Hello and welcome to this post that documents what took place at the Bootcamp Reunion event at the University of Suffolk on the 10th of August 2023. It is the first time since the Grand Finale that the Bootcamp participants came together in person to share their progress with others.
Now if you are wondering whether this reunion shares the same vibes as the University's Alumni Reunion back in April, I have to say that the answer to that is no. Instead of drinks, live music and art paintings, we would get a different kind of reunion, as the focus of that session was about the University's collaboration with the Business Growth Coach Network (BGCN) and the support that is available to Bootcampers through the Start, Build, Grow programme.
What happened since the Grand Finale?
Before you can talk about the reunion itself, you first have to talk about the events that took place across the Bootcamp delegation in the five weeks leading up to the event - and trust me, there was a lot going on!
Once the core Bootcamp programme finished, the organisers and participants all broke off in multiple different directions. Some of us went to the FSB networking event, where we got to connect our business ideas with the civilian business world, while others also went to the Innovation Labs celebration party - two different events with two very different success stories attached to them.
Fast-forward to the 29th of July and the Bootcamp winners, were invited to appear on Gen X Radio to speak about the Bootcamp event, and it was really interesting to listen to the programme and hear their opinions on how the Bootcamp win allowed them to progress with their business idea.
Then a few days before the reunion, also on the 8th of August, another Bootcamp success story emerged - as the founder of the Eden Sanctuary gardening project received grant funding for her idea from the Ipswich Town Fund. It just goes to show that if you are targeting your idea at the right investors and stakeholders, it is possible to do it!
And so to put things into perspective, we were all going in to the reunion feeling very enthusiastic in terms of how far we have come in our business development journeys.
Event experience
It was 9:45am and I was sitting outside the Atrium building waiting to go inside. Now usually, in typical Bootcamp fashion, I would take the Enterprise Manager by surprise and get let in from there - but that didn't happen on this occasion, and so I was let into the building by Jason instead.
After a short wait out in the glasshouse, I was led into the seminar room for the meet and greet - with the most interesting conversation being in relation to where everyone ran off during the summer holiday break. There was a wide range of places being talked about in that conversation - whether it was one of our participants going off with family to Great Yarmouth or our food scientist entrepreneur jet setting off to Italy not long after spending some time in Rwanda. You can tell that fantasy mapping and travel fits together in so many ways.
As the start of the session got nearer, Enterprise Manager Amy went off to prepare the coffee machines out in the glasshouse. While I was waiting for a cup of coffee, I got a brief chance to chat with one of the Start, Build, Grow presenters, and I must say that I found it fascinating to hear him talk about the potential for my business idea to be targeted at families - but with Amy showing off some children's fantasy map picture books to me in a meeting back in April, I guess I know that fact already.
Once the action calmed down, the first order of the day was to discuss our business ideas and how things have moved on. When my turn came to discuss the fantasy map business idea, I received a bit of an unexpected surprise - I might need to raise serious amounts of money in order to get the business off the ground.
Afterwards, it was time to have some discussions around the Start, Build, Grow programme and how it came to existence - the programme was created to address the poor business support guidance that was offered by one of its competitors, Suffolk Start-up (leaving people to their own devices after a generic business workshop is never a good thing).
Personally, I found the set-up of the programme to be well-organised, as you had to go through an interview about your business idea to find out where you should be placed on the programme, and from there, there was a diverse range of support that could be offered based on where your business is at - whether it is a good old-fashioned workshop, 1-1 support, networking with people at the same stage as you or longer-term mentoring with a business coach.
The Q&A then came after that, where people were asking questions about how their business ideas fit in with the program - and there was a diverse range of topics that the bootcamp participants asked about. Some were individual, administrative-related queries, such as whether someone could do Start, Build, Grow on a student visa or ways to take their idea forward without breaking their employment contract.
But on the other hand, there were also some more interesting questions being asked in the session. For instance, some participants asked questions and shared suggestions on how they could secure a venue for their business ideas or how they could promote their ideas in the local community - whether that was hiring college workshops to manufacture exercise bikes, bringing the dancing idea into socially deprived areas of Ipswich or getting in touch with local councillors.
And of course, you can't forget about some of the more important topics, such as choosing a bank that will give you the right financial support for your business idea, or the order in which budding entrepreneurs should work on their business ideas (the recommended order being the business plan, then company/HMRC registration, and then the domain name).
To finish off the session, a few of the Bootcampers were invited to take a tour of the Innovation Labs office space, firstly starting off with an introduction to the services that the Innovation Labs provide as well as the hiring costs for the large seminar rooms, followed by an overview of the hotdesking and meeting room spaces in the office itself (along with some cupcakes for everyone to enjoy).
The tour eventually degenerated into some more random talking - some of the more interesting conversations included how YouTube content marketed for "kids" can sometimes trick families into watching unsuitable graphic content - as well as our capuera guest sharing some more beauties of the Islamic faith in that people can express their identity with creativity.
Eventually the Innovation Labs administrator, everybody seemed to be craving some lunch, and so the cue came for the session to end. We started making our way out into the glasshouse, had a few more chit chats, and eventually left the building to go home.
The next day, I went on a little adventure wandering up the Gipping from Needham Market to Stowmarket - but the path has gotten so dilapidated from the storm damage 18 months ago that I don't think I'll be going back there anytime soon.
Anyways, I hope you have enjoyed this interesting little adventure into the world of business support, and I am definitely looking forward to the next reunion session, where hopefully the October/November Bootcampers will have hopped onboard and joined us for the ride. For now, let's get back to getting that fantasy map project sorted before I forget.
Signing off now,
Jakub
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