Well, here we are then - the year of 2023 has come to an end with so many amazing things being achieved in relation to my business idea - starting off the year by being introduced to the Volkert and making a start on my journey to building a fantasy mapping business, going to the Make a Difference Boot Camp, creating my first maps, and putting together a business plan!
To celebrate the end of the year, I would like to provide a summary of the enterprise-related events that I have been to at the University of Suffolk, and elsewhere in the run-up to the Christmas break. Trust me, there are many exciting things that I have to show you this time round!
Simon Barrington's Leadership Lecture - 24th November 2023
Originally, I was not going to blog about this experience in anticipation that the content would be too similar to what I was shown in the original running of his session on the 30th of June, but as you will encounter in this excerpt, the organisation of the lecture were slightly different, and so I had to document this to keep the momentum of posts on University events going!
It was around 9:15am on a beautiful Friday morning and I was waiting to go inside the Atrium Building. Not long after I arrived, the guest speaker Simon Barrington came along to let me in to the building, where I was swiftly met by Enterprise Officer Hannah Page and led upstairs to wait for the remaining participants. The Enterprise Manager, Amy Volkert was also originally planning to come along to observe the guest lecture, but as I found out later from Hannah, she was not feeling well and was unable to come.
After Simon started off the lecture with his signature talk of the main leadership challenges that entrepreneurs face when running their businesses, it wasn't long before the lecture took an interesting twist - explaining the "why" that underpins their need to start up their business ideas, followed by the importance of needing to recruit people to the organisation who share the same needs as you. This fed through to the first order of the day, when each participant in the lecture was asked to explain their "why". For this scenario, my "why" behind my business idea was making sure that people could spend their time teleporting away from real worlds for a short while.
Towards the end of the lecture, Simon decided to go through another interesting topic to consider when thinking about one's business idea - exploring the elements of tension and conflict that can be experienced between two different values, and at one point we were shown a diagram which outlines the benefits and the unintended consequences that can be seen from exploring the two subjects together.
Eventually we were asked to have a go at outlining the tension between two different values using the aforementioned diagram model. Here, I was paired up with one of the new bootcampers, and it was really interesting to get to talk about how these two values collide with our own business ideas with one another.
And with that, the session was over, and it was time to head home and wait for the news regarding me coming along to observe the Grand Finale of the new Bootcampers. As you'll find out in the next section, things took a little bit of a sinister turn...
The New Bootcampers' Grand Finale (plus some Mix) - 29th to 30th of November 2023
Let's start this section off by saying that with the last Grand Finale being one of the most memorable events that I have ever been to at the University of Suffolk, I thought to myself that it would be a real shame not to come along and see what the new bootcampers got up to after completing the last eight sessions of a programme which started in late October. And so I thought to myself - why not come along and have a look at what the new Bootcampers have to offer in terms of their pitches!
However, I would like to say that I was not even sure whether this section of the blogpost would even exist, as I was initially under the impression that I would not be permitted to come and observe the Grand Finale. The first time I realised that something wasn't right was when the Careers marketing honcho, Hazel Thangadurai, stopped me in Eagle Street, and I explained to her what had happened in regards to recent developments surrounding my attendance at the event, to which she told me that I was welcome to come along.
And with that, I just kept walking towards the University campus, not knowing at the time how Amy would react to seeing me outside the building for a Bootcamp Grand Finale that I am not taking part in from a pitching perspective.
Eventually, I made it to the entrance of the Atrium Building at around 1:45pm, and as Amy was getting ready to go to the Hold for a coffee chat with Dot-to-Dot founder Simon Pickering, she realised that something was wrong with me and we sat down together to have a chat about what happened and what could be done to resolve the issue - at this point, she told me in no uncertain terms that I was more than welcome to tag her along at all Enterprise events.
In fact, Amy was really determined to get me to come on campus and see the event, with the full knowledge that I had written some really engaging posts about the last Bootcamp - she later told me that if I wasn't there to see the action, nobody else would be around to document the experience (maybe I should add that as a slogan for my blog in the future - who knows).
From that point on, I just felt so much better about myself (Amy always makes me feel better when something is not right), and so I decided to focus on the positives that were to come from the Grand Finale. With the marketing material for the November 2023 Bootcamp originally suggesting that the Grand Finale would run from 1 to 4pm, not being in the loop with the new Bootcampers meant that I had no knowledge of the change in timing - it turns out that I have arrived really early.
