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YHP is proud to announce we are working with AfterWorkHours!

What Is AfterWorkHours?

AfterWorkHours brings you the social side of business networking. This event is held in the heart of the city at one of London’s most stylish bars.

AfterWorkHours is the number one place for gaining high quality contacts, securing new business and building the types of relationships that turn into repeat sales and referrals.

Networking is important for your business; however due to hectic work schedules, some are unable to find the time. AfterWorkHours allows you to network without disturbing the daily activities of your 9 to 5. It provides an opportunity to network in a relaxed environment with like minded members of the business community.

Our events consistently attract:

• Small business owners
• Entrepreneurs
• Directors
• Freelancers
• Service providers across a range of sectors and industries

When?

Thursday 8th September 2011, 6.30pm-9pm

Where?

Nomad London, 58 Old Street, EC1V 9AJ

How?

Simply register for your free ticket below and you will receive an email confirmation.

*Remember this is strictly a ticket only event. Limited tickets are available and allocated on a first come first served basis, so RSVP your attendance now.

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Learn more about AfterWorkHours:

Website: www.afterworkhours.com

Twitter: @AfterWorkHours

This is a guest post written by Bev Gray, CEO of Exhibit Edge, a full-service trade show exhibit and consultation company serving the Virginia, Maryland, DC areas as well as international clients.

When you are at a restaurant, do you get upset when the waiter offers you the specials for that evening?  When you go to a movie theater, do you think they are wasting your time showing the previews?  When you visit a salon, do you listen to suggestions from your stylist?

Chances are you have come to expect this “upselling” when you visit any of those places.  You chose to go out for dinner, so you expect that the restaurant will try to sell you food and are willing to listen to their promotions – same idea for the theater and salon examples.  How does this same principle relate to your business?

Attendees of trade show events are there because they chose to be.  They know and fully expect to have vendors selling their goods and services, so they are primed and ready to listen to you.  How many other marketing venues can you say that your audience is already actively seeking you out?  Not many!

Your Hidden Potential’s post “10 Things I Learned about Entrepreneurship” highlights the importance of networking.  The concept of getting out of your office and meeting your customers and prospects is one that is lost on many companies.  However, a trade show brings them to you in one location, already expecting a sales pitch and open-minded to hearing about your product and your business.

To take advantage of this incredible opportunity, first find a trade show or event in your area.  There are websites, such as the Trade Show News Network, that serve as a valuable resource in finding shows in your area specific to your trade.  You can also search throughout your local community for other events where you would be able to exhibit.

Next, think of resourceful ways to fund your trade show exhibit.  There are costs associated with purchasing space and creating displays.   However, if you barter, volunteer, or offer to exchange services, perhaps you could save money.  You may also want to consider partnering with a business that complements yours and share space to minimize expenses.

In creating your display, you must be creative and unique.  Companies specializing in exhibits, such as ours, are able to work within your budget to create impressionable and memorable displays.  You will be up against your competitors at these events, so you must ensure your exhibit captures the attention of the attendees, draws them in, and keeps them at your booth – overlooking the rest of your competition.

Once you are at the event, engage your prospects!  You and your staff must be friendly and exciting – the first few seconds an attendee is at your booth will determine if they stay or keep walking.  Qualify your leads and gather contact information to be used to follow up with them after the event.  Offer a desirable give-away or contest to get this information from them, and then make sure you use it later!

Give out promotional items and materials branded with your colors and logo.  Make it something useful, not something they’ll throw away in the nearest trash can or consume during the event.  A great model for this is a cleaning company who boasted their environmentally friendly products.  To tie in this marketing association, they gave away bamboo plants at their exhibit.  Creatively, they were able to keep these to $1 a piece, and it was something that lived on in someone’s home or business as a constant reminder of the “green” commercial cleaning company.

After the event is over, follow up!  Make sure you contact those qualified leads you received.  Continue any theme you focused on in your display throughout your social media channels.  Send e-newsletters to the email addresses you gathered.  Refer your prospects to other partners you have which may be able to further meet their needs in other areas.  Ask them for referrals.  The key here is to take full advantage of your trade show investment!

Are you thinking about exhibiting at a trade show soon?  Or, do you have past experience as an exhibitor?  Let us know in the comments!  We’ll stick around for any questions you may have on trade shows!

