Well, here it is everybody - the final installment of the Make a Difference Boot Camp series!
The Volkert has returned to bring life back to the Bootcamp after the theory labyrinth of Days 6 and 7, and we're going to take you through the journey of preparing and practicing the pitch, and then presenting it to a crowd of judges and guests as part of the Grand Finale. Plus, tons of intense action (of different sorts) along the way!
If you are new to reading the Make a Difference series and you aren't yet familiar with the events that led up to the Grand Finale, I would like to invite you to take a look at the previous posts that I have made on the Make a Difference Boot Camp: Days 1 to 3; Days 4 and 5; as well as Days 6 and 7.
Have I won the £2000 share of the prize money? Find out later in this post!
Day 8 - 30th of June 2023
The day started off with a change of geographic scenery this time - unlike previous days where I was waiting outside the Atrium building waiting to be let in, instead, I was sitting outside the Paddy and Scott's coffee establishment on the Ipswich Waterfront. Not long after, the University's Enterprise Manager, Amy Volkert, came along from the train station, ready to spread shine and vibes around the place as usual. She led me up the stairs, only to find Dot-to-Dot founder Simon Pickering, and one participant in the bootcamp, already sat inside the coffee bar.
After hearing the Enterprise Manager being briefed about the sour moments that unfolded on days 6 and 7 and the action that she took to address it, I would take a seat at the table where Simon was working and introduce ourselves to one another (although as Amy knew me so well, there wasn't much to introduce here).
Over the course of the next 30 minutes, more participants, as well as Enterprise Officer Hannah Page, would show up to the coffee bar, and the Enterprise Manager would go off to order some hot drinks for the participants that came along.
I would then show Amy a finished version of the map of Somerville town - everyone in the space was left really impressed by it - and eventually the blog post for days 6 and 7 (which turned out to be just as great a write-up as the map design that I made).
Somerville town map
And besides that, more talk with Hannah about the challenges of operating the fantasy map business idea in a University environment, as well as a quick glance at the pitch script to see where I could change things.
The chatter and laughs would last until approximately 10:15am, when the time came for the entire group to be escorted up to the first floor of the Atrium building, passing by the Hold along the way.
And after some more waiting around for the Enterprise Manager to come up to the room with one of the other bootcamp participants, the morning session would begin, with the first half being run by guest speaker Simon Barrington. It was a welcome relief to have a guest speaker come along to the Bootcamp again - something we've never had since Adam Brown's presentation on day 5!
First order of the day was an ice-breaker session where we would share five main weaknesses that entrepreneurs face in leadership - and I would happen to come up with one of those weaknesses - building social engagement.
We would then move on to approach the issue from the perspective of relationships and resilience, starting off with business relationships. This revolved around three key elements - the foundations of a great relationship, building context, and the marks and qualities.
One interesting concept that came up along the way was Johari's Window (mis-spelled in the diagram as Jo Harry's Window), which is used to understand one person's relationship with another. It was a really interesting way of putting my business idea into perspective from a range of different angles - such as what aspects of my idea is known by myself but not by others, as well as the feedback element where I might not know certain elements of my idea, but others might do and can use their knowledge to help me improve my work.
Then, we would move on to talk about the issue of being resilient in leadership. Some of the issues that were discussed in the session with regards to resilience included dealing with staffing and pay concerns, the reputational impacts that an organisation has to deal with, as well as the reality that there will be more challenges that a business owner will face once the business gets larger.
At one point, he also bought in some real-life examples of how people can come together during difficult times - as Simon was in the United States co-ordinating a humanitarian effort when the earthquake struck in Haiti in 2010 (and the country's subsequent descent into political turmoil after the earthquake that I would chat with Amy about later on).
Then, we would go on to talk about ways that business owners can build up their resilience and eventually, Simon would finish off his part of the session with the most important message that you will ever need in life - never compare yourself to others when running a business!
After a short break where I was observing the glasshouse action like a spy, it was time to move on to the main activity of the day - how to prepare a pitch deck and practice it in front of people!
