MADE FESTIVAL, SHEFFIELD

Thursday 22nd September 2011

A lot of great things have been happening over the last few months and they just don't seem to be slowing down : ) A few weeks ago I was asked to front a national campaign for Virgin Media Pioneers entitled "Control Shift: The Rise of the Young Entrepreneur", alongside three other individuals; Zoe Jackson (Founder and CEO of Living the Dream Performing Arts Company) and Abdul Khan (Founder and CEO of www.ratethatcurry.com) a campaign which was also being backed by Richard Branson.

Today the campaign was launched at MADE Festival, 2011 a three day festival in Sheffield for entrepreneurs, the first of it's kind which debuted last September.  Throughout the festival a number of sucessful business speakers are billed to talk; from Peter Jones to Lara Morgan, the festival is heaving with over 2000 entrepreneurs.

Zoe, Abdul and myself took take part in a panel debate alongside the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Rt Hon Dr Vincent Cable MP, whilst the event was hosted by the wonderful David McQueen (founder and CEO of Magnificent Minds).

As part of the campaign Virgin Media is matching three members of the pioneer community to inspirational mentors during the eight week campaign and I'm lucky to be one of the three pairing. My mentor is successful business owner of The Black Farmer range Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones and I have to say I'm extremely excited about having the opportunity to pick his brains. I first came across his food brand a few years ago and was lucky enough to hear in speak at a previous Virgin Media Pioneer's event in 2010, so it's a complete honour to have this one to one time with him now. Oh how I'm going to pick his brains!

To read more about the MADE Festival and the company behind it, please click here

To read more about Virgin Media Pioneers - a scheme launched in March 2010 to help aspiring entrepreneurs build succesful businesses, please visit www.virginpioneers.com

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