If you were at last year’s award held at the Indigo o2, i’m sure you would be as excited as i am for this year’s SOLA.

Now in its third year, the hugely anticipated Spirit of London Awards (SOLA) returns celebrating the greatest achievements of young people across London, the awards will be held on Monday 10th October 2011.

Whether through music, sport, art or social enterprise, Londoners are being urged to nominate the young people in their local communities who are acting as inspirational beacons by making exceptional contributions to local society.

The Awards are supported by a number of organisations and ambassadors including, Prime Minister David Cameron, London Mayor Boris Johnson, Brooke Kinsella, Richard Taylor OBE and Rio Ferdinand:

David Cameron said:
“These awards are a great way to recognise young role models in London. Young people are not only the future, they are the best resource this country has. So I welcome any opportunity to celebrate their positive achievements and honour their contribution to the capital.”

London’s Mayor Boris Johnson commented:
“These awards are a fantastic way of recognising and rewarding the many young people that make a positive contribution to our communities. It’s important to raise the aspirations of young people and providing positive role models from amongst their peers is a fantastic way of doing that.
Do come forward and nominate young people you know who are making a difference to others lives so that their hard work and talents receive the recognition they so richly deserve”

Richard Taylor OBE who developed the awards as part of the Damilola Taylor trust in consultation with other youth organisations commented:
“Damilola’s legacy is now enshrined in the awards as we honour the kind of young person he was turning into”

To find out more about this year’s Spirit of London Awards (SOLA) or to nominate someone in the local community who you think deserves a SOLA, simply start by logging onto the website(www.spiritoflondonawards.com), clicking on the category for who you wish to nominate and explaining using between two and five hundred words, why you believe their nominee is deserving of a SOLA. Nominations remain open from now until the 11/08/2011.

Entrepreneur Elizabeth Varley is the founder and CEO of TechHub, a physical space for technology startups. Currently based in the emerging tech startup scene of Old Street/Shoreditch area also known as the ‘Silicon Roundabout’. Future plans are too expand TechHub working spaces around the world. The TechHub space consists of desk space, co-working areas and meeting rooms.

Techhub works on a membership basis. There are two options, either you can pay an annual fee which will allow you to work at TechHub as and when you need or a monthly subscription which gives you you’re own desk space.

Elizabeth wanted to create an exciting community space where entrepreneurs from around the world can work alongside similar minded people all under one roof. TechHub encompasses the vibrant startup community in the area and offers much more than other office desk space rental services. It’s the community that makes the difference.

Elizabeth launched TechHub in July 2010 alongside the popular Mike Butcher, European editor at TechCrunch, who is co-founder and board advisor on strategy to TechHub.

TechHub just marked it’s first birthday earlier this week and I was lucky enough to be at the birthday celebration party. The strong community that had been built there, was second to none and the people in attendance showed how big a part of the roundabout TechHub has become. In little over a year TechHub has built a massive presence amongst the startup community of the Silicon Roundabout. This is thanks to Elizabeth Varley & Mike Butcher as well as the members who have taken to TechHub as there own.

Elizabeth has made a real two way community where members add value to the network as well as take advantage of the services on offer.

Before the launch of TechHub, Elizabeth managed to secure big name sponsors in the shape of Google, publishing group Pearsons and also BlueVia. These sponsors have allowed TechHub to offer more affordable desk space, which Elizabeth found was what members of the tech startup community really need.

TechHub even got a mention from Google’s Chairman, Eric Schmidt in the London Evening Standard Newspaper.

“We are investing in the East London technology project, and will be working with two inspirational organisations, TechHub and Seedcamp, which are already leading lights in London’s start-up community.”

Elizabeth previously worked with small business advice site Smarta.com in a marketing and engagement role.

Being a entrepreneur, especially a single founder can sometimes be a very lonely experience. TechHub gives entrepreneurs the chance to work on their own business whilst being in the company of others in a similar position. It also gives members the chance to share ideas, get advice, stumble across potential partners etc…

A year in and TechHub has over a couple hundred members signed up to an annual membership and 75 members who have their own desks with the monthly membership subscription. With the success and growth that TechHub has seen over the last 12 months, they are looking at moving to bigger premises to facilitate the growth in membership. The new location will still be in the silicon roundabout area.