The second half of the session started with a simple overview of what a pitch is about, before going through the 11 factors that entrepreneurs need to take into consideration when creating a pitch - some were obvious ones seen in general business acumen such as business value, addressing client needs, alongside others that are more specific to social enterprises such as the social and environmental reach and impact (remember PESTEL from day 5?).
Then, the next part of the session was about how a pitch should be structured in terms of time, followed by 6 key problems that entrepreneurs struggle with when preparing their pitches - such as underestimating personality, not thinking about the amount of time to present the pitch (something that I would later uncover in the Grand Finale), and being too confident about presenting. There was also a brief glimpse into the judging criteria that would be used by the judges for the Grand Finale!
And as the end of the morning session came nearer, it was then time to talk about the different types of hook that can be used to introduce the business idea to the audience. As I prepared a brief story of my journey to the fantasy map business idea in the inspirations blogpost, I knew that I needed to have a storytelling approach in my hook.
After going through the order of the pitch deck slides (which can be freeflow or some things might not even be there!), lunchtime came, and Enterprise Manager Amy invited me and Dot-to-Dot founder Simon to come along to the Digital Film Production studio in the Arts building - turns out that there would be filming taking place as part of a plan to promote the Make a Difference Boot Camp event in November 2023, and I would get to play a role.
The format of questions for the organisers (Amy and Simon) and the participants, were slightly different, with the organisers being asked on the purpose of the bootcamp, and how they felt the event was run, while the participants were asked questions on the things they have learnt, the support that they have received during the bootcamp and whether they would recommend the bootcamp to other people.
In "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" style, Simon would go on to take the hot seat first. Before the real thing would kick off, the sound testing started, which included questions on what they have had for breakfast, whether they had siblings, and having to count numbers - and eventually, the lights would come on.
After Simon was filmed answering questions, one of the other participants in the bootcamp came along for the interview - and, then, it was my turn to face the music. At this stage, it was just me and Amy left in the studio.
I decided to go on camera because I felt that I had plenty of great things to say about the bootcamp after writing about my experience in the blogposts, and I also wanted to show to people that despite being on the autism spectrum, I am able to overcome the challenges that I experience trying to articulate words in intense environments, such as being in front of a film camera. Not to mention that Amy was seriously impressed by my efforts - as she said to me that "You've smashed it!" once I finished the interview.
By this stage, I could have gone back to the Atrium building, but learning from Day 6 and not wanting to leave the Enterprise Manager alone in having to navigate her way back, I decided to stay in the studio for a while and listen to Amy sitting in the hot seat, speaking out about the bootcamp event - it was a great deal of fun!
Once Amy's shoot was over, it was time to head back to the Atrium building, and as I was dragging her back, I was about to experience a moment where my respect for the Enterprise Manager would massively go up - she came out to me that she was neurodivergent herself, having been diagnosed with ADHD. Besides that, there were more surprises in store - with everyone being left impressed about my previous Bootcamp posts, another opportunity happened to come up on Amy's radar - writing up blogposts on the secret goings of the Enterprise and Entrepreneurship team, huh?
But I didn't have long to take that in, and once I arrived back on the first floor of the Atrium building, it was time for the afternoon session to begin. The plan - spend some time doing some hands on work, and we would be split into two groups in separate rooms, with myself and a couple of others being ushered by the Enterprise Manager to the room next door.
The afternoon session started with materials on what to include in each of the pitch deck slides - whether it's including the tagline at the start of the pitch, describing market statistics, or the "traction" slide and business model overview. At one point, I happened to come across an interesting approach that one could take to preparing a pitch - focus on selling your solution, not the problems that surround your idea!
Then, it was time to start doing some work preparing the pitch decks, with some participants using laptops and smart devices. As I already had a pitch script from a pitching event that I did with Amy in mid-May, preparing the pitch script was more like a formality, as I only needed to figure out which parts needed changing to take into account the evolving nature of my business idea. However, I'd imagine that I would be having much more fun trying to get a pitch content script going in a short space of time if I was doing this activity from scratch!
