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1300 young hopefuls flock to Cloud9

Young people across the region were on cloud nine when they attended the first ever youth enterprise summit in the region.

1,300 budding entrepreneurs gathered at the Cloud 9 event on Wednesday 25 February at Rainton Meadows, Houghton le Spring. They were there to hear words of wisdom from young entrepreneurs from all over the UK who flew in to share their stories.

Speakers included, Tre Azam, the controversial star of BBC’s The Apprentice, who was joined by Dragons’ Den success story Imran Hakim whose iTeddy has made him a recognised face and Scotland’s entrepreneur of the year Mick Jackson.

Founder of 21st Century Media, actor, author and professional poker play Caspar Berry facilitated the day’s events.

Tre Azam told his story of how he overcame being in a wheelchair for a year after a car crash to launching his family business in America two years later. Within a year he was a millionaire, but months later the business failed, leaving him with no money.

Tre told the summit: “I walked into the Job Centre and said I was a young entrepreneur who had once been a millionaire, and a job that would get me £40,000 or so would do. Once she’d stopped laughing, she said ‘you might have been a millionaire but you’ve barely passed your A levels - where are you going to find a job like that?’

“I’d never been interested in learning until that point, but on that day I enrolled on a training course. Now, I see the value of learning - people who don’t want to learn make me furious. There are so many more opportunities now to help you become an entrepreneur.”

Entrepreneurs’ Forum chief executive Carole Beverley said: “I was overwhelmed that we attracted over 1,300 young people to the event. It just goes to show that the entrepreneurial spark is alive in this region and we have so many budding entrepreneurs who just need to have their hearts and minds fired by hearing some of the country’s most talented, articulate and interesting emerging entrepreneurs.

“It was the speaker line up and the respect that they received from a transfixed audience that made Cloud9 the most immense day of inspiration for the North East’s young people.”

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