From time to time, I link to stuff I find interesting on Twitter.  The trouble is, if you don’t happen to be tuning in at the time, or don’t have time to trawl back through someone’s account, the chances are you’ll have missed it. 

So by way of a little experiment, here are a few things which for one reason or other I thought, and still think/hope are worth sharing;

1) A dear friend of mine, good Will Kenning is currently appearing in Three Men in a Boat.  It’s coming to Greenwich this month.  He’s the middle one in this picture from their decent Stage review.   

2) TED talks are brilliant, and this one, by Dan Ariely is no exception.  He asks ‘are we in control of our own decisions?’, and the section on the power of default options is particularly interesting, and made me think of the work I’ve been doing with Holly Shaw around organ donation.  Richard Thaler’s excellent book ‘Nudge’ has a chapter devoted to the stickiness of defaults.

3) Number 10 Downing Street have launched a competition to find excellent young artists.  The winners will be displayed in the waiting area of this famous house.  In a month in which the winner of Britain’s Got Talent is announced, this challenge caught my eye.

4) If you win The Apprentice, you get to work for Alan Sugar.  Some of the less charitable amongst you would call this a booby prize.  If you want to work for Peter Jones, you’ll have to apply for this role as his executive assistant.  The current occupant of that role is the wonderful Katie Prescott and I have to say, she has always seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed the job.

5) I’m a big fan of what 4ip, the new venture fund from Channel 4 is all about.  Public service meets digital content.  I’m also a fan of the team at MySociety.  So it’s no surprise that the former has funded the latter for the brilliant Mapumental.  Soon to launch, it allows you to set parameters around where you’d like to live based on the length of the commute, the price of property and even of scenic the place is!  Clever stuff!

6) Lots of people moan about how neighbourhoods aren’t what they used to be.  Others actually do something about it.  Tim Smit is one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met.  He’s teamed up with the excellent Paul Twivy (the three of us sit together on the Council on Social Action), to launch The Big Lunch on July 19th, where the whole country are being encouraged to join a local lunch, and bring food they’ve cooked themselves.  Simple! 

7) What if the X-Files were right? What if the truth is out there?  What if rather that rushing round starting new projects to ‘change the world’ we spent more time studying what works already.  I first discovered World Changing when I bought their book last year.  This month, I’ve rediscovered their great website.

8) A friend, the Reverend Joanna Jepson appeared on the Today Programme this week, speaking about the fight for the publication of the details of late medical abortions.  Aside from the story itself, what intrigued me about the BBC’s clip (now removed) was that they had recorded the ‘radio’ interview using high quality, close up cameras.  Aside from presenting challenges over how to dress, this triggered other questions in my mind around when radio isn’t radio.  Another conundrum in this rapidly converging world.

9) At one point last week the most shared story on the BBC’s website was that of a family who claimed to have seen the image of Jesus (sorry Joanna) in the lid of a pot of Marmite.  It often intrigues me that journalists will say to me that the reason that papers print so much ‘bad’ news and so little ‘good’ is that ‘people’ want to read the bad.  By contrast, I often notice that the most shared and read stories on major news sites are the the very ‘good’ stories which ‘no-one’ is reading.  I challenge someone to try to prove my would-be theory.  If you prove me RIGHT (majority of ‘shared’ and ‘read’ are ‘good’) over a week, I’ll give you a bottle of champagne 🙂

10) I loved seeing the launch of Firebox Inventor.  Have you got a crazy idea for a gadget?  If yours is the winning entry, Firebox will share a very healthy 50% of the profits with you for all time.  The fact that the magnificent Shed Simove is one of the judges just makes this lovely piece of crowd-sourcing all the better.

And finally…

Followers of WebMission will know that I’m a huge fan of transatlantic get-togethers, so I was delighted to hear about the Travelling Geeks, led by JD Lasica, making their way to the UK this summer.  Don’t be thrown by their humble title.  Amongst their number are some extremely influential, not to mention fun voyagers including writer Sarah Lacy, founder of Craigslist Craig Newmark and the ex-microsoft employee who quite literally wrote the book about blogging, Robert Scoble.

Well there ends my first Twitter recap!  I hope you’ve enjoyed it, and if you’re keen to find out even quicker next time, then tune in to my Twitter feed!