Not long after, it was time for a few people to go and practice their pitches and everyone who was with Amy got ushered back into the main room. Since I want to save most of the pitch content fun for the Grand Finale, I am intentionally going to keep things brief here and primarily focus on the feedback that was given to the participants in the session.
The pitch practice session kicked off with the first presenter talking about an AI support network system as a way of supporting their mental health needs. The presenter's pitch was very strong, with the use of a persona to describe the idea, but it could have been improved by explaining how the AI system works.
After that, the presenter of the food subsidy social enterprise came along for the ride. The idea was well articulated and the pitch was inside the five minute bracket, however, the presenter was given some really cunning feedback by Simon - as the pitch deck mentioned setting up a canteen, why not have the word "canteen" somewhere as part of the branding?
The third presenter's idea was about setting up a community garden in a church. Again, it was a very strong performance, but could have done some improvement by considering collaboration with the local authority to raise awareness of the community space.
And then the final pitch practice of the day came with a little twist - everyone would end up getting involved in some capuera dancing, and given that our Enterprise Manager loves Latin American culture and has been to Central America, this was something that she was looking forward to seeing the most!
Once the pitches were heard, the cue came for the day to end and it was time for everybody to pack up and start heading home. However, as this post is about the leadup to the Bootcamp Grand Finale, I am not going to end it here unlike other blogposts!
Over the weekend, I would then go on to prepare a presentation for the upcoming pitch, which leads on to the Intermission, where I go off to practice the pitch with the Enterprise Manager on Thursday morning. There were some downs along the way - the most obvious one was having to edit the pitch script as it went over 5 minutes.
But there were also some fun parts to creating the pitch. As part of my work on the presentation, I came up with a rather crude way of creating some engaging branding for my business idea - I would find a public domain logo of planet Earth, stick it with some text in Inkscape and then put a tagline underneath it. And it came out like this:
Can anybody take a guess as to where my inspiration for the tagline came from?
Amy's Intermission - 6th of July 2023, morning
In the heading for this journal entry, I decided to use the word "intermission" to describe Amy's pitch presentation session, as the session takes place in between two different Bootcamp days. Now let's get to the action.
As I turned off Grimwade Street to walk up to the Atrium Building, an unexpected surprise happened - I ended up tripping the burglar alarms. But don't worry - it wasn't me that did the crime, and Security eventually came along to deactivate the alarm!
Fun and games aside, it was 9:15am and I was sitting outside the Atrium building, waiting for Amy to come along and let me in for the Intermission. Didn't take long for that to happen, huh?
Being the only one in the room at the time, I got to go first - and as the Enterprise Manager anticipated, I absolutely smashed that presentation. There were some suggestions about putting the B2B target audience with the secondary market research statistics - but I thought to myself... since I talked about market worth and target audience separately and it flowed quite nicely from my point of view - that's the strategy that I ended up going for in the Grand Finale.
After having some brief conversations on becoming a freelance interpreter, things began to fall silent, as our Enterprise Manager began working on a risk assessment plan for the upcoming Grand Finale - interesting to get to know the "behind the scenes" of planning such an important event in the Bootcamp. At one point, I ended up going out to the glasshouse, trying to find some imaginary participants - but they weren't there.
Things would stay this way until about 45 minutes later, when another participant came along to the session to practice a pitch on a visual survey for young children, aimed at managing their mental health needs. Here is a very good example of the Enterprise Manager showing her kind-hearted spirit towards other people going through bad times - she came along to comfort the presenter, who was feeling very distressed trying to read out the statistics that were underpinning the business idea, before working together to find a way to present the statistics using an alternative method that is more comfortable for the presenter. But other than that, it was again a really decent presentation.
Once the second presenter finished practicing the pitch content, silence descended on the room again, as the third presenter was working on a pitch deck that wasn't finished yet - but as the presenter had done enough work to make it presentable, eventually Amy persuaded the participant to practice the pitch deck with the content already gathered. It was really interesting getting to understand the science behind the presenter's ambitions to design a sustainable fitness bike prototype, although some eyebrows were raised about the projected length of the pitch (the presenter saying that he intended to deliver it in 15 minutes).
