Spouting Shite

Big fun at the Big Ideas Youth Challenge

On Wednesday I spent the morning with Lisa Smith and the team and kids from Big Ideas Youth Challenge 2009. The Big Ideas Youth Challenge is a scheme setup to help encourage the entrepreneurial talents of people under 20 years of age in the North East of England. The team were on day three of a five day residential workshop at Otterburn Hall Hotel in Northumberland.

During the morning I worked with 22 up and coming entrepreneurs who were working on business propositions that spanned the domestic computing area, mobile telecoms and board games. I would like to expand more but each team made me sign an NDA before they spoke to me!

I really enjoyed my time, during which we played a ‘fast pitch’ game where each team were given three minutes to come up with a completely new idea and pitch it to me in one minute. After their pitch I had to think fast and come up with a reason why I was not interested…after which they had another three minutes to come up with a new pitch. After three rounds all teams had overcome my ridiculous ‘negatives’ and were awarded contracts ranging from staff training, towel delivery, laundry services and energy audit services. I was amazed at the speed at which the teams worked and how they worked together to prepare and deliver winning presentations.

I hope to get more involved next year and perhaps get the team at Joseph Swan to enter!