Young show enterprising spirit

Mar 3 2009 by Sue Scott, Evening Gazette

A STAGGERING 1,300 budding young entrepreneurs attended the first Cloud 9 event to stimulate enterprising young minds - overwhelming organisers from the Enterprenenurs’ Forum.

Successful young hotshots from all over the UK flew in to share their stories and offer tips on becoming a business success to the 15-26-year olds from local schools, colleges and universities.

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

Antony Hutton, who went from winning reality TV show Big Brother to now working on the launch of his own chain of hairdressers in the North-east, and Ajaz Ahmed, founder of Freeserve, also spoke.

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.”

Entrepreneurs’ Forum chief executive Carole Beverley said: “I was overwhelmed that we attracted over 1,300 young people. It just goes to show that the entrepreneurial spark is alive in this region.”

Headlined by the Entrepreneurs’ Forum, Cloud 9 was supported by regional development agency One North East, The Prince’s Trust, Make Your Mark, Young Enterprise North East, RTC North, Big Ideas Youth Challenge and North East Enterprise Bond.

A spin-off social networking site for young entrepreneurs has been set up following the success of the If We Can, You Can Challenge last year. Go to ifwecanyoucantalk.ning.com