 

This year’s Make Your Mark with a Tenner, the national challenge to see what thousands of young people can achieve with just ten pounds in one month, has come to an end.  The results are, we hope, a breath of fresh air amidst the doom and gloom of the financial crisis;

· The largest profit was £736 and the average profit was £42, compared with a return of just 2p from a savings account!

· Make Your Mark with a Tenner competition winners have been congratulated personally by entrepreneur and ‘Dragon’ Peter Jones, one of the funders of the scheme.

If this is the first time you’ve heard of ‘TENNER‘, here’s what it’s all about;

Thousands of young people from across the UK (20,000 registered and 16,000 took part) were challenged to make a profit AND a difference with their £10 by working alone or in groups.  The results far outstrip the return they’d have got from the bank or by dabbling on the stock market.  Given just one month to make as much money and social impact as they could, the idea was funded by NESTA, Peter Jones and by Michael and Xochi Birch (who founded and sold Bebo).

In the week that all financial eyes fall on the Budget, these enterprising teens are proof that measures to support entrepreneurs and start up companies are the important to the future of UK Plc.

The best individual return on a single tenner was a staggering £736.  Henry Pearce from St Thomas’s Church in Kent donned a 1920s bathing suit in a ‘historic costume show’ and used his entrepreneurial savvy to get people to pay for this novel experience. After returning his £10 loan, he has decided his profits will go to a Kenyan school, Molo 220, and the competition also helped the Church form strong links with a local special school.

The best group return was £493 (on £20) by two students from Cullompton Community College, Devon. They compiled a recipe book with recipes collected from local business people, then sold the books for £1 each or £1.50 for a signed copy.

Other enterprising and hugely profitable ideas included a Bollywood Dance performance, a silent disco and a healthy tuck shop.  Community cohesion was a major theme amongst the entries. A team from St Kentigerns Academy in Scotland created a concert to get young people in their area off the streets, while an outstanding individual effort from Ashley Maugan – a young Irish traveller living on a caravan site near Hackney – saw her spend her £10 on bulk buying products to set up a shop for children in her community, who were previously relying on their parents for lifts to the local supermarket.

Across the top 100 entries, the average profit was an impressive £42 on £10 in just one month.

Jennifer Campbell, one of the award-winning students from St Kentigerns, said:

“Make Your Mark with a Tenner helped me to develop skills which I don’t think you can ever be taught in a classroom, like using my own initiative and creativity. Because it was our own idea and we were driving the project, rather than being told to do something by a teacher, it made us really motivated to do well and prove ourselves. It’s also made me think much more seriously about the idea of owning and running my own business in the future.”
 
Harry Rich, Chief Executive of the Make Your Mark campaign which co-founded and runs the competition, said:

“These stunning profits on an investment of just £10 are testament to the entrepreneurial skill and tenacity of our young people.  Entrepreneurs and start-up companies will lead us out of the recession and the skilled execution of ambitious business ideas in Make Your Mark with a Tenner makes me even more optimistic and hopeful for the future.”

As the Chancellor makes the finishing touches to his Budget speech, he should look no further than our tenner winners for inspiration!  A Tenner invested in the FTSE during February would have LOST money, but these young people managed to turn in an extremely healthy profit averaging £42!  I reckon that this underlines why entrepreneurial activity is so important in teaching students not only about managing and making money, but in giving them the opportunity to explore how they can combine turning a profit with making a difference.

Commenting on the success of students generating such good profits during an economic downturn, Andrew Haigh, Managing Partner, Entrepreneurs Client Group at Coutts & Co, said:

“Entrepreneurs across the country are battling to build their businesses in tough times.  It’s not easy.  So it’s great to see the undoubted success achieved by these young would-be entrepreneurs, who represent the future of enterprise in this country.  It doesn’t get much harder than this so to succeed now is just fantastic.  Well done.”

Make Your Mark with a Tenner is run by Make Your Mark, the campaign to give young people the confidence, skills and ambition to be enterprising. It is supported by NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) and funded by entrepreneurs Peter Jones and Michael and Xochi Birch, the founders of social networking site Bebo.

Judging the Make Your Mark with a Tenner Awards were Baroness Kingsmill, entrepreneur and founder of chiconomise.com Michelle Dewberry, business guru Faisel Raman of Fair Finance, and journalist Jamie Oliver.

Speaking at the Awards event at NESTA on Tuesday 21 April, entrepreneur and Make Your Mark chairman, Peter Jones, said:

“Congratulations to all the winners for their magnificent effort. These budding young entrepreneurs have shown that they have the drive and determination necessary to make things happen. In a time when teenagers are often portrayed as the source of society’s problems, I’m pleased that Make Your Mark with a Tenner has helped them to demonstrate the opposite – that young people are creative and innovative and that they can be trusted with cold, hard cash to help improve things for themselves and others.”

I’d like to say a personal THANK YOU to the funders, Peter Jones, Michael and Xochi Birch and NESTA.  I would also like to use this space to thank Andrew Reynolds and the Entrepreneur Channel (also to Shaa Wasmund for super-connecting), who funded the very first Make Your Mark with a Tenner in 2007 (with 10,000 participants) for his generosity and support in backing an untested concept. 

Most of all, I’d like to thank Make Your Mark.  Especially to Tom Savage who first conspired with me, Scott Cain who championed it from day one, Luc Benyon who project managed Tenner, Catherine Ritman Smith who led the education team to deliver the scheme, and to all of the team at MYM HQ who really make things happen.  

Without these people, Make Your Mark with a Tenner would have stayed just another idea.

In what seems like five hours since we landed, I write from Silicon Valley on day five of WebMission 09.

Twenty UK and Irish companies are spending time here, under glorious blue skies, to find out what makes this part of the world tick, to have a series of hopefully useful meetings and to spend quality time with each other. 

On that final point, we have had some exceptional experiences.  From a San Francisco penthouse brunch (courtesy of Susan MacTavish Best) to this evening’s DrinkTank hosted by Michael and Xochi Birch (founders of Bebo) we’ve had the chance to meet literally hundreds of local business people.  Each event we’ve taken part in has had a co-host inviting local guests and so there has barely been a moment where it has been ‘just us’. 

One exception to that is here at Oracle’s global HQ, where several of the CEO’s have been meeting with a series of top execs, including Oracle’s head of M+A, to discuss the practicalities of working together.  Other site visits have included Google and Microsoft and yesterday, the companies pitched to seven venture capitalists whose verdict (to me afterwards) was that the pitches and individuals were “seriously impressive”.

It will come as no surprise to hear that WebMission relies on the support of sponsors to take place.  My fellow organisers, Polecat (James Lawn and Bron Kunhardt) have been superstars, at a time when so many potential supporters have said ‘sorry not this year’.  That’s why we’re so grateful to Orrick, UKTI (UK Trade and Investment), G2I, the Technology Strategy Board and Oracle for their financial support. I know you’re not supposed to single people out, however I would like to share with you the fact that Orrick’s Chris Grew was the first and to this day most fantastic supporter of what we’re trying to do.  From plotting the agenda over a London coffee to helping to host a ‘meet the experts’ session, without early supporters like Chris, things like WebMission just wouldn’t happen at all.  Final thanks must go to the team at UKTI here in San Francisco, especially Helen Moore and Jaclyn Mason who have supported us right from the beginning.

Others have been writing about our exploits, from Techcrunch Europe’s Mike Butcher, to the Guardian’s Paul Carr.  Even members of WebMission have been blogging.  Check out Fresh Network’s Charlie Osmond’s thoughts here. Shadow Enterprise Minister Mark Prisk, another early supporter and someone who has joined us for much of this trip, has been writing about our activities over here. Our  agenda, if you’re interested, is here.

A personal highlight was the Plug and Play Tech Center.  It offers space, support, access to finance and community for over two hundred technology companies. Founder, Saeed Amidi is an inspiration and the format ought to be studied and, I hope, partnered back in the UK as soon as possible.  Check it out – it’s amazing.

The positivity and ambition of the United States never ceases to inspire me.  The good news for Britain and Ireland is that this spirit is matched by the twenty companies I have spent the week with.  A small number are considering moving to the US.  Others are plotting hiring teams over here.  If we can use the relationships developed during this week to help US companies to connect with the UK, to increase the success of the participating companies and to help share anything we have learned and anyone we have encountered with our colleagues back home, WebMission 09 will have been a success.

If you are in the slightest bit keen to be involved in future WebMission activities, in London or beyond, I’d love to talk with you.