That being said, Amy and Simon set off on their original plan to run off to the Hold for some coffee talk, and in the meantime, two of the new bootcampers were already there finishing off their presentations - and I even managed to have an interesting conversation with one of them about how the last bootcamp went. And when the conversations dried up, I went outside into the lobby looking for some imaginary participants... but as to be expected, they weren't there.
But at least the aura of the pitching room was a lot better in comparison to last time, as we were put in the ideas room with its brick wall aesthetics - that's because there was a yoga session earlier on in the larger lecture room, and also, there were not as many people expected to come and watch the pitching event!
Eventually, the event kicked off at about 4:15pm, where after seeing Amy and Simon give a little introduction to what the Bootcamp is all about, one of the previous bootcampers was invited to come up to the stage to talk about her experience of coming to the last Bootcamp and the skills that she has managed to learn - with the biggest message that she had from the experience being to never give up if you don't win funding from the event; there are plenty of other opportunities elsewhere. Overall, I actually think that it is a really good idea to bring along a previous Bootcamper, as they have the opportunity to bring inspirational stories to future groups of Bootcamp participants, and most importantly, encourage both groups to share their experiences with one another!
With the introductions made, it was time to get to the first pitch, covering the Fast Road Tuning idea, and I must say that from my perspective, he had an interesting concept to cobweb multiple concepts together - the automobile repair industry with content creation and marketing, as well as offering services to improve employee wellbeing.
Once the first presenter was finished, it was time to move on to the second presenter, which happened to share the closest affinity with my business idea - Grinning Cat, a gaming retail business that aims to provide a mixture of tabletop game production as well as sales of a wide range of games to customers. What captivated me the most about the pitch is that it started with a description of how a major retailer would work if they offered tabletop games - in their own words, the presenter stated that "what if Argos was nerdy".
Then it was time for the third presenter to come up to the stage to present Wellbeing Coffee, a social enterprise that is aimed to cut down the social isolation experienced in communities by providing a mixture of coffee sales as well as meditation and breathwork.
Having watched a wide plethora of influencers in the wellness world over the years on social media, it was something that I could easily relate to myself, and the presenter's background for me really shone through, as she was really knowledgeable of the scene having worked in the dance scene for nine years.
After being taken through the galaxy of wellness, it was time to move on to the fourth presenter to present Pause, another social enterprise that aims to address the issue of menopause education through a mixture of online courses and meetups to discuss their menopause experience. To be honest, I must say that it really shocked me to hear that there is a limited understanding of menopause symptoms in the medical profession - especially seeing that doctors are referring patients with menopause-related mental health symptoms onto cognitive behavioural therapy as opposed to HRT, as well as being prescribed the wrong medication. Something definitely needs to change!
Then we came along to the fifth presenter, which for me provided the ultimate spanner in the works in terms of how the idea was devised. The presenter was talking about Horus AI, a ChatGPT-inspired tool that focuses on implementing some automation of administrative work in universities across the country, and from my perspective, I believe that the system has potential in the future (especially when you can work with big companies like Microsoft to develop the idea) - when the presenter was showing off a demo of how Horus works in relation to Careers activities, the system was bragging about the next Careers Fair that would be taking place at the University in March 2024.
Eventually, the last presenter came up to the stage to deliver a pitch on Sparkle and Shine (Justine having to clarify that this has no relation to the Nativity! song) - a social enterprise that is designed to provide an interesting take on employment opportunities, by helping young people to gain some work experience in eco-sustainable cleaning practices before helping them to move on to better careers in the future. For me, it was another pitch-perfect example, as they had a really strong working knowledge of who they wish to employ in the organisation, the portfolio of companies that they are working with (which included a mind-boggling 50 schools, 85 churches and a number of business premises), as well as a robust 5-step business model that works on rinse and repeat.
Once the pitches were finished, Amy, Hannah and the other guest judges would leave the room and sit down outside in the Atrium lobby to do their deliberation on who would get the prize money. In the meantime, everybody else would stay in the ideas room, and we would get to enjoy some delicious cakes, the smell of coffee, and of course the random conversations with a wide range of staff and participants (big boss Amy included!).
In fact, the Volkert's cakes proved to be really popular, as the boxes were mostly demolished by the time the event finished:
About 20 minutes later the judges were called back into the room, where there was a change of format - instead of going straight to the winners and certificate presentations as was the case in the previous Grand Finale, Emma decided to throw a spanner in the works by providing feedback to each of the Bootcamp participants on how their business ideas were viable in the current market environment. For some, their business ideas had plenty of potential on the market (some had potential in places outside of Ipswich but not in the town), while for others, it was about needing more time to understand who would want to explore their product.
