Take Control Today at Newham College of Further Education
January 29th, 2010 by katefLast Thursday Enterprise UK and Newham College of Further Education teamed up to present Take Control Today! The idea of the event is to inspire those who have been made redundant to start a business or those who already have businesses to help them grow.
The event was split into two parts, the afternoon was held with 100 students listening to three speakers, each from a very different background. Peter Harvey from Newham Chamber of Commerce spoke first, he acts as the chairman for the Chamber as is keen for Newham to set up a Young Chamber for young budding entrepreneurs. Peter admits to being a bit of an oldie and not knowing much about the youth of today, so he conducted some market research on what potential members of the young chamber would want. I ran a couple of speednetworking sessions for the students to discuss their ideas and for them to think about questions that they need answering by Peter. It was great to see the students getting stuck into the speednetworking and some really original questions and ideas came out of it!
Gerard Jones came in to talk about his football academy, now I actually missed this talk but i’m guessing from the amount of students who wanted to speak to him and who asked me for his contact details it went really well! Not forgetting Eryca Freemantle, who I have never met before, but she was an outstanding women’s role model. She had some excellent tips on how to make it to the top!
In the evening we had 5 presentations given by HMRC, Newham Chamber and three entrepreneurs at very different stages in their journeys. Paul Barry-Walsh, Philanthropist of the Year in 2009, owner of and founder of the Fredericks Foundation spoke of experience in the business from nearly becoming bankrupt to selling his business for millions of pounds! Marcia Brown of Designer Art Cakes talked about being made redundant 3 times and how starting a business has given her new confidence in life. Kemi Laniyan showed inspirational drive and perseverance in the face of many barriers on the road to success. She is now the owner and Managing Director of a thriving property business, Corporate Homes Ltd.
All in all it was great to see so many people who want to either start or grow a business. Thank you to all of Newham College’s hard work too, it was a fantastic event!
February 5th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Thank you for your comments this really means alot and it was great to speak at Newham College and I’m looking forward to going down again in the future.
I believe events like this are great for budding entrepreneurs including those who want to tap into their enterprise potential to achieve great things at college or university or whatever and provides them with a great insight into how they too can do it and fulfil their potential.