After the final presenter finished practicing their pitch, I took the time to tuck into my lunch (so I don't end up going hungry well into the afternoon), and not long after that, it was time for the Enterprise Manager, and the other participants that came along to the building, to get ready to go to the Escape Room, which is covered in the next section below.
The Successful Escape Room Plan - 6th of July 2023, afternoon
Remember when I said in the journal entry for day 1 that the plan to go escaping with Enterprise Manager Amy was foiled? Well this time, the plan to go escaping has been successful, and I am going to document what happened there!
We began to leave the Atrium building at about 12:30pm to go to the Escape Room. There was one little catch - one of the participants who wanted to go was not coming out of the Atrium building and we were waiting for five minutes - however, we had to keep moving towards Foundation Street, otherwise the plan to go escaping would get foiled again!
So I was leading Amy and the other participants along the way, off campus, along the narrow footways of Star Lane, up Fore Street towards the Unicorn Building and to the Escape Room entrance, Amy pressing the buzzer in the same fashion as last time.
Not long after climbing the stairs up to Reception, our Enterprise Manager had to run off from the Escape Room to do some pitch practice with a bootcamp participant who was in London and unable to come to Ipswich to pitch in person - which left a total of four people taking part in the activity (with a fifth one following on once the activity started).
After this, it wasn't long before 1pm came and the Escape Room staff gave us an option of different escape rooms to choose from based on their difficulty. As much of the group never did an escape room before, the group elected to go with the "beginner" Da Vinci room. Because I do not want to disclose spoilers to anyone who is reading this post, thinking on coming to the Escape Room and trying out the Da Vinci activity, I am intentionally going to keep things brief (and vague in some places) here.
The atmosphere of the room was actually pretty pleasant, with all sorts of everyday objects (some dating back to the 80s and 90s!) that you can find dotted around the room, as well as a slightly transparent picture of Venice on the window.
After being briefed about not climbing on the furniture or looking in the ceilings for clues, and other health and safety gobbledygook, it was then onto the objective of the Escape Room - find the key to the Holy Grail's secret within 60 minutes. The session was full of creativity, as we were having to use our cryptographic imaginations and look around everywhere to find different keycodes and solve the puzzle.
Overall, it took 45 minutes and 54 seconds for the group to solve the entire puzzle - and what made it even more amazing is that the group skipped an entire step in the puzzle to find the Holy Grail! Not long after, we were back out on the streets of Ipswich town, and I began to make my way home, my head now entirely focused on getting the pitch ready for the Grand Finale.
The Grand Finale - 7th of July 2023
The morning of the Grand Finale was pretty much. Uneventful. Getting washed up ready to go to the Bootcamp, playing chilled music and having the equivalent of a full English breakfast for lunch (who still does that nowadays?). Eventually I got bored sitting at home and left at 1:30pm to make my way to the University Campus along the Waterfront.
After going up the ramp at the Hold, I didn't have to wait long before I was let in the Atrium building by the "big boss" of Business Development, Emma Wakeling. When I got to the glasshouse, the refreshments appeared to be already out. Why? Because there was another event going on in the building - that was about to finish once I got here.
After waiting a bit more, Enterprise Manager Amy showed up from the office, and not long after, we were chatting with one of the Bootcamp participants who attended the previous event in November 2022 (who would happen to be one of the guests later on), talking about the fantasy idea among other things.
As our would-be guest disappeared just shy of 2:45pm, the journey down the backstreets of the pitching event began, firstly, taking Amy down to the cafeteria in the Hold and back, then round the Innovation Labs (where Dot-to-Dot founder Simon was busy on a call), and eventually to the pitching room, where the Estates team were doing an amazing job clearing out the tables that once stood in the room and sorting out the seating arrangements.
Not to mention that Enterprise Officer Hannah was also in the room, snooping through the nine presentations and one video recording that came through on the emails, and then getting round to doing the celebration slides (the time by now was 3:00pm).
Whilst I was sitting with the Enterprise team in the pitching room enjoying the secrets (which included Amy practicing the introduction speech!), little did I know was that there was action going on out in the glasshouse - as at approximately 3:20pm, the refreshments for the pitching event would come out, and the tables that were there 40 minutes ago... disappeared.
