BlueSky Enterprise Day 2008

The BlueSky Enterprise Day 2008 has been jointly organised by the Action Community for Entrepreneurship, Talentpreneur Hub and the Youth Enterprise Academy to dedicate a half-day event running entrepreneurship related programmes for youths. It was held on Friday,18th July 2008, at the Hwa Chong Institution. Students and teachers from more than 20 primary and tertiary institutes were invited to participate in workshops, board games and exhibitions. These programmes were aimed to engage youths in various activities to inspire them to realize the possibilities of creative ideas and turning them into avenues of wealth creation.




The BlueSky Enterprise Day is part of the BlueSky Festival which is held annually to run initiatives that encourage and foster the spirit of enterprise amongst Singaporeans, namely the youth.




Gracing the event was the Senior Minister of State for Education, RADM (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, acting as Guest of Honour and took a brief tour of the exhibition area.





At the exhibition, various schools also held exhibits side by side along with other business companies supporting the event such as Now Asia, Microsoft and KooBits. Talentpreneur Hub and the Youth Enterprise Academy were on site to present business development and education programmes which are in line with the vision of Spring Singapore’s initiative to integrate youths into the culture of enterprise.







Student booths on the other hand, presented business programmes and activities that have been run by their respective entrepreneurial student clubs and co-curricular activities. There were also those who tried their hand at setting up and running their own shops selling soft toys and bookmarks among others. Most importantly are exhibits which showcased exemplary Singapore start-ups such as Charles and Keith detailing their humble beginnings to the successful businesses they are today.







Also gracing the event were educational albeit fun filled games held by Settlers Lite, also a local start up. Set in tables laid with board games, groups of students were treated to the fine but essential skills of networking and negotiating. Strategic game play was also evident in “Dividends” where players engage themselves in the trade of financial literacy. Central to the purpose of enterprise, these would prove to be invaluable skills in business and lay the foundation of enterprise in seamless and interactive activity.







Workshops were at hand to foster creative ideas and grease the wheels of innovation. In a series of talks, students participated in discussions with speakers, shared ideas and mapped out concepts in business. It presents a wonderful avenue for them to learn and interact with others to inspire potential entrepreneurs by planting the seeds of business acumen.

Mayor's Imagine Social Entrepreneurship Challenge (MISE) 2008

The Mayor's Imagine Social Entrepreneurship Challenge (MISE) 2008 was designed to help acquaint youth with the local social entrepreneurship scene and to challenge them to come up with a feasible business plan to help voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs) to set up sustainable social enterprises to aid their causes.




More than 200 students from JCs, Polytechnics, ITEs and Universities from 50 teams submitted their executive summaries for their idea.

20 teams were specially selected to go through the Business Plan Workshop by Youth Enterprise Academy. 10 teams would be shortlisted in this round where they would again compete for their projects to be funded by the Mayor's Imagine Fund (MIF).



On Day 1, students learnt about the local social entrepreneurship climate as well as the various legal forms that a social enterprise. They also learnt about business plan essentials in an intensive module and also learnt the importance of being able to market their plan well.

In between Day 1 & Day 2 of the Business Plan Workshop, students signed up for mentoring sessions led by trainers to help them fine-tune and iron out hiccups in their business plan. Given the strict judging criteria, it was not surprising that a large number of students were feeling stressed (it was written all over their faces!) to come up with a solid, feasible and credible business plan to show the judges during Day 2 of the programme.

On Day 2, concurrent sessions of Smart Money board game programmes was run while the judging was going on.



While the students may look relaxed in the above picture, I could tell that their mind was on the judging that was going on in the other room. If it was me, I'll be nervous too!

The MISE Challenge 2008 is a great platform to help students to learn about VWOs and to help think of business ideas to help VWOs create self-running, sustainable social enterprises (thus adding an added avenue of much-needed funds to advance their causes and help their beneficiaries). I felt greatly encouraged by the compassion of the youths to raise up to the challenge and test their mettle (and business ideas!).

To the teams who didn't make it, keep that passion burning! Social entrepreneurship do not begin nor end with MISE 2008. You decide whether or not to make a difference and when to call it quits!

And to the finalist teams, all the best!

For the latest updates on the MISE 2008, watch this space!

Join Us at BlueSky Enterprise Day 2008!

Register for the workshops now by sending your details to events@talentpreneurhub.com !

Hope to see you there! :)