The Hive Extravaganza

Yesterday I went to one of the best entrepreneurial conference/seminars I have ever attended. It was organised by The Hive. These are my notes from the day.

Firstly I arrived and saw that there was in fact free tea, coffee and buffet. Good, then! I thought to myself. Breakfast! :)

BassToneSlap were the first people talking about their business. They are a african drum workshop organised by Richard Enion. They were on Dragons Den and successfully got the £50k they were looking for, for 40% of the company from two of the "dragons". This was more than they wanted to share but in the end realised it was okay, and got some great publicity out of it.


One thing I noticed is that their business wasn't a new idea. They saw a working type of business, saw their own potential doing it and chose to do the same. I'm always trying to think of a new business idea. What I understand after this is that perhaps it's better to start with something which already exists, and do it better!

Piccy Products Ltd were an interesting business. They are simply mums and teachers (as they put it) who found a way of kids to eat the healthy foods without kicking up a fuss. Sue Amphlett and Vonny Shelley entered and won the iEXPO "Last Business Standing" (speed dating-esque) competition. Some of the reasons why is because of their uniqueness. They had a song to grab the audience. They thought creatively about their business plan; it spoke to everyone not just people who understand figures and profit forecasts etc. And they had a well thought out pitch to execute.

Shed Simove was on the program but couldn't be there. He is the Ideas Man. He thinks of funny, innuendo gifts and sells them.

Then Mike Southon came on stage to give his talk, and my life changed forever. Haha! Well, near enough. His talk was great. It really made sense what he was saying. It was funny. And he used the best entrepreneurial analogy of them all; The Beatles.
He writes for the FT and has a book out called "Beermat Entrepreneur". This is what he had to say:
Does your product sell? Would your friends buy it? If not, strangers won't!
Get a good picture of yourself...

He is the ambassador for Peter Jones' National Enterprise Academy... so he's a celebrity!
Think about your career in seven year cycles. This made a lot of sense to me. I couldn't explain it until now but i've seen it before and he's absolutely right about it...

Make a level of connection to your customers like Paul McCartney has done... but don't make them cry like McCartney does!
Find someone with the opposite set of skills to yourself.

Then he somehow managed to relate this to the Simpsons characters and it still made sense!

There are three people needed to make a business work well...

• Delivery - Product or Service (Intovert)
• Sales - Who needs it? Who's rich? (Extrovert)
• Finance - Can we make money? (book keepers and accountants)

Could be three people in the pub, talking about those things, hence beermat entrepreneur.

Seven stages of finance:

1. Operate a cash business
2. Use a spreadsheet
3. Get a part-time book keeper
4. Get a part-time accountant - you could end it here and be a comfortably small business.
5. Get a Virtual Finance Cornerstone
6. Get a full-time Finance Director
7. Get a top accounting firm.

Think about your elevator pitch (the 5 p's):

1. Pain - what is the pain/problem that is to be addressed.
2. Premise - be literal. say exactly what you want to do. local, reliable and nice - be them!
3. People - who are the people in your team? it's important. what makes you different?
4. Proof - friends. happy customers. references.
5. Purpose - why this and not something else?

Money and Wealth (guanxi) link in with the purpose.

Wealth - treat people how you would want them to treat you. Always help, without going broke. Tell the truth!

To finish his talk he showed the new and brilliant animation for The Beatles Rockband...

Intro...

Outro...

And closed the event by summarising everything in quoting The Beatles:

And in the end

The love you take

Is equal to the love you make

Music: Fatboy Slim - Right Here, Right Now

Back to School

Today was the first day back to University. Here are my notes, thoughts and plans from the lecture...

My first thought when we sat down in Waverley Lecture Theatre was a sad notion that everything was coming to end, but also that everything in between was just 'stuff' that had happened... kind of strange as I don't usually think like that.
I believe this thought was prompted because it was the first time I had been back in the Lecture Theatre (from memory) since the first year. I don't usually think of things in this way so I found it interesting.

Anyway, lots of other things to think about now, such as:

• Simulated Project
• Personal Research Project
• Careers Service
• Hive Start To
• Successful Practice and Principles Year 3
• Multimedia Exhibition

The Simulated Project sounds really interesting as it holds much relevance to our society today.

The Copyright Protection Society (CPS) is starting a public information campaign that illustrates and explains what file sharing is, when and why it is illegal and also the consequence of being involved with this illegal activity.
They want you to produce a piece of Multimedia that will address the points above.

To meet this brief I'm going to research into Pirate Bay as suggested by Deb and talk to friends about this topic. I have 6 weeks to complete this project. Two weeks to have a proposal and the rest to complete the project which is roughly 150-200hrs of work.

The Personal Research Project (PRP) has been the module that I have given most thought to. I have to make my final decision on a question by the end of October. So far I am on my third idea which is: "Bringing and inanimate object to life". I have a few ideas for films to look into but need to do some more planning first.
NOTES: Who else has done it? So, what is the precedent? Argue the point, even if it is a lie.

Linda from Careers Service came in to talk which was very useful to me. I can book appointments to see her on:
Mon 1-3
Tue 2-4
Wed 10.30-5.30
Contacts: linda.brown@ntu.ac.uk 0115 848 8638

HiveStart To sounds like a really great new scheme to help students in the creative fields understand and move into self-employment. The lecture was given by the super cool Bindni Karia; an alumni of Multimedia who is doing great things such as the recent edit for behind the scenes of All My Sons at Curve Theatre in Leicester. I have just signed up and sent off my application so I hope I get the place!

Successful Practice and Principles Year 3 (SPP3) is about preparing yourself for the industry. My first project is simply to create a mock post graduation package. I have to find 4 actual Multimedia jobs and create a mock application for one of them. Then find 4 post-graduate courses being advertised online and create a mock application for one of those as well.

Finally, I let everyone know today that I was running as student ambassador. Someone else volunteered for the role too which is really cool. And it sounds like everyone is going to help in the design process for the exhibition and make it a really good one this year. I have a few ideas but can't wait to hear what everyone else has in mind, so I'm going to arrange a meeting soon.

Points that were mentioned today were: The importance of the industry night. We have to create a really good mailing list so that the potential for work opportunity from professionals coming to the exhibition is really high. Also, I might get in touch with David Cameron Walker. I've spoken to him before about Fly FM last year when he was running it. He was also on Multimedia and he is now running the Students Union. I can't think of how at the moment, but if we can have his help in some way that would be great.

So, two hours and two rooms later (which was only supposed to be one room for 50 minutes) we can now see that this year is going to be CRAZY! But i'm so excited, enthused and ready to work hard and get my 1st degree!



Music: BBC Radio online - Jazz Line-Up (11/10/2009)