And after being taken through some more fashion and family secrets that madam Volkert had in store (trust me, that was fun!), the first of the bootcamp participants would begin to arrive in the building at 3:30pm. At one point, we shared our tolerance for equality and diversity - Amy talked about her experience of living in a diverse area of east London, and I was chatting about the beauty of the Islamic faith with our capuera participant.
By 4:00pm, the Atrium glasshouse was flooded with upwards of 40 participants, guests and judges. Among the judges who were going to be deliberating on the day included Karen Cannard from the guest speaking session on Day 1, guest speaker Adam Brown from Day 5, as well as the University's Sustainability Manager, Justine Oakes.
After going around the glasshouse having some conversations with the guests who were all rooting for me, everybody was called to the pitching room at 4:30pm. To begin the event, Enterprise Manager Amy (as well as Emma) introduced the crowd to the pitching event (using a similar script to the one practiced an hour earlier!), before giving away some information on the University's collaboration with the Business Growth Coach Network (BGCN). After that, it was time to get to the pitch decks, and it turns out that many of the presentations would be going on for much longer than originally scheduled.
The first two pitches really touched me in terms of how their journeys to their business ideas came out, and the social value that they were looking to offer - with the first presenter of the day promoting an idea for high quality, subsidised food options for people who are financially struggling - with the food being produced at a central hub and then distributed around local communities. Then the second presenter described the social problems (namely drug use and crime rates) and lack of safe social spaces in her local area of Ipswich, and wanted to set up a community garden in a local church where people can feel united.
After that, the third presenter of the day came up to talk about Listen to Me, a social enterprise aimed at creating visual surveys for children aged 7 to 11 years of age, aimed at improving their mental health. Now, as this post is going to be kept free of trigger warnings, I am not going to mention the statistics that are associated with the business idea here due to the highly distressing nature of them.
It was very interesting seeing the presenter mention the amount of support that the idea has received in one of the local schools - and one thing that was really fascinating at the end of the presentation was that the presenter was not asking for the prize money, but rather, was asking for expertise!
Once the third presenter started taking questions for their idea, I then got up out of my seat and went over to the Enterprise Manager, waiting for the big moment to come. And then it happened - it was my turn to present the Fantasy Map Pitch!
Presenting it with just Amy in the room on the previous day made the pitch deck feel like a piece of cake, but given that I was about to address it to the biggest crowd of people that I ever had to do a presentation for in my entire life, it was incredible that I was able to maintain my composure and confidence when explaining my idea and not slip up. Especially as I had no lifelines to help me deliver the presentation.
After answering some questions from guests with regards to promotion of the idea, and how I see my business developing in line with customer demand, as well as being given some advice by Justine on how I could promote my fantasy map empire, it was time to return to my seat (with widespread cheers and applause), and the developers of the Gamify app were next to face the music.
The Gamify pitch deck was really fascinating to listen to, as it was an effort to use AI technology to combine the incentives that are seen in video games (such as in-game currency) with psychology to be able to support people with mental health issues.
Once the presenters of Gamify took their seats, the sixth presenter came along to present the pitch for dance social enterprise "The Hub". But before the actual pitch content could begin, the main highlight of the pitching event came along - the capuera dance exercise, and everyone would get involved! Firstly, everyone in the room was asked to simulate walking around a train platform, waiting to catch a train - firstly the "hi, how are you" exercise, followed by an attempt to say it backwards.
Then, it was time to do some Latin dance moves, firstly, moving side by side, then forming a circle around one another at one point, splitting up into two groups. At that point the salsa music would also come on; the sound of congas and timbales blasting their way around the room.
And remember this equation - Amy and Latin music are always inseparable.
Things would then begin to calm down, as everyone returned to their seats for the pitch deck, where the presenters would talk about promoting capuera dancing as a wellness tool. It was very touching to be able to hear the story of one of the presenters being able to overcome the challenges of coming from a town, where there are very few possibilities for men to learn dance, in order to become a world-famous dancer - and to see that dance clubs have saved the NHS £430 million in costs.