And then after some more anxious waiting around, the verdict was in on who won the prize money - the judges decided to award £1500 to the menopause idea Pause, on the promise that they will buy themselves time to use the funds, as well as £500 to Sparkle and Shine to provide a feeder to other grants.
After being taken through the basics of the BGCN Start Build Grow programme, and eventually having some more conversations with Amy on getting set up for a meeting on the 6th of December, the Grand Finale was over, and I began to make my way home. On my way back, there was another unexpected surprise coming my way - over the course of the pitching event, the fog has rapidly moved in, as you will see from this shot that I have taken outside the James Hehir building:
The following day, I went to a meetup with a few of the other old bootcampers at the Mix, located inside the University's James Hehir building (gosh, I hadn't been inside the building since Pitches and Pizzas a long while ago). It was without a doubt one of the most energetic environments that I have thrown myself into in the last 12 months, with Amy constantly spreading vibes and shine around everybody in each and every conversation that we were all having, to the backdrop of some retro gameplay footage that was being shown in the back of the bar and some comedy shows that were being streamed on the screens right above me.
I even got to play around with some Spanish, where I must say that I have improved my knowledge of the language by leaps and bounds - whether it's talking about the festive periods (Feliz Navidad for Christmas or Semana Santa for Easter) or waving Amy off at the end of the session with some "hasta luego". But with madam being a fluent Spanish speaker and having been to Latin America in the past, you can't pass up on that opportunity to try out the language, huh?
The Manos Wellbeing Lecture - 1st of December 2023
Before I begin this section of the blogpost, I would like to post a little medical disclaimer since there is quite a bit of medical-related talk in this lecture:
The medical information provided in this section of the blogpost is for informational purposes only to cover my experiences of going to the lecture, and as such, it must not be taken as a substitute for medical advice given by a qualified medical professional. Please seek medical advice from your doctor if you are experiencing any medical issues.
Remember when I made a post back when I started this blog about getting some inspiration for my business idea from a wellness influencer? Well, the memories of those times came flooding right back at me - as it was time to get some wellness advice from a professional who knows about wellness in the workplace! Let's introduce Dr Manos Georgiadis!
Not quite in the intended way though. The original plan was to have 11 attendees come along for the lecture, but then this came on the ITV news, and elsewhere:
Yes, that's right - the Orwell Bridge was closed causing untold delays right around the town well into the night. The Volkert would be crawling along to Ipswich at a pace that is as slow as sending snail mail (needless to say that there was no way she would be making it on time), many others would be spending three hours trying to get around town in their cars, and the conditions on the pavements were very icy to the extent that I could be slipping everywhere trying to walk.
And with that I mind, I had to factor in some extra time to grab some lunch and make it to the University campus on time. After taking the time to tuck into my lunch, which included a dose of the Huel food supplement, it wasn't long before Hazel came to let me in the Atrium building - where preparations were made to set up the Christmas trees.
But as I never made it back to the building since the lecture (the only event that took place in the Atrium after the lecture was the Sustainability Hackathon that I didn't attend), I would never get to see the end result of the Christmas installations. Oh well.
Eventually it wasn't long before Manos showed up and I was invited to come into the room, where we started off the session by initiating a discussion on what wellness was all about. Having dived quite thoroughly into the wellness world over the years, I quite literally gave a textbook Niomi response to the question (from around September 2020!) - wellness is about working to discover your inner self.
Once everyone gave their opinions on what wellness is about, it was time to move on to what I think was the most mind-blowing part of the session - starting off with the Golden Ratio and the magical number of 1.618! I never knew that the number was everywhere in the human universe - seeds, petals, galaxies, building designs as well as an endless amount of items that will take too long to explain here.
Fast-forward through the health and wellness elements - which included the concept of going into entropy when there is a huge imbalance of something, and eventually we get to the Values in Action questionnaire, which is designed to provide a lowdown of what you truly believe in. It is no wonder that all the participants were asked to complete the questionnaire before the session, so that we could all discuss our values together.
Based on the results that I managed to gather from completing the questionnaire myself, I personally believe that fairness, self-regulation and forgiveness are some of the values that represent me strongly, as I believe that it is important to treat people in a dignified manner, and to make people feel well in that their problems have been addressed fairly.
