Go Furness

Judge’s visit hailed a success. Furness fingers now firmly crossed!

The visit to Furness by national Enterprising Britain Competition Judge, Claire Dove, took place on Friday and was felt to go well by all involved. In an activity packed day, Claire met with enterprising students from Walney School, toured the offices of local creative company, Signal Films and shared an informal lunch with young entrepreneurs, employers, members of Furness Young Professionals and representatives from public and regeneration bodies.

At Walney School Claire heard from Deputy Head, Helen Collis, and Enterprise co-ordinator, Jackie Watson on the work underway to create a next generation of entrepreneurs. The tour at Signal Films was ably hosted by Kerry Kolbe and Kate Marshall who have together done so much to stimulate a creative community in the area.

On to the Duke Hotel where Claire met graduates from BAE Systems, Kimberley Clark and Diamould, entrepreneurs including Kay Hebbourn of Go Ulverston and Tom Bowden of Working Class Heroes and senior public officials including Phil Huck, Director of Regeneration at Barrow Borough Council.

She heard presentations from Sally Broom, founder of Furness Young Professionals network, Nicola Foster of West Lakes Renaissance who played a Youth React video, and David Clark, HR manager at Centrica. This was in between watching enterprise films that told the tales of others who are successfully turning business dreams into reality. Also on hand, with a collage of footage from enterprise events, were Jo Hutton and Phil Powell from We Make Media.

It was a packed and informative day that effectively brought the Furness competition entry to life.

John Barker, project manager of the Encouraging Entrepreneurship in Furness programme, said:

“There was a great buzz and feeling over the course of the day. Everywhere Claire went, she received a warm and enterprising welcome. Claire was accompanied by colleagues from the Department for Business (BERR) and the national Make your Mark campaign. I’m sure they all left with a strong and bright impression of what we are trying to achieve in creating an enterprising Furness, and our results so far. We’re not going to rest over the Summer – we’re going to keep up the momentum and support that our bid has attracted, and make the most of being the north west regional capital of enterprise.”

The national Judges will now come together to decide which of the 12 regional contenders should be crowned the most enterprising place in the UK. A final decision is due in September and all fingers will be crossed in Furness up until then!

Posted by Emma Jones on 8th July