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Tees Valley artist challenges Sir Bob

Middlesbrough entrepreneur and artist, Hannah Campion, recently attended a major national innovation conference in London where, in front of over 3000 delegates, she challenged Sir Bob Geldof about his views on entrepreneurial spirit.

The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts’ (NESTA) “Innovation Edge Conference attracted well known speakers including the Prime Minister Gordon Brown; Lord David Puttnam, Chair of the Parliamentary Cross Party Select Committee on Climate Change; and Michael Birch, CEO of Bebo.com; as well as Sir Bob Geldof. The event was held last week at the Royal Festival Hall in the Southbank Centre in London.

During his speech, Sir Bob suggested that generally people were or were not born entrepreneurs. Hannah, who as well as exhibiting her fine art all over the world also runs a successful art business in Middlesbrough, was selected to ask Sir Bob a question and challenged him about his thoughts on entrepreneurship.

Hannah said: “Sir Bob’s initial comments made me want to challenge his ideas. I wanted to discover if the panel agreed with him on the origins of entrepreneurship and sited the paramedic Brian Carlin, who was also there, who had become an inadvertent entrepreneur.

“Sir Bob tried to clarify what he had said and back-pedalled slightly on his thoughts but I got some great feedback from important industry experts on my question and comments. The conference has provided me with some excellent contacts and opportunities which I hope will come to fruition in the next few months.”

Hannah has been involved with NESTA since 2006 when she won an award after taking part in NESTA and DigitalCity’s Insight Out programme.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .