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North East Future Millionaires

Recently I had the pleasure of being invited to be a guest speaker on the subject of social media in business, at the Big Ideas youth challenge at Beamish Hall, a venue which is well known to those of us in the wedding business.

As I walk into the hall at 9am, I am greeted by 10-13 year olds who, as I had suspected, look like they have just been prised from their beds. I am asked by Janice Marsh, the project coordinator, to sign an NDA for the 4 finalists’ ideas.

Before my presentation, I go round each of the teams competing and enquire about their ideas. I can honestly say these are some of the best ideas I have ever heard and now fully appreciate why I had to sign that NDA upon arrival.

The children then elaborate further on their products not only talking about their “big idea”, but talking about retail value, net profits, market research, patenting their ideas; in fact all the key aspects you need to think about when launching an innovative high growth product. So this is all well and good John, but what’s the point in this blog I hear you say. I discover later that funding for projects similar to this have been withdrawn recently.

It’s an obvious point to make, but we need to invest more in encouraging entrepreneurship within schools, encouraging and helping those children who show early signs of that creative and confident spark to step out into the world of business. Universities will be oversubscribed this year, as students attempt to secure places before the rise in tuition fees, and graduate unemployment is at its highest level.

There is no doubt in my mind that some of the faces I met at Beamish will in 10 years time be the innovators who will be able to generate wealth for the region, create jobs and help advance our economic wellbeing.

Absolute Media North East were there to capture some of the events of the day and you can view the video on our you tube channel, please see below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYkpIhcn9Fw&lr=1

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Absolute Media North East .