The seventh presenter of the day had a similar idea to the Gamify presenters - using AI in order to provide a person-centered approach to their individual needs, with the hope of building a bigger support network. It was interesting to see the presenter's use of an unemployed persona to describe someone who is feeling lonely and could benefit from the app, and the primary market research data that the presenter gathered really surprised me - 66.6% of 30 - 39 year olds surveyed had very limited or no support networks.
Once the seventh presenter returned to their seat, the Enterprise team opened up the video presentation with one of the participants that was unable to come to the pitching event as a result of having commitments to tend to in London. It was about a digital marketing and social enterprise agency called Anglian Creative, which aims to provide subsidised equipment to other social enterprises and non-profits, and provide more opportunities for families who are on a low income to allow their children to be able to thrive and succeed.
Once the video finished playing, the ninth presenter came up to the stage, and in this pitch deck, I was really pleased to be able to listen to something that I could relate to as someone on the autism spectrum, seeing someone using their own experience around being neurodivergent go on to promote a social enterprise aimed at putting a stop to the culture of ableism - how about promoting a mixture of workshops, online materials and networking events where people.
Eventually, it was time to listen to the last presentation - the InfiVolt exercise bike business idea. Although the pitch deck was on the lengthier side, it was interesting to listen to the science and physics behind operating the exercise bikes, as well as some of the business model (which included targeting the idea at local councils!) - the presenter's International Business expertise really showed through here.
In fact, the idea was so good to the point that the judges raised issues around possible patent infringement - but it goes to show that you need to check that there isn't somebody else doing it!
After the questions were taken on the InfiVolt idea, the pitch session was over, and it was time for the judges to start making their decision on who would get the £2,000 share of the prize money. In the meantime, the participants and guests would go back to the glass house to... what? Music with food and alcoholic drinks? I thought that was for later, but OK.
About 15 - 20 minutes later, everyone was called back to the pitching room, and the participants were told in no uncertain terms to come up to the stage to be presented with Bootcamp completion certificates!
And after a nervous wait, the verdicts on who won the prize money came in - the winners being the developers of the Gamify app and the presenter of the InfiVolt bike idea. But in the end, it didn't really matter who won the prize - as I have won lots of hearts amongst the guests and staff across the University who were there judging and overseeing the event.
After playing around with some photographs, it was onto the Bootcamp After Party. The only catch... the After Party vibes have already passed us by, as the food supply in the Atrium building has been demolished entirely, with only the drinks left! And no music.
Conclusions after Days 8 and 9
Overall, days 8 and 9 provided a vastly different and better experience in comparison to days 6 and 7 - with the most noticeable change being the atmosphere in the room - the most important thing being that there were no sour moments on either of the two days. There is no doubt that Amy and Hannah are really good at solving conflict!
I have to say that I had a really good time on Day 8. Firstly, guest speaker Simon Barrington managed to break down the leadership challenges in a clear and coherent way, and he made really good use of real-life scenarios to describe issues that business owners could face at short notice with the Haiti earthquake situation.
Secondly, from judging how well the pitch practice sessions went, the pitch preparation session helped me to gain more confidence in creating a presentation that matches time constraints, and I must say that I particularly enjoyed the Enterprise Manager's take on the pitch preparation content during the afternoon session - the material that Amy prepared was really easy to understand and it made me feel more confident about how I should structure each part of the pitch presentation.
Likewise, Amy's intermission session on the 6th of July was an invaluable tool in helping me to smash the pitch material at the Grand Finale, as it provided me with a space to be able to practice the pitch content in an environment that simulates the pitching room, and to gain some feedback on how I could improve the pitch further.
The Grand Finale of the Bootcamp was one of the most spectacular things that I have ever seen in all the years that I've been at the University of Suffolk. All of the pitches that I listened to were really interesting in one way or another - whether that's opening up a safe space at a church for everyone to enjoy, using in-game currency as an incentive to manage people's mental health (Gamify) or having fun dancing around the room listening to Latin music (The Hub) - there was something for everyone to enjoy.
