Back to Global Entrepreneurship Week. We hope you enjoy part two of our #GEW journey!
Thursday 19th November, Glasgow
Making Scotland the Most Entrepreneurial Society in the World!
An event for the Entrepreneurial, By the Entrepreneurial, Discovering the Entrepreneurial!
As an entrepreneurial ecosystem we believe we can make Scotland the most entrepreneurial society in the world. Converge was invited by Entrepreneurial Scotland, Scottish EDGE, Power of Youth, We are the Future and Entrepreneurial Spark to an event in Glasgow during Global Entrepreneurship Week to demonstrate just this. The event included a fantastic panel discussion panel and games - yes games to get everyone talking. A room full of like-minded people shared ideas/thoughts/wisdom.
Thursday 19th November, Edinburgh
Women in Entrepreneurship
There were double celebrations as Thursday marked Women in Entrepreneurship Day! Eden Scott and MBM Commercial hosted the Women in Entrepreneurship event which brought together a fantastic panel of leading female entrepreneurs:
- Jackie Waring, CEO of Investing Women
- Margaret Gibson, CEO of Women's Enterprise Scotland
- Vicky Brock, CEO of Clear Returns
- Michelle Lownie, Founder Director of Eden Scott
- Michael Leek, Chief Executive at TC BioPharm Limited
The event was chaired by Sandy Kennedy, Chief Executive of Entrepreneurial Scotland who began proceedings with a strong message – female led entrepreneurship holds massive latent potential for Scotland. He stated that men are twice as likely as women to start a business in Scotland, however women led businesses outperform, therefore the economic impact of more female entrepreneurs would be huge!
The panel talked about the barriers that female entrepreneurs encounter when starting a company or aiming for further growth. Jackie identified that although 46% of high net worth individuals in the UK are women, female entrepreneurs still encounter barriers that were there 20 years ago. Vicky added that "it's exhausting breaking down all these doors when you know others have done it before you." Jackie then explained that when it comes to pitching, women ask for less however the return on investment is higher – women are a better bet! They're also more 'risk aware' which should be seen as a strength for equity and debt investment, not a weakness.
Talk then turned to the realities of being an entrepreneur – long hours and hard work! Vicky's message to budding entrepreneurs was not to focus too heavily on the idea, as "innovation only occurs with execution" and 99% of starting a business is effort. The panel were in agreement that drive and passion are key factors. You have to know exactly why you're doing it, but above all else, you have to love what you do. "It's about that inner ignition!" - Jackie Waring.
The panel then spoke about the importance of a collective community within entrepreneurship, with Sandy urging everyone to build mentoring networks to help one another. Michael added that "a flexible and trusting environment is key to a successful ecosystem" and we all need to support each other to help companies grow. Events, such as this one, help build social networks and create a sense of community.
Overall, it was a terrific event with a truly inspiring panel of entrepreneurs sharing their own experiences and invaluable advice to help inspire and empower the next generation of female entrepreneurs to #GEWmakeit!
Thursday 19th November, Aberdeen
Enterprise Campus North – Enterprise Thursday
On Thursday Evening, Enterprise Campus North and Aberdeen University ran their monthly Enterprise Thursday session, designed to inspire budding entrepreneurs of the North. This evening explored the various competitions that are open to support entrepreneurs in their quests to run successful businesses, with an outline of the key stages, eligibility, examples of successes and routes to support. It was a very informal evening with lots of conversations (and pizza!), but provided a great deal of critical information to direct the entrepreneurs to apply to the appropriate competition for the stage they are at.
Input from Ann Lewendon, detailing Aberdeen University's Santander Competition and the processes and prizes involved ensured that students in Aberdeen are getting regular and hands-on support to develop propositions that are ready to be submitted to other competitions, such as SiE monthly competitions, Converge Challenge and Santander's National Competition.SIE presented the programmes that they run to encourage, enable and reward young Entrepreneurs, and Converge Challenge outlined the opportunities available through participating in the programme. Also presented on the night was a description of the variety of categories in the Scottish Edge - the main Scottish EDGE, Higgs EDGE (specialising in Science/Technology/Engineering), Young EDGE for those aged 18-30 and the Wild Card EDGE.
In the middle of the inputs, James McIlroy, from EuroBiotix (see image) detailed the support that he had received from all of the above, during his year long journey into entrepreneurship. He stressed the importance of asking for, and using, the support mechanisms that are around and iterated that by participating in the competitions how much more than the cash prizes that his business had received. That, we at Converge Challenge think, is the biggest takeaway that we can get - the ecosystem in Scotland is set up to support the entrepreneur every step of the way, providing cash and business development resources to meet the needs to the emerging businesses and it does work.#ScotlandCanDo
Friday 20th November – Glasgow
Market Maker Challenge
Glasgow Kelvin College is working with the Gazelle Colleges Group to deliver Market Maker – a business idea development competition that seeks to develop new learning models in FE focused on providing students with commercial and entrepreneurial learning opportunities. On Friday morning, Converge Challenge joined Audrey Miller, Vice Principal of Glasgow Kelvin College, Danny Quinn of SiE and Andrew Tompkins to take part in the internal judging process for the Market Maker challenge. The teams presented with passion and commitment, demonstrating s huge distance travelled within their 10 weeks of developing their business ideas. Glasgow Kelvin College is committed to supporting the projects to develop their ideas further, despite the fact that only one of them can go to the national final of Market Maker Challenge in Hewlett-Packard's UK Headquarters in Bristol, where they get to pitch against people from across the UK's Further Education Sector in December. Converge Challenge wishes the team from Glasgow Kelvin College all the best in the national finals!
Friday 20th November - Glasgow
How to overcome your fear of networking
Friday afternoon saw a group of around 25 Researchers gather in the fabulous surroundings of the John MacIntyre Building to discover "How to overcome your fear of networking". Led by Dr Elizabeth Adams, Researcher Development Manager from the Research Strategy and Innovation Office, the group went through a series of exercises and practiced networking, keeping an eye on body language, group dynamics and learning how to prepare yourself for any networking opportunity. Ably supported by Anne Fraser from the Royal Society of Edinburgh's Enterprise Fellowship Programme and Veronica Ferguson from the Converge Challenge team, the group were put through their paces, learning the power of networking when considering how to develop your thinking, how to manage your "to meet list" at conferences and how to open conversations. A thoroughly rewarding and interesting afternoon - one which left the researchers feeling more confident and equipped to feel the fear of networking, but do it anyway!
We at Converge Challenge think the biggest takeaway that we took from #GEWUK is that the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Scotland is set up to support the entrepreneur every step of the way, providing cash and business development resources to meet the needs of emerging businesses and it does work. Scotland has a thriving startup community – now is the time to take action! #ScotlandCanDo
