This is a test blog for the new cohort of bloggers/students on the MA Media Enterprise. This course even has a facebook group!

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You’ll find a new page on this website dedicated to conference materials from the recent (March 2008) Creative Enterprise conference at Birmingham City University.It includes a podcast with excerpts from most of the speakers. Be sure to check it out. 

This week I chaired a conference at Birmingham City University on Creative Enterprise.

It was largely aimed at educators but it did have a few students and some business support people amongst its delegates.  First thing to say is that a way more reflective and thoughtful digest of the conference is being put together by Charlotte Carey. Go read it. I thought it might be worth pulling together links to some of the participants as that doesn’t seem to have been done anywhere else.

Here goes:

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Over the next weeks this blog will have multiple authors from the MA Media Enterprise Course¹. Students on the Cultural Entrepreneurship module² have to write a profile about an entrepreneur.

 Their posts should start appearing here very soon.

1. at Birmingham City University [↩]
2. there are about 20 of them [↩]

A huge ad on the back of the Midem pull-out in this week’s Music Week asks the question:

“Are you the UK’s young music entrepreneur 2008?”

This is a British Council/Nesta inititative and is open to 25-35 year olds with at least 3 years experience and a track record in innovation. Applicants must be “pushing the boundaries of the industry and have a vision for extending international business and cultural relations through music.”

The prize is to become one of the British Council’s network of young creative entrepreneurs and to go on a tour of India’s music industry.

Applications open on 7th March 2008 but you can register now by visiting:

www.creativeconomy.org.uk/ukyme08

And now here’s a conference for students on the same date as the one for educators in Birmingham.

If you can get to Dundee then the Scottish Institute for Enterprise is holding a one-day event that “is a unique opportunity to hear some of the most successful and inspiring entrepreneurs of our time speak about their success, what inspires them, and share some invaluable advice.”

The keynote speaker is James Caan from Dragon’s Den and there’s a quite a list of other inspiring entrepreneurs as well.

If you’re a Scottish Student it’s a mere £6 or £15 for other students.

Date: 10am – 4.30 pm, Wednesday 12th March 2008

Venue: Caird Hall, Dundee

Contact: Evelyn Hynan

Further details from their website.

Birmingham City University are hosting a follow-up conference to their event a couple of year back that explores debates and practice in enterprise education. The audience for this is very much educators rather than students but students can come along for a heavily reduced fee of just £10.

The conference will be held on Wednesday 12th March at Birmingham City University’s School of Jewellery.

For all enquiries please contact Kate Beresford on 0115 9655603 or register your interest for the conference here www.enterprise.ac.uk.

Delegate Fees:
Members of Enterprise Educators UK – £45
Non-members – £90
Students – £10

Univeristies are fond are trumpeting their students’ business acheivements and many of them run their own internal awards as part of that recognition. Sometimes you might find that there are regional or national awards as well.

Why enter a competition? Well some come with cash awards which is not to be sniffed at and many come with at least some kind of support in kind through mentoring or advice and guidance. Awards also work in letting customers know that you take your business seriously and they help differentiate you from the competition.

Here’s a rundown of some calls for entries open at the moment:

• Flux 2008
  A national competition for enterprise teams with a prize of £500 to each team member. It’s Dragon’s Den style so preperation is the key. There are regional events happening in late January and February with a grand final in March. Full details on their site but not all regional events are confirmed yet.
• Invest Northern Ireland’s Student Enterprise Awards 2008
  Ideas with the most commercial potential get a share of a €65,000 fund. Entries accepted from students from the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland. Closing date 23rd April 2008.
• Sheffield Hallam Enterprise Challenge
  This will launch on 1st February and is open to Hallam students or graduates from the last five years. You can pre-register your interest on the website. Take time to look over the previous winners. Plenty of cash prizes and in0kind support with this one.
• Northumbria University Busines Plan Competition
  Another one open only to students or graduates on the university in question but there’s a £1000 for the winning idea. Closes 15th Feb 2008

This is a very brief snapshot of the kind of competitions out there. I’ll post again as I find more.

In my search for case studies for this site I attended the recent Festival of Innovation at the NEC in Birmingham. Amongst the usual university displays were many students who had taken part in the SPEED entrepreneurship programme. Specific to the West Midlands this offers students advice and financial support to set themselves up as businesses. They do this either in their final year or the year after graduation.

“SPEED offers students from any course, from glass design to mechanical engineering, or dance to business administration the opportunity to develop their business ideas whilst at University”

Over the next few weeks I’ll be profiling some of the students I met but in the meantime, if you’re in the West Midlands, you may want to get in touch with the programme to see if you can benefit:

Tel: 01902 518960
Fax: 01902 323957
Email: innovation@wbs.wlv.ac.uk

You’ll find plenty of blogs listed throughout this site but a colleague of mine at Birmingham City University has a particularly useful one charting her progress as she goes about her job researching in this area.

Her ‘main’ blog, Creative Enterprise is worth a read as is her ‘personal’ blog.