The judges and guests that were there were all very friendly to speak to, and seemed to be very curious about my passion to create a fantasy empire - but particularly more so in my conversations with the University's Sustainability Manager, Justine, as well as with Karen Cannard. Consequently, I ended up walking away from the Bootcamp getting to know new people who might wish to sell their expertise and help me on my journey towards building my business idea.
And the most important thing about the Grand Finale was that there was no complaining in the crowd about not winning the prize money, as everyone received lots of praise in relation to their pitch decks, and encouragement to keep going with their business ideas. At the end of the day, everyone came to the bootcamp to have fun with their ideas, not to fight over money!
After being through it all... how was the bootcamp experience in general?
I have to say that the June 2023 Make a Difference Boot Camp has been the most successful event of its kind that has been run by the University of Suffolk. At a quick glance, the event has prepared me really well for the challenges that are to be expected in the months and years ahead running a fantasy map business empire - whether that's preparing a portfolio of maps, setting up a timeline for organising community events, or going to investors for cash.
Besides the incredibly charming atmosphere that I got at the Grand Finale, a few things stood out in the bootcamp in particular - firstly, there was a wide range of guest speakers that have come along to provide a diverse range of interesting opinions, whether it is hearing the stories of successful social entrepreneurs on Day 1, Adam Brown's presentation on how to do marketing for free on Day 5, or Simon Barrington's presentation on leadership challenges on Day 8.
In terms of the practical work, what really stood out for me were the sessions on the Business Model Canvas on Day 2, as well as the Theory of Change on Day 3 - the concepts in those sessions were really well explained and structured and as a result, I managed to gain a very good grounding on what I would like to achieve out of running the fantasy map business idea, the revenue streams that might be coming in, and who I am going to need support from to make it possible. The pitch preparation session on Day 8 was also not far behind the aforementioned sessions in terms of quality.
On the other hand, the amount of theory covered in days 6 and 7 was quite heavy (as the sessions were about important financial planning concepts), and although I didn't hate the presentation of the concepts in those days, there was a lot to take in with regards to issues surrounding writing good business plans and making sure that the business doesn't go bust, and so in that sense, I would consider 6 and 7 to be some of the most demanding days of the bootcamp.
The Enterprise Manager's passion and drive to run this event is incredibly high. Amy's personality is one of the most down-to-earth that I have ever come across in the four years that I've associated myself with the University community, and that is also saying something about how well the bootcamp was organised - she really was a big motivation booster for everyone who came along to the sessions.
But what especially amazed me about Amy's mindset throughout the Bootcamp (and particularly in days 8 and 9) was how open and tolerant she was towards people from different cultures and countries, and to see that she is using her position in the University, as well as the qualities that she has as a neurodivergent person, to make the world of enterprise and entrepreneurship, and the world of work in general, accessible to as many people as possible.
And so thanks to Amy's words of support and encouragement that she has given me throughout the Bootcamp, I would like to use my experience of coming to the Bootcamp as a person on the spectrum to encourage disabled entrepreneurs to try out the next bootcamp in November, and more importantly, have belief in themselves - if they can do something that they are passionate about, their experiences can take them in all sorts of different directions!
Ending remarks
Sadly, the time has come for the June 2023 Make a Difference series to end, but it has been such a pleasure to be able to work with everyone at the bootcamp and to get to build a close-knit network with other people.
I would like to wish the Enterprise and Entrepreneurship team at the University the best of luck in planning the Make a Difference Bootcamp in November 2023, and in their collaboration with the BGCN on the "Start, Build, Grow" programme - I hope that that said programme, and the next bootcamp will be just as successful as this one!
If you are a University student or alumni thinking of building a business or going freelance, why not go and pay a visit to Enterprise Manager Amy - not only will she help you establish a footing in business concepts, but she will also add loads of charm to your day and make you feel better about yourself!
Meanwhile, the normal schedule of fantasy map making posts will return - next up on this blog will be the blog post documenting how I made the map of Somerville town, followed by my attempts to digitally illustrate the fantasy Youtubia continent.
Signing off now,
Jakub
Comments
Post a Comment