So Happy Birthday TechHub! I have no doubt that it will continue to grow and expand globally. I can’t wait!

Follow @rishi_chowdhury

Startup Weekend is an intense 54 hour event which focuses on building a web or mobile application which could form the basis of a credible business over the course of a weekend. The weekend brings together people with different skillsets – primarily software developers, graphics designers and business people – to build applications and develop a commercial case around them.

Here is a video to explain a bit more:

Next weekend will see Startup weekend take place in many cities including San Francisco where it is being held at pariSoma between 3-5th June. Every weekend after that will see more cities across the world play host to this hugely popular event.

The London event will be held over the second weekend of September with the venue TBC. To see the list of all the cities and dates visit the Startup Weekend site.

Founded by Andrew Hyde in July of 2007 in Boulder, Colorado, Startup Weekend saw over 80 events take place within the first two years and it has now spread to over 100 cities in 30 countries.

So how successful are these startups, well over 36% of Startup Weekend startups are still going strong after 3 months & Roughly 80% of participants plan on continuing working with their team or startup after the weekend. One of the biggest successes has been Foodspotting founded by Soraya Darabi (who we covered last year) has over 600,000 users and has received $3.75 million in funding.

Here is a video from a recent event in Baltimore:

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Follow @rishi_chowdhury

Angel Investor Ron Conway caused some controversy on  Monday after stating that all young entrepreneurs are male. I think if you spent five minutes browsing through the YHP site you can see that simply isn’t true and there are plenty of young female entrepreneurs.

Anyway he also went on to address the idea that co-founders are more likely to succeed than single founders. To back up his claims Conway showed this graph while on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt in NYC:

Interesting numbers there and I feel that most of us will have a better chance of success with a co founder rather than go it alone, but there are plenty of exceptions. (probably in the ratio shown in the graphs actually!) It is well known that getting funding is easier with a co-founder, maybe that has an impact. Having a co-founder means you can split the amount of work and responsibility when starting up and it’s not as lonely!

While he was on stage he also took the time to explain that he likes investing in entrepreneurs when they’re 17 or 18 because he gets to watch their entire progression from start to finish.

TNW had more on this:

“Ron Conway made his fortunes in the computing industry, and he has been an active angel investor for over 15 years. He was the Founder and Managing Partner of the Angel Investors LP funds (1998-2005) whose investments included: Google, Ask Jeeves, Paypal, Good Technology, Opsware, and Brightmail. Conway was recently named #6 in Forbes Magazine Midas list of top ‘deal-makers’ in 2008.

Although he noted that entrepreneurs at 17 or 18 often need their parents with them because they’re not legally allowed to sign a deal on their own, he noted that he derived most satisfaction from seeing youngsters go from young upstarts to mature business people.

Without meaning to be cynical, another benefit of getting entrepreneurs in their teens is that they are less driven by money and hence he can get a better deal.”

Businesszone.co.uk’s The Pitch, the UK’s biggest and longest running business pitching competition, has opened the 2011 application process with a twist this year that’s sure to provoke furious competition across all the Home Nations.

For the first time, The Pitch is going to be holding its preliminary heats in each of the Home Nations, with the national champions going on to compete in a grand final for a £50,000 prize package, and the title of the UK’s Best New Business.

The Pitch Home Nations, in association with marketing solutions business Yell, will see national heats held in Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast and London over the summer. Entrepreneurs will be invited to come and pitch their business idea to a panel of expert judges, in front of a live audience.

Each event will comprise a live half-day conference and networking event, aiming to provide support and guidance to local business owners and entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs can find out more about the competition and submit their entry by visiting www.ThePitch2011.com.

The Pitch has grown every year since its inception in 2008, and has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs make invaluable business contacts, gain access to expert advice and supplied free business insight to hundreds of thousands of small business owners across Britain, holding live events in a score of major UK cities.

This is a great opportunity for start-up business owners and entrepreneurs to gain presentation experience and feedback, while getting expert advice on their business strategy, but that’s not all, the content of the live events is designed to be practically applicable to common key issues of running a business, and the publicity associated with the competition has given many former entrants a much-needed boost.

