Why Startup Guernsey celebrates Global Entrepreneurship Week
GUERNSEY has long been an island of innovators and entrepreneurs, and the exciting thing about working with Startup Guernsey is that we meet and support a wide range of up and coming entrepreneurs, all at different stages of their business journey. Each November, for the past nine years, we have worked with local partners to put on events to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week. This huge effort has a range of benefits for local entrepreneurs and opens opportunities to encourage innovation. We engage hundreds of participants each year, with a wide variety of events, and 2018 was no exception including Speed Networking, Meet the Media, Angel Pitch Night and Entrepreneurs Club networking breakfast, Tourism Ideathon and Feminine Business. What each event had in common was that they each presented an opportunity to be inspired, to learn and to connect with the local entrepreneurial eco-system.
Inspiration:
Startup Guernsey enjoys showcasing local successful entrepreneurs as, by far, the best way to inspire others to consider starting up their own venture. Sometimes their new venture is a side project which supplements their existing income and allows the entrepreneur to work around existing commitments or employment. And sometimes this is a full-time venture that is more inspiring, remunerative and fulfilling than their current job. Seeing local entrepreneurs pitch at our Angel Pitch night allows other potential entrepreneurs to be inspired at how far some of them have gone and understand what next steps they are taking to scale up. We held our first ever Ideathon event, which was intended to inspire attendees to propose ideas in the tourism industry. Five £1,000 prizes were on offer, and the resulting ideas were fantastic and varied, many having a real chance of succeeding.
Learning:
While some may think of ‘skills’ as formal qualifications for specific jobs, more often than not entrepreneurs are in a constant learning cycle, having to master a whole range of skills in business and in their particular industry. From networking (helped by thebestof Guernsey hosted speed networking session), to improving business plans and presentation techniques (with advice from the Startup Guernsey team on pitching to angel investors), as well as learning directly from media experts at Orchard PR’s Meet the Media event, Global Entrepreneurship Week has provided a range of opportunities for learning. Entrepreneurs also had the chance to expand their thinking about their approach to business with the Feminine Business event hosted by Islandmums and Female Potential, which explored incorporating feminine values into business theory and practice.
Connecting the entrepreneurial eco-system:
Guernsey has a rich entrepreneurial eco-system, and Startup Guernsey engages many parts of it during GEW, strengthening these connections. Our GEW sponsors are not just contributing towards expenses for an event. They really do get involved, providing real, hands-on assistance in moving entrepreneurs towards their goal. For example, Barclays Eagle Labs sponsored the Angel Pitch event and they also met with some of the participants before and afterwards to provide advice. Orchard PR gathered a top class set of local media practitioners for our Meet the Media event and hosted an informative, thought-provoking question and answer session helping the audience to better understand how to work better with the press. And we were grateful for the Tourism Ideathon sponsors, including Sarnia Hotels, TPA, PwC, Vivid and JT, who spent over eight hours during the event and are continuing to work with the participants to help them develop and deliver their ideas. Participants were also fortunate enough to have a range of government staff giving advice, including those from Visit Guernsey, Education, Sport & Culture, the Planning Service and Economic Development. Bringing all of these supporters together after work hours was extremely worthwhile and kickstarted some amazing ideas to support our local tourism industry.
Money is essential for escalating innovation, and our local Angel investors were front and centre at the Angel Pitch night, offering advice, further contacts and potential funding to the participants.
Finally, sharing the journey with other entrepreneurs is one of the best ways entrepreneurs tell us they get support. One way Startup Guernsey is supporting this effort is our monthly Entrepreneur Club networking breakfasts, sponsored by Guernsey Post.
How we can improve:
If you are interested in improving the support for entrepreneurs, tell us what inspiration, skills and connections you think we can do more of, or improve. What other industries could use an Ideathon? Startup Guernsey is in the process of re-evaluating its work and would welcome any comments or suggestions as to how we can better support Guernsey’s entrepreneurs. We invite any comments or thoughts to be emailed to us at info@startup.gg.
