Brighton’s School of Business and Law – first ever Entrepreneurship Conference

The University of Brighton’s School of Business and Law has held its first-ever Entrepreneurship Conference. It was in the planning for some years but Covid got in the way (as with so many other plans), Rachael Carden explains.

The Showcase Event was an opportunity for our students at all levels (from Foundation year – with their focus on Responsible Enterprise – all the way through to our PhD students, who shared their Entrepreneurial focused study) to share the results of their University Entrepreneurship studies with an audience of local business people, ex-students (alumni) (who have started their own businesses after graduation) and other supporters. There would also be time for networking, eating, drinking and to learn from each other with prizes given at the end of the evening. 

The whole project has had widespread support from our Advisory Board whose members were instrumental in getting this event off the ground since it was just a back of the envelope idea last October. One member of the Board, Rosemary French, who supported me to get the whole project up and running, said:

“Academic teaching and understanding of entrepreneurship has always been at the heart of the University of Brighton School of Business and Law. However, this inaugural Entrepreneurship Conference introduced students at all levels to the practicalities of innovation, internationalism and economic and eco sustainability involved in a successful enterprise pitch to potential investors. 

“Initial nerves gave way to the passion which was evident in the students’ presentations and the business dragons for the day were encouraged that the Business School continues to develop such prospective entrepreneurs.’’

Covid has brought many challenges to all of us but for these particular students (who have been locked away in flats/bedrooms/living rooms for the majority of the last two years, we felt that it was especially important that they get back ‘out there’ in terms of meeting new contacts and presenting to business people that they didn’t know rather than just presenting to their tutors as this would help them to gain confidence when looking for work in the post-Covid world. 

Not only was the Conference new, it also took place in our new home, the flagship building of Elm House located on the Lewes Road. 

As part of our planning process for the Conference, we were able to develop new partnerships both within and outside the University community, including groups such as our alumni/local entrepreneurs/teaching staff, our Enterprise Ambassadors, our School Advisory Board and our current cohort of students and old friends who have acted as ‘Dragons’ for us for years. 

Paul Levy (Senior Lecturer at SBL) who hosted the second year Creativity Event stated: “A highlight was how Elm House came alive with curiosity and activity. Our new building is at its best when conversation echoes up and down the atrium. It is an open space, so ideal for open discussion, challenge and questioning.”

This Conference builds on new connections with local entrepreneur Sonny Cutting, who was instrumental in setting up his Tigers’ Pen event at our school (11th January 2022). This culminated in the winners being allowed to participate in the Sussex Business Showon May 6 and competing against other fledgling businesses in the area.

The actual event:

Each group of students had a bespoke event which would give them the chance to share their ideas with local business people and our very own ex-students (alumni). 

We started the evening with networking in our main Atrium but then the main event kicked off with a Keynote Speech/interview between one of our Enterprise Ambassadors – Sonny Cutting and his interviewer, Steve Bustin (Get your voice heard). This was a ‘from the heart’ intro to the highs and lows of setting up your own business and a general sharing of ‘things I wish I had known about setting up a business when I was younger’. This was particularly useful for students who, while they might not all set up their own businesses, may well end up working for an entrepreneur. By 2020, the UK had 5.9 million small businesses (FSB) and small businesses are businesses in the private sector with only 0–49 employees. In the UK, small businesses make up 99.3% of the total business population. If you include medium-sized enterprises, this number reaches 99.9% (https://thecircularboard.com/entrepreneur-statistics/).

The Keynote was followed by a selection of parallel student-focussed sessions where guests and students were invited to participate fully by dropping in and out of sessions, a selection of which are detailed below.

First years: Speed-dating for funding

This activity was very popular. One of the first year students (Anna – BSc International Business Management) said: “Being invited to the ‘Dragons Den’ event was a great pleasure and an opportunity to grow upon my skills and experiences. Meeting some of the local business entrepreneurs was an eye-opening experience as their feedback helped shape our project idea for an assignment.

Personally, I have found that, everyone was lovely and gave us feedback for our future, mentioning how to improve upon what we already have as to become, potentially, one of them in the future.”

Entrepreneur feedback about the foundation and first year students was also given. Entrepreneurs such as Alex Bailey (CEO & Founder of Bailey & French) showed his encouragement when he said: “What struck me was the quality of thought that had gone into the pitches. I had to ask twice if I heard correctly that these were first year students… they all had more commercial savviness than many graduates and postgraduates I’ve come across”. 

Furthermore, there appear to be opportunities for future engagement, with Steve Agace from GR8 saying: 

“I would emphasise that the first years I met were the best cohort I’ve seen at Brighton Business School in a long time. I’m already looking forward to meeting them again when we are hiring for our 2023-24 placements. Some real talent there.” 

Second years: A creativity session where students met experts from all over the world on teams.

Students clearly enjoyed this session, with one saying: “It was such a fascinating session. I found the guest from Virtual Doctors very inspiring.” 

NETWORKING/SHARING ACTIVITIES

1.Standing on the Shoulders of Giants was an opportunity for our students to interview/meet our alumni such as Ryan Hudson and Matt Denford from Ethicul, JP Omari from Streetfunk (will hopefully make it next year) and Ella Gilchrist (Sociella). The session was led by Clare Griffiths (BeePurple) about the experience of leaving Uni and setting up their own businesses. 

Dan Hawes (from the Graduate Recruitment Bureau – GRB) stated that:

“Supporting entrepreneurial students on a one-to-one basis and enabling them to connect with alumni is a brilliant initiative and one that GRB are proud to have supported for over 15 years.” 

2. A ‘Meet the Heroes’ activity gave students and budding entrepreneurs/ existing entrepreneurs to chance to meet volunteers who sat in the ‘hot seat’ to be quizzed about the local business community.

3. The main networking event, unsurprisingly, was over food and wine at the buffet dinner which took place halfway through the evening. 

In addition to those already mentioned, other supporters and attendees included

o Alice Reeves from We are the Joyful

o Bradley Hatchett from Network  My Club

o Chris Saratti from BoogieSearch.com

o Flo Powell from Midnight.co.uk

o Grace Lawless (and colleagues – sorry I didn’t make a note of all their names!) from We are Pragma.co.uk

o Jayna Shah from JPS Wealth Management

o Jonathan Lea from Jonathan Lea.net

o Lara Squires from Consortium 

o Lucy Dawe from Lawton and Dawe Property Limited

o Malcolm Brabon (Coast to Capital) 

o Ron Tanner from Palmeira Global.com

o Sam Thomas from County Business Clubs

o Sara Bassett from Shoreham Port 

o Sonny Cutting from Sussex Business Show 

o Steve Agace from GRB

o Tony Murrell local entrepreneur

o Tor Hatton from Tor’s Law.com 

o Victoria Mason from Cardens4U Accountants

Overall, the event was seen a great success. There were lessons to be learned for sure, but the energy and positivity that was generated was fantastic. 

Max Eaglen (Platform Group) said: “It was really great to see so many enthusiastic speakers talk so passionately about their work. This sort of event has a really a positive effect on both the students and the business owners themselves.” 

And Richard Freeman (CEO of Always Possible) concurred stating: “It was a brilliant opportunity for me to hear ideas and pitches at all stages – from first years putting together their first presentations to graduate businesses with the potential to disrupt their industry. 

“The university created a relaxed, collaborative energy which meant that both students and businesses were at ease, never fearful of awkward silence or curious conversations.” 

Given all the great feedback we are looking forward to even bigger and better things next year…

Author: Rachael Carden (Associate Dean for Education and Student Experience, School of Business and Law, University of Brighton)