Sally Bream’s Enterprisers’ Diary (Part I)

My Enterprisers’ Diary: first in a series of guest posts by Sally Bream, photographer, and doctoral researchers in the School of Media, Film and Music.

In early April this year I received  an email from Sally Wright which read:

Applications are open for the highly-renowned Cambridge/MIT Enterprisers 4 day residential programme taking place at the end of May. Due to our longstanding involvement with the course, the University of Sussex has secured 20 places for Sussex Doctoral students and all disciplines are eligible to apply, whether or not your studies are funded by a research council.
***Places are worth £1000 each*** Deadline for applications is 18 April.

And so I looked at the Enterprisers website: http://www.cfel.jbs.cam.ac.uk/programmes/enterprisers/index.html

Diary: 26^th March

I sent my online application form, CV and my website URL to Orsolya Ihasz (Enterprisers Programme Manager, Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge).

Diary: 30^th March

I got a forwarded email linking to the post on the Doctoral School blog about the Enterprisers Programme, by Annelle Bellony

Diary: 31 March

I received another forwarded email on 31^st
this time linking to the post on the Enterprisers Programme, by William Farr

Diary: 27^th April

I began to think that the Enterprisers Programme sounded like a mixture of the Dragons’ Den and The Apprentice programmes. By the beginning of this week, I wondered if the Enterprisers programme was going to be relevant to someone like me from an arts and humanities background.  I had spoken to Catherine Reynolds at the Careers and Employability Centre about my priorities for the event.  I decided that I wanted to use the event to find ways in which I could engage with the South Downs National Park Authority as part of my research and as a photographer carrying out research into cultural identity and the English landscape.

Diary 4^th May

I sent my photograph and a 100 word bio to Orsolya on 4^th May

Diary: 23 May

Email received from Orsolya:

Dear All,

Thank you very much for confirming your place on the programme. It will be a pleasure welcoming you on Enterprisers Programme next week. We have 75 delegates on the programme so far with 16 facilitators and 2 lead facilitators, Dr Shai Vyakarnam, Director for CfEL, and Prof Neal Hartmann from MIT, Sloan School of Management.

We have invited 20 guests and 5 panel speakers for the 3^rd day of the programme, such as Tim Hart, CEO of Zyoxel, Michael McArthur, CEO for Procarta Biosystems Ltd, Edward Brunner, Cambridge Consultants, Peter Hiscock serial entrepreneur and many more.

To make the most out of the activities, we ask you to do some pre-programme thinking. This will allow you to tailor the sessions to your specific needs and contexts as well as facilitate your connection to other people with similar ideas, visions, experience or simply preferences. In addition, your answers and thoughts to the questions below will feed directly into the exercises, very explicitly in some cases and indirectly in other. Therefore, would you please reflect on the following and send your thought to us by Friday 27^th May:

1.       What research are you doing and why are you doing it.

2.       What is/are the possible impact(s) of your research?
a.       Who can benefit from the outcome of your research?
b.      How would they benefit?
c.       What would you need to do to enable these benefits to happen?
d.      Who else would need to be involved?
e.      Are there any impacts on the environment?

3.       Is there an idea you have been thinking about that you would like to see realized?
a.       Does it affect other people? If yes how?
b.      What would you need to realize it?
c.       Have you spoken to anyone about your idea? What did they say?

4.       Is there anything in your daily life that you find particularly frustrating?
a.       Do you know of others who feel the same?
b.      How do you all cope with these frustrations?
c.       How would you like things to be different?

Don’t worry if you don’t actually have answers to these questions. The objective is to start thinking about them and the possible answers. Some might not have an answer for you, or just not yet.

The rest of the team and I look forward to meeting you next week and working with you to bring the programme alive. In the meantime, we hope you have a great bank holiday weekend.

Best wishes

Orsi

Orsolya Ihasz MA
Enterprisers Programme Manager

Diary: 25^th May

I have been on Arts Council courses in the past and have managed to view my creative production as a business as well as a vocation.  Creativity and economic viability do not always go hand in hand though.

Oops. I have just realised that I have to answer the above questions by Friday…