Some of the other participants in the session also shared similar values to mine, with one believing that honesty and fairness is also important - if you are not telling the truth, then how reliable are your beliefs in everything else?
Once the questionnaire results were explored, it was time to move into the subject of healthy eating, where at one point, Manos showed off some "hacks" from one of Jessie Inchauspé's books to maintaining stable blood sugar levels, before everyone was handed out an eating behaviour questionnaire to complete - and I must say that from my results, my eating habits can be atrocious at times. Guess I should open my eyes a little bit more going into the future...
Healthy eating discussions set aside, to move on to time management concepts which included Fogg's time management habits (not to be confused with brain fog, or Volkert fog for that matter) - funnily enough created out of nothing, and based on the three values of motivation, being good at it and generating the engagement. Then, we were given another exercise to complete, as everyone was asked to fill in a sheet outlining our daily schedules. Let's just say that I failed quite miserably at the exercise, but it just goes to show how chaotic my 24 hour periods can sometimes be from week to week.
But I am not ashamed of showing my mistakes, and so I am going to show you what I managed to achieve out of this questionnaire.
To top the session off, we were all asked to what we have learnt from our session to given our own takeaways, and I could summarise it in just two words - learn to love yourself (again, I did not make this stuff up).
Then I was off to the Autism Social Club, where there was an interesting surprise in store - one of the attendees (whom by the way, is also looking to start a business!) created a North Pole railway model which I really enjoyed.
Trip to the British Library - 9th of December 2023
On previous trips to London, I would usually be up at around 6am to make it on the quarter to eight trains, but this time, I was met with an unexpected surprise - due to engineering works between Chelmsford and Witham, rail replacement buses would be running from Witham to Ingatestone adding an extra hour on to the trip to London. So that meant that I had to get up at 4:30am and be out the house by 6am so that I could get to the conference on time. Great fun.
Once I got off the train at Liverpool Street, I ended up arriving so early that I had plenty of time to go and see the surrounding area. So I decided to pay a visit to the Barbican Estate, a brutalist housing development that was built in the 1970s and is home to the Barbican Centre, a cultural arts centre that has played host to many conferences and arts performances. From previous experiences having been there, the area around the estate is so quiet to the point that it feels like you've got no idea that you are right in the middle of London.
Once I spent a little bit of time taking in the peaceful sights of the Barbican, it was time to make our way out towards Beech Street and start heading towards the British Library through the Clerkenwell area of London - with the time having gone just past 9am and the Smithfield Market being shut to the trade, the streets were very quiet.
When I got to Hatton Cross, I crossed over the Great South West Road, the main road out of Hounslow that leads out to Heathrow Terminal 4 and the M25, before making my way past the petrol station towards the famous Myrtle Avenue planespotting area.
I must say that I have managed to get some really interesting observations from being at Myrtle Avenue - my perspective is that fantasy mapping and world travel are tied in hand-in-hand, and having been at the British Library an hour earlier to take part in a fantasy mapping talk, it makes sense to go somewhere where I feel that I can connect the two subjects together and write something about it.
That being said, being at Myrtle Avenue certainly gives the impression that you are so close to your dreams of wanting to go and see places around the world, but at the same time you are quite a long way away from it. For instance, I managed to get a glimpse of this American Airlines jet that was obviously getting ready to jet off to America...
...or this British Airways jet coming in to land on the northern runway, to the backdrop of all the buildings:
With that, it was time to head back into Central London, and while I was waiting for a train at Hatton Cross, the time on the information screens ticked over to 3:00pm - it turns out that Heathrow changes the landing/take-off configuration at this time so that planes arriving into the airport after 3:00pm would be flying over Myrtle Avenue to touch down on the southern runway, and I just missed that opportunity! Oh well.
Nevertheless, I spent an 1 hour and 25 minutes travelling on various Tube lines to teleport myself over to Whitechapel station, and eventually my next target - Brick Lane. Let's just say that it is such a vibrant place to hang around on a Saturday night, with a diverse range of eateries, vintage shops and nightclubs - everyone will have something to enjoy from being there.
You also can't forget the Christmas light displays on this street, as seen in this example:
And it wasn't long before I found myself outside the famous entrance to the Brick Lane Vintage Market, which happened to be the place where Enterprise Manager Amy used to sell her vintage fashion merchandise in her early enterprise days when she was living in London.
