leaders were in fact students enrolled on the Kaospilots course. They were highly engaging, professional, confident and outgoing. Over dinner, the Kaospilots coordinator told me their application process has started for next year and have limited places for entrepreneurial individuals. I seriously envied those running the workshop and for anyone interested in this kind of education, check out their website http://www.kaospilot.dk on how to enter.

So what keeps me awake at night? Ok… let’s see… pitching to retailers, filling out invoices, providing information, jetting off to China, exhibiting at trade shows, the central heating system (oh, it’s annoying…), sending emails, marketing, competitions, working in the factories, travelling on the trains, talking to media, drawing new designs, coffee, shipping new orders, ordering new shipping, following up sales leads, Abduls curry house, talking to China, planning, updating outlets, running promotions, running (in general), reading reports, talking to people, more coffee, researching, promoting, making new product prototypes.

What keeps me awake at night? The thrill of the chase.

The event was inspiring. It takes something to make an impression on me, having been to many enterprise events which create a fizzle and a buzz, the World Entrepreneurs Summit came out with a bang. The impact and pace of events was motivating and well organised, a good investment of my time. Their choice of charismatic speakers helped to lift the atmosphere, and the venue complimented the auspicious occasion.

Although not mentioned, but hinted during Microsoft’s talk on the importance of Web 2.0, the uptake of Twitter is something you cannot escape within this community. I joined Twitter one day before this event and throughout the day, there were people sat in the corner on laptops dedicated to writing ‘Tweets’ as they are called, delegates listening to the talk and panning through their messages on iPhones, there was even a gentleman who got up half way through the evening dinner, launched his laptop and began updating his Twitter. So here’s my ‘Twitter’ name ‘VernonKerswell’. Want to know more? You can follow my venture Extreme Fliers to the factories of the Far East, find out my daily schedule, what I’m eating, when I’m sleeping, my afflictions, phobias, list of medications as well as any and all people I’ve met in the past 24hrs.

Vernon Kerswell is a Make Your Mark Ambassador. His company, Extreme Fliers, specialises in the professional design, development, manufacture and import of state-of-the-art toys.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 10:34 am and is filed under Entrepreneurship, Future Face of Enterprise, Global, Guest bloggers, Make Your Mark Ambassadors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.