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Fiji comes to Barrow

On 7th May, the Furness Young Professionals were given a taste of the island life, and we don’t mean Piel Island! As part of the FYP Inspiring Young Entrepreneurs series Ben Keene, founder of a globally renowned sustainable tourism project on a remote Fijian island, came to Barrow to talk about his exciting life over the last three years.

As a twenty-something graduate Ben shunned the idea of the city jobs that had enticed most of his friends. Instead he preferred the idea put to him by a friend to build a global online community of travellers that would become a real, offline community based on a tiny Fijian island called Vorovoro. They called it ‘Tribewanted’. The tribe would commit to building a paradise on the island and create from scratch a living, working, sustainable community that could act as a blueprint for others around the world. It’s not hard to understand why soon Ben’s friends envied him, not the other way around!
Since the project started it has received worldwide acclaim, the focus of a BBC Television series, and the island has been visited by thousands of inspired ‘tribe members’ who have taken the lessons from Vorovoro home with them.

The lessons that Ben learned and then shared with FYP were relevant to all of us. Ben talked about the set backs in the early days of the project: a political coup in Fiji, horrendous forest fires on the island, and a hurricane as fierce as Katrina that hit the whole region around Vorovoro. Everyone assumed this was the end of Tribewanted, but no – they persevered and the project lived on. As well as determination through set-backs, Ben also talked about the entrepreneurial importance of self-belief even when others are not convinced of your vision. He clearly showed that it doesn’t matter where you come from, what you have to start with, as long as you have a passion for your idea you will make it work with the simple tools available to us all – the internet and lots of energy!

Ben will stay in touch with FYP and plans to be involved in some of the more adventurous events we have planned over the summer. So let us know if you’d like to know more. Furness Young Professionals is a community of young people living and working in Barrow with big aspirations. It’s free to join (and so are these events) so for more information please visit thefyp.com.

Posted by Sally Broom on 20th May 2009