Unsurprisingly though, I wasn't able to find any fantasy mapping merchandise in any of the independent sellers' stalls - although I did manage to spot some vintage Vogue frames that the Volkert showed off to me in a meeting on the 6th of December that I could have snapped up for a few quid. Maybe one day I can take my fantasy map wares to Brick Lane if my business idea is successful.
After spending some time walking back and forth along Brick Lane, I made my way back to the Altab Ali park in Whitechapel, where after waiting for 10 minutes, I managed to catch the number 25 bus that was headed for Ilford, in the deeper reaches of east London. I must say that riding London buses at night was a really interesting experience, and even more so when the bus pulled into Stratford, with its unrealistically impressive modern skyscrapers and endless stream of lights.
And with that I began to make my way back to Ipswich on the train from Stratford station, navigating the rigmaroll of rail replacement buses and long waits for trains at Witham on the return leg, before arriving back in Ipswich just before 9:00pm.
The University of Suffolk Entrepreneurs' Fair - 14th December 2023
I arrived into the University to get set-up for the fair at about 9:30am, and when I got there, I was just sitting around the lobby with my collection of maps, thinking that it was a bit too early to get set up. But I was to be proved wrong, when I was led round to my stall, and a few of the students, who were volunteering to help out with the running of the fair, came around with the pins - they were really helpful in making sure that the pins went in where I wanted them to go. By 9:45am I was the first one to get set up with their stall.
And then here I was, sitting at my stall observing the others getting set up - there was a pretty diverse range of entrepreneurs who were taking part in the fair. Among the stall owners included the Juice Mix Bar located next door to the Waterfront Building, as well as World Challenge, who were selling cakes in an attempt to raise funds for their team to travel to Eswatini, a tiny country in Africa, and help children in need there, along with countless vintage fashion retailers, book sellers and fellow Bootcampers who were coming along to show off their ideas to the public.
And let's not forget the InsaniTV stall that was brought to the fair by Bring Back Retro - a group that I happened to meet at the Ipswich County Library on Remembrance Sunday, when they were offering some N64, SEGA and Ping Pong for families to enjoy. Oh, and some students from Suffolk New College also came by to the fair to perform some live music, just to make the vibe of this place look very Christmassy.
Moving on to my experiences of running a stall - I have to say that I managed to have a really good time at the Entrepreneurs' Fair. Over the course of the three hours that the fair involved, I was approached by at least 20 people, and in general, I received some really positive feedback in relation to my work and managed to get some kind of an idea about how my products will be priced - after exploring typical prices for frames and prints, I have a feeling that my business idea might be profitable.
At one point, I was flagged down by Dr Amanda Hodgkinson, a senior lecturer in English and Creative Writing, as well as an internationally renowned author who has published two novels of particularly huge significance - 22 Britannia Road in 2011 as well as Spilt Milk in 2014, alongside many other titles - and she told me that besides her professional work exploring fictional themes, she was really interested in looking at historical maps in her spare time.
After meeting Amanda, I felt really proud to see that my work was starting to get recognised by people who are well-known right around the world, and that I was starting to feel more confident that I can get my business idea to a place where I can find some success. I hope that in the New Year, I will be able to continue to build that relationship forward and get hooked up to more people who have some knowledge of the fantasy writing scene.
Closing remarks
With the successful streak from the events that I have been to at the University in the run-up to Christmas 2023, and having attracted plenty of interest and attention from people who have gained an international reputation in the fantasy genre, I must say that I am going into 2024 with plenty of optimism that I can pull off my business idea. I hope that 2024 will be an even better and bigger year, and a year where I will have the opportunity to go big with my business idea - my wish is that sometime by May 2024 I will be able to set up my first fantasy mapping stall and start making a bit of money from it! And hopefully, I can also get some deals for my maps to be sold in independent retailer shops!
In addition to my plans to set up a fantasy mapping stall, I would also like to explore creating a children's picture book that offers a gentle introduction into the world of fantasy mapping by offering a wide range of themes to have a read through - having learnt from Amy that children are really interested in maps in general, I believe that this is a good market to target for my idea. If that goes well, I am planning to release that book sometime in 2026 and maybe then, I can get a lot of traction from my idea in places right around the world!
In the meantime, I am off to enjoy the few days' break that I have, before moving on to the next random fantasy map project that I am going to showcase on this blog - finishing off the Ptolemy-inspired fantasy map!
Wishing you a happy new year with much love,
Jakub
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