Volunteering & Volunteer Students

We recently attended Venturefest 2010 at York’s epic Racecoursevenue. The event was incredibly well attended and some of the UK’s brightest businesses, investors, entrepreneurs and innovators came together to make the most of a vibrant and innovative concept and celebrate creativity, start-ups and business in Yorkshire.

Before the seventh annual gathering of the region’s most creative and driven could even commence it was evident the attendance might beat the previous year’s record of 2,000. Before the doors opened, 1,200 people had registered to attend the free event which was hundreds more than last year.

The thing that struck us immediately as we walked into the doors just under one month ago now, was the sheer scope and variety of talented businessmen and women who had come to showcase their hard work and ideas accross three parts of the event. The whole fest is based around an exhibition (featuring established businesses), a technology showcase (which gives innovative ventures like the event’s Investment Competition winner Mr. Shox an opportunity to show and tell) and a gala dinner event to finish – unfortunately, we missed the dinner despite being slightly peckish, but we enjoyed the rest of the day. Before we go on, KhaoZ’s collective hat should really go off to Mr. Shox, since eight companies pitched to a panel of judges in order to win the prize package of business advice worth more than £28,000 and Shox (founded by David Batterbee) came out on top. The company now have the opportunity to market their intriguing electronically-controlled mountain bike suspension system which uses Ferrari-esque systems that have been developed to consistently monitor and smooth out any pesky road bumps.

A number of awards (including the one mentioned above) were given out during the course of the day, and we must offer up some more belated congratulations to the Regional Enterprise Award Winner Ice Furniture Design (from York St John’s University) and the Innovation Showcase Award winner Gaist for their work.

To us, Venturefest is about discovering business, learning more about our region’s varied creative industries and uncovering new opportunities while making contacts and sharing unique stories and tips. In our mind, the thing that makes the whole thing so darn inviting is the fact that there are numerous avenues to explore and experienced people to support new businesses no matter what stage that one may be at in the business cycle. Each year for this one unique day, there are a great number of exhibition stands, seminars and advice options available from accountants to legal professionals via managing directors and web developers all offering their consultation for free. The real aim of the day seems to be to encourage and support new talent within the region.

Venturefest’s project manager Chris Wilson has been looking after the event for the last five years, he explained that it’s becoming more popular every year. “It’s the only event I know of, that allows young children, mature and small business, sponsors and chief executives to meet in one place, and they’re all here to focus on nurturing enterprise and entrepreneurship. He adds: “People make contacts here that are powerful, and they are lasting connections that make them and their businesses more successful.”

The attention grabbing design and logo work for the event this year was carried out by the leading York-based company Stone Soup. Creative Director, Tom Sharpe said that Venturefest has a lot to offer someone who is starting out in business: “If you’re a young entrepreneur or inventor for example with a new idea you want to get of the ground, coming to Venturefest is spot on because you can get the advice, you can potentially get the finding, and the investment and you can network as well.

“I think that, for quite a lot of the businesses, it’s inspiring to see the young businesses and see what’s coming up – by seeing the ideas, getting inspired by them and having a chat. There are so many different types of people, businesses and things out there.”

Tom continued on to say that while the process is a long one (around nine months of preperation can go into developing the timetables and signs for Venturefest), it’s worth it because the quality of the event is enhanced by key aspects like design and organisation. He said: “I’m sure we’ve all been to lots of business events that have really poor design, and it just feels like it’s been thrown together in the week coming up to the event – and that’s one thing that Venturefest have never done.”

As you might imagine over the course of the day, there were many interesting stories based around the grit, determination and general common sense that it takes to start and develop a business, and these fuelled constant conversation and inspirational talks throughout the day.; No story however, was more relevant or impressive than that of Roo Pigott from the super-tech mobile phone music service Musicode (a business that won last year’s Venturefest investment award FYI). With vast experiences in the music industry as a artist manager, PR and record label owner Roo based in Sheffield, Roo has experienced strong success in recent years. He reffered to last year’s Venturefest, looking back fondly. “We were lucky enough to win the investment competition last year. That was great national news for us. It was on our website, our e-mails, and that got us known throughout the world. Venturefest is a critical event, and other ones like this are critical because you are able to grow from it. You just have to maximise the opportunities.”

Roo also talked about what it takes to make a succesful pitch to investors if you are starting out. He explained: “Be enthusiastic about you product – no one wants to invest or really have a relationship with a company that are not bothered, be enthusiastic and passionate.

“If you’re presenting at something like the investment competition for the innovation award then do your research – see who your judges are, get your elevator pitch right, which is really really crucial and make sure you get all the information across that you need to get across – succinctly and clearly.”

When it comes to advising other businesses, those at Venturefest who have already reached the top of the ladder are ready and willing to give advice to young creatives who are trying to advance and turn their idea into profit. Sharon Wright succeeded on Dragon’s Den with her pitch for Talpa Products. She said: “I think to grow your businesses it doesn’t matter what age, what background or what amount of money you’ve got – you’ve got to start somewhere. I think you have to do the research to get the ball rolling. I think events like this encourage you and most people are able to walk away from here with the energy to take them to the next level.”

Adriaz Ahmed, co-founder of Freeserve added to the enthusiastic atmosphere with his comments about the impact of Venturefest. He said: “I think that it is is really about connecting people together, and being a showcase of people as well, and it fulfils that role very very well. We just need to get even more companies taking space and showing off what they’ve come up with.

“I think that this is a great place to meet people, it’s a great place to talk to people and network, it’s also a great place to meet some companies that might become the future stars of tomorrow.”

For more information visit the official Venturefest Yorkshire website.

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to check out Mike Leigh Cooper’s video coverage of the event – coming soon.

Roll on Venturefest Yorkshire 2011!

Dom Smith on behalf of KhaoZ Media.