The Future of Business: Enterprise Week at the British Library

The British Library Business & IP Centre presents a week of seminars, workshops, and events with high profile entrepreneurs, to offer inspiration and guidance to the next generation of enterprising individuals.

The primary purpose of the British Library Business & IP Centre is to support SMEs and entrepreneurs from the initial spark of inspiration through to successfully launching and developing a business. The Centre is therefore a key supporter of Enterprise Week, the nationwide annual event designed to promote an enterprise culture amongst 14 - 30 year olds across the UK.

As part of our 'Inspiring Entrepreneurs' series, sponsored by HSBC, the British Library presents two headline events for Enterprise Week that focus on the future of business, promoting the entrepreneurial spirit amongst teenagers and encouraging the development of 'social enterprise'.

TEENPRENEURS: THE YOUTHFUL GUIDE TO STARTING A BUSINESS
WEDNESDAY 14 NOVEMBER (18.15 - 21.00 including networking reception)

According to the Household Survey 2005, when it comes to thinking about starting a business, 16 - 24 year olds are by far the keenest age group and as the 2006 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) demonstrated, providing training and education has a dramatic and positive effect on attitudes toward enterprise. In order to nurture this enterprising spirit and offer advice to young creative individuals, the British Library has put together a remarkable panel of young entrepreneurs, all of whom have created highly successful businesses in their teens.

Confirmed speakers include award-winning 18-year old inventor Emily Cummins; Fraser Doherty, who launched his successful jam-making business at 14; Wilson Chowdry, founder and managing director of AA Security; and Ben Way, New Business Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000.

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE: BUILDING COMPANIES WITH A SOCIAL CONSCIENCE
THURSDAY 15 NOVEMBER (18.15 - 21.00 including networking reception)

With an ever increasing demand for ethical products and mounting pressure for companies to be more socially responsible, the way in which we do business is changing rapidly. Social enterprise is growing at a phenomenal rate and is now one of the UK's most dynamic business sectors. As a whole it is now estimated that they make up some five per cent of the entire economy and have a combined turnover of £27 billion.

This inspirational evening event provides an excellent opportunity for any budding social entrepreneurs to learn how pioneers of the sector have cemented a social conscience at the heart of their businesses. Confirmed speakers include, Sophi Tranchell, the award-winning managing director of the fair-trade business Divine Chocolate; Zarine Kharas, founder and CEO of JustGiving, the UK's leading charity fundraising website; Seb Bishop, one of the stars of Channel 4's Millionaires' Mission; and Tim Campbell, founder of The Bright Ideas Trust, a social initiative to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs.

These are just two of the many British Library Enterprise Week Events.

For further information please contact Lawrence Christensen (tel: 020 7412 7114, email Lawrence.Christensen@bl.uk) or Jacob Lant (tel: 020 7412 7110; email jacob.lant@bl.uk

(Please note: Biographies for all speakers included.)

1. The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most comprehensive research collection. Further information is available on the Library's website at www.bl.uk, which currently receives almost 2 million 'hits' or visits per month. The London Development Agency awarded the British Library Business & IP Centre £1 million in May 2005 to help transform it from a successful pilot project into a permanent national resource. Access to the Business & IP Centre is free, but users need a Reader Pass; for more information visit: www.bl.uk/bipc



2. Teenpreneurs: The Youthful Guide to Starting a Business features the following speakers:
• Emily Cummins was named Technology Woman of the Future at the 2006 inaugural Women of the Future Awards, for inventing the solar powered fridge. The inspiration for this product came whilst she was on a gap year in Namibia, where she recognised a need to refrigerate medicines in areas with no supply of electricity. Emily has also been awarded British Female Innovator of the Year and the Diamond Award for exceptional creativity, and juggles being an inventor whilst studying management full time at Leeds University Business School.
• Fraser Doherty started his jam-making business, Superjam, at age 14 with a dozen oranges and a bag of sugar. After selling well locally his business has boomed and he now sells his luxury jams all over the world. He has recently developed a range of healthy jams which are made of 100% fruit and sweetened with fruit juice. He won the Enterprising Young Brit Award two years ago and plans to expand his brand by reinventing even more traditionally unhealthy foods.
• Wilson Chowdhry is managing director of AA Security, a market-leading, Essex-based security company that he established in 1994 at the tender age of 19. The multi award-winning AA Security has grown fast since formation and today clients include large national blue-chip companies such as Safeway (now Morrisons), White Arrow Express, NTL, BP Connect, Metronet Alliance and the Arcadia Group.
• Ben Way founded his first company when he was just 15 and in 2000 was New Business Young Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2001 he started a successful mobile innovations company that developed one of the first remote monitoring medical devices as well as many other projects, which evolved into the Rainmakers. Due to the continued success of Rainmakers, Ben was invited to appear on Channel 4’s documentary The Secret Millionaire.


3. Social Enterprise: Building Companies with a Conscience features the following speakers:
• Tim Campbell is the former London Underground employee who won the first ever series of The Apprentice, gaining him that famous £100,000 a year job from Sir Alan Sugar. He has since founded The Bright Ideas Trust, a social initiative to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs . The trust aims to raise money to support young entrepreneurs seeking to set up their first business venture.
• Zarine Kharas is founder and CEO of JustGiving, the UK’s leading charity fund-raising website. She began developing the JustGiving idea in 1999 after a career in the City as a lawyer and investment banker. She has since formed a sister company, FirstGiving, in Boston, US. Since the launch of JustGiving in 2001, its 3,000-plus member charities have collected more than £150m through JustGiving.
• Sophi Tranchell is managing director of Divine Chocolate, the award-winning fairtrade chocolate business that is partly owned by a co-operative of cocoa farmers in Ghana. This unique structure means that the farmers have a direct relationship with the staff, an influence over how the company is run and a share of any profits. This year, Sophi was named “First Woman of Retail” by the CBI and Real Business magazine.
• Seb Bishop is one of the stars of this autumn’s Channel 4 series Millionaires’ Mission, a life-changing experiment in which eight successful British entrepreneurs travelled to Uganda to demonstrate how business and social projects could mix. Seb made his reputation in the advertising and internet industry as the co-founder of Espotting, the pioneer of pay-per-click advertising in Europe. Today he is president of Miva and chairman of the digital marketing agency Steak Media.
• Moderator - Matthew Rock is founder-editor of Real Business, the UK’s leading magazine for entrepreneurs. As one of the founders of Caspian Publishing, Matthew hosts major business awards ceremonies, such as the annual Real Business/CBI Growing Business Awards, and has contributed to the BBC, CNN, the FT and many others on the UK entrepreneurial economy. He is also a regular compere at the Library’s ‘Inspiring Entrepreneurs’ events.