Global Entrepreneurship Week: Creates Day

by Vashti Turner  on November 20, 2015  in  Creativity Entrepreneurship House Competitions

Global Entrepreneurship Week was an important week for us as an entrepreneurial academy. Miss Campbell and the Kensington Creates entrepreneurs ran an exciting week of activities, the highlight being Creates Day on Thursday.

Students began the day with a project brief from Miss Campbell, Director of Kensington Creates, and Mark Atkinson from RBKC Markets. The brief was to design and pitch an idea for a new app to promote Portobello Road Market to young people in the community. Students were reminded that creative ideas and powerful presentation would be the key to success in this exciting house competition.

Students then went to base camps with their houses – Angelou, Franklin, Honeyball, or Pankhurst – to begin researching and designing their apps. The first session taught students about stakeholders and how to incorporate their objectives into the product. Session two gave students a chance to research the history of Portobello Road Market – there was a lot for students to discover as this year Portobello Market is celebrating its 150th anniversary! The next step was for students to begin designing the interface and content of their apps, with lots of fantastic ideas in every base camp. The final session of the day allowed students to work on their pitch – getting everyone involved in the presentation of their ideas. Each group of students then presented their project to their house and the best ideas were selected for the whole school final in front of a panel of judges.

The panel of judges included Lady Victoria Borwick MP for Kensington, Mark Atkinson and Nick Kasic from RBKC Markets, Maria Da Silva the Enterprise Learning Co-ordinator at EPIC, Andy Davis, CEO of Creates business Notifyed and KAA Principal Mr Benson. The quality of the competition was outstanding and our judges were extremely impressed with the ideas our students presented.

Our students really rose to the occasion and impressed with their entrepreneurial skills in celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week. Ideas included ‘Porto Points’ – a rewards system for the shops and markets on Portobello Road, setting up free wifi in the market, and using gaming to attract younger shoppers to the app. Lady Victoria Borwick thanked students for the way they thought about ‘how each and everyone one of you can contribute to the community.’ Maria Da Silva said the students’ ideas were ‘very innovative and would be great tools for customers.’ Mark Atkinson added that he was impressed with the way pupils ‘thought of matching the digital with the physical and bringing gaming to Portobello Market.’

The judges decided the winning team was a year 7 group from 7 Fitzgerald, with an app design called ‘Blue Doors’. The group not only created a fantastic app, but their pitch was entertaining and engaging. Their win earned 1500 House Points for Angelou – congratulations to the year 7 team!

A huge thank you to our judges for joining us for Creates Day and to Miss Campbell for organising such a fantastic Global Entrepreneurship Week.