The winner of The Pitch 2010 Ben Atkinson-Willes, founder of Active-Minds and inventor of a series of products designed to help people in dementia care stay mentally active, says:

“Being involved with The Pitch 2010 was a great, if slightly nerve-wracking, experience from start to finish. It was brilliant to meet experts like Doug Richard and Julie Meyer and get first hand advice from them. The publicity it generated for my business was phenomenal and the contacts I’ve made have proved incredibly useful. I would recommend getting involved in the 2011 competition to any entrepreneur.”

Over two days in June 2011, The Inspire Conference will bring together some of the most brilliant thought-leaders in Technology, Creative, Entrepreneurship and Society from across the world to the heart of Europe’s exploding tech and creative scene in East London.

Topics ranging from social entrepreneurship to open data, from the future of Internet typography to the next big thing in User experience will invite the audience to think, reflect, learn and be inspired.

Speakers include:

• Alex Breuer / Design Editor – The Times
• Ann Cotton / Founder – Camfed
• Anthony Browne / Policy Director for London Mayor
• Aza Raskin / Ex Head of UX – Mozilla Labs
• Conrad Wolfram / CEO – Wolfram Research
• Erik Hersman / Co-Founder – Ushahidi
• Michael Birch / Founder – Bebo, Profounders
• Parag Khanna / Best Selling Author – Second World
• Rajesh Sawhney / President – Reliance BIG Entertainment
• Rory Sutherland / Vice Chairman – Ogilvy
• Roshaneh Zafar / Founder – Kashf Foundation
• Stephan Shakespeare / CEO & Founder, YouGov
• Tom Chatfield / Game Theorist

And more to be announced soon!

Inspire is the first and only accessible and affordable thought-leadership event of it’s kind to be held in Europe. During the two days, 25 passionate speakers will share the power of their ideas with you, creating an intellectual theatre that will stimulate your creativity and boost your inspiration.

Early bird tickets for The Inspire Conference expire in 5 days so make sure you get yours soon! To find out more about the conference or to buy tickets – Click here

I seriously can’t wait for this event! YHP will be doing a lot of filming + interviews, it should be a blast.

NACUE is back again this year with the National student enterprise conference (NSEC 2011).

For those of you who follow NACUE will know about the last year’s event – Business not as Usual which i missed unfortunately but heard it was jam packed-every student got motivated, soon after they left, they wanted to start a business bla bla bla!  that kind of thing, which makes you get the impression that it was good so i’m definitely looking forward to this year’s one, hopefully they can take it up a notch with the NSEC 2011.

NSEC 2011: ReShaping Britain is run in partnership with Manchester Entrepreneurs, between 25-27 February, 2011, is set to attract the most promising students from the Universities across the UK as well as leading academics, researchers, investors, policy makers, international corporates, global entrepreneurs and the media.

NSEC 2011 takes this mission forward, striving to push for actions, creating a tipping point amongst young entrepreneurs and branding them for success.

Make sure you get your tickets fast: See you there – http://nsec2011.eventbrite.com/

As you may know it is Global Entrepreneur Week 2010 (15th-21st Nov), ending on Friday. A worldwide movement filled with entrepreneurial events and activities to promote entrepreneurship as a viable career path to the masses.

Currently over 50% of the population would like to start their own business, but only 5.8% actually do.

With spending cuts and job losses, the reality right now, entrepreneurship is a great way of boosting the economy and that is why you may have heard of many politicians championing and encouraging start ups.

David Cameron today has urged “more people to make a job rather than take a job”.

“Self employment grows into small companies; small companies grow into large companies. Entrepreneurship Week is about how we get that pipeline working,” he continued.

This week is used as a tool to inspire, those who want to start their own business, into taking those final steps.

Entrepreneurship is a skill, we can all learn it. Peter Jones acknowledges that “Entrepreneurs are not born they are made” and this week is a chance “to inspire thousands of people to pursue their ideas, to create jobs and build global ambition among young people and business owners alike.”

Entrepreneurship though is not just a fad of the week; the hard work goes on all year round. Here at YHP we look to continually encourage it and promote the stories of those who have been through the hard and good times of starting their own businesses, specifically at a young age, where young people are 5 times more likely to be unemployed than start their own business. We hope to play a part in inspiring the next generation to take a chance and use their passion to create something great.

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