I attended Youth Enterprise Live, along with our Editor, Asya Bodeva, on the 12th and 13th of October in London. It was a good experience and I am glad there is an event such as this, starting this year onwards.
Youth Enterprise Live showcased some of the best start-ups and entrepreneurs in the fields of Careers, Education and Enterprise. You had the usual suspects represented, like Enternships, Job Centre Plus, as well as newer, less familiar names, like Start Smarter (social enterprise), Silver Skills and Youth Employment UK, amongst others.
For me, the event was important for two reasons.
1. I wanted to see what is on offer to the changing face of careers in the UK and I was glad to see various organisations, start-ups, entrepreneurs at the event. They had some excellent debates and inspirational speakers at the seminars.
The general theme at the event, right from the CEO’s of Charities to students attending, was that careers education in the UK has failed students! There is a growing urge to change careers education and more young people than ever are trying their hand at changing careers. This is good to see.
2. The second reason to visit the event was to see the technical and entrepreneurial flair of these new start-ups. The US beats UK and Europe hands down when it comes to a growing start-up environment. In the UK I see a lot of start-ups falter at the start and get diverted from their core principles.
From this event, I have taken in some great information, and want to track who makes it and who falls!
Generally though, I think it was a fantastic event.
At the end of two days, I was lucky enough to get my book out and ask Ketan Makwana some questions, founder of Youth Enterprise Live. And he summed up the event in 4 E’s.
Emotional, Exhilarating, Empowering and Excellent
The event was attended by over 5,500 people.
The attendees were from different backgrounds and it was quite a dynamic event catering to different age groups.
You can still read the tweets from the event searching the hashtag #YEL2012.
I am hoping to write about all the people I met in the next few posts, so you might want to check back regularly!
We’ve attached some pictures from the event. We hope that those images pass on a little bit of the atmosphere of Youth Enterprise Live to those of you who weren’t there.
Speaking to We Do Ideas, bright new social enterprise
Claire Young hosting a debate on Women in Entrepreneurship
