An intelligent people weekend

The three hour drive to Hereford took me 5 hours. but eventually i arrived at the 2009 Beckett Nuffield Scholar Reunion, a weekend event with fascinating business visits, which is organised by my scholarship sponsors, Alan and Anne Beckett, for all the people they have sponsored over the years. long may it continue!

All my fellow scholars are highly intelligent and motivated people (the Beckett award being the Entrepreneurs and Innovation Award) with businesses ranging from multi-award winning online retail enormous farm shops. I felt a little out of my depth to be honest, As said in previous blogs my comfort zone is approximately level with a duck.


Our guest speaker for the Saturday night formal dinner was an entrepreneur called Ian Brown see http://www.leemoor.net/ he has developed various rural businesses and a growing hospitality enterprise. So if you ignore the fact that he is a successful businessman, we did have several things in common, a love of the thrill of enterprise, a passion for developing new concepts and a willingness to have a go at anything.

Ian has developed a consultancy business and a speaking career based on sharing his experiences, this has led to many new experiences and contacts. A career path that i am keen to follow myself as a little side line. I have come home inspired to boost my profile which Ian has done by creating a massively self promoting website, because to be frank, if you don't sing your own praises to raise your profile and gain clients nobody else will! Self promotion is a very strong trait amongst entrepreneurs, just look at Richard Branson!