ENTERPRISE

Academy
March 2014 The famous American businessthinker, Peter Drucker, once said The best way to predict the future is to create it. The team at BMet Enterprise Academy have been busy creating their future this term with a calendar packed full of guru lectures, site visits and meetings with their business mentors. We hope youll enjoy reading this copy of Venture to nd out more about what we have been up to so far this term and if youd like to get in touch or nd out more about our award winning Enterprise Academy please just email: suzie.branch@bmetc.ac.uk or jean.pittaway@bmetc.ac.uk

VENTURE
Business & Enterprise Newsletter Issue 2

TECHNOLOGY HOTSPOT

Visiting Entrepreneurs
From macaroons to construction, nance to gaming, so far this term our lectures have seen us visit and develop an understanding across a host of different industries.

As a recent article in the Guardian illustrated: Birmingham is emerging as a hotspot for new technology businesses, so we were privileged to be invited by the team at Entrepreneurs for the Future, based at Innovation Birmingham to see just what is going on at one of the citys technology hotspots. We welcomed Rosie Gindy, the culinary genius behind the social enterprise Miss Macaroon who explained the motivating factors behind her vision and provided our students with new ways of thinking about business. Just before half term we met Birmingham Leadership Foundation board member, Hilary Allen, to learn more about the different types of leadership, how to lead a team and the importance of developing networks. During our tour of the modern building we got to meet some of the people behind the latest cloud, gaming, social media, applications and digital technologies companies to hear how they developed their business ideas. We also viewed the type of facilities Innovation Birmingham can provide to start up entrepreneurs. Following our tour, we were joined by the dynamic entrepreneur Ben Nimmo, founder

of SocialSignin. This is an innovative platform that brings social media activities together on a local level, with a simple dashboard of tools that enables an individual, team or outsourced agency to engage, monitor and report in one or hundreds of geographical areas. Ben described the business journey to date, including how he has managed to secure high prole names such as the NHS and Boehringer Ingelheim, passing on his lessons to us. Ben nished his talk with the following piece of advice: Dont concern yourself with a particular product. Instead, make the best offer to customers based on their segment and stage. Then youll be customer-driven, not product-driven, like many of your competitors.

Meeting Mentors
To celebrate our fth anniversary we welcomed new and old faces back to the Academy as members of Birminghams business community signed up to support us once more as mentors to the students in the Academy. Our mentoring evening was led by our Board Chair, Phil Millard (Blue Storm Development) and Board Member, Joel Blake (Cultiv8 Solutions) who ran a series of interactive workshops on how to develop a successful mentoring partnership. If you are interested in becoming part of our mentoring scheme which includes the chance to participate in an ILM Mentoring qualication please contact suzie.branch@ bmetc.ac.uk or jean.pittaway@bmetc.ac.uk

Record numbers at Birmingham Aspire Launch

Students from both the BMet Enterprise Academy and the GBPSA joined over three hundred other young people earlier this term at the launch of Birmingham Aspire held at Two Snowhill in Colmore Business District, Birmingham. Birmingham Aspire, part of the business and professional services organisation BPS Birmingham, is a new opportunity for young people aged between 16 and 24

in education to network and engage with the citys professional and nancial services community and to learn more about the opportunities the sector can provide in both developing skills and for potential employment. Birmingham Aspire is a membership body and open to any young person in the city who would like to gain a wider understanding of the professional and nancial services sector and to develop their skills. Aspire is exclusively sponsored by Birmingham Metropolitan College, providing our students with membership and access to all the events and personal development programmes run by BPS Birmingham.

Mock Examinations
For many of our students the Christmas holiday break was a time to relax but also a time to prepare for their mock examinations held in January. Mock examinations help to prepare students for their summer examinations, through introducing students to the exam environment and many of our students have achieved excellent results.

Out and About

The Academy team has also been out attending industry update seminars including briengs from: London Stock Exchange Greater Birmingham Local Enterprise Partnership BPS Birmingham Future BPS Birmingham Aspire Future Leaders summit as guests of London First