Online events – Webinars, Startup E-Fair & more
In the virtual realm, ESCP hosted a workshop on how to uncover problems and ideation, which was organised by the Mayor’s Fund for London. Moreover, Students 4 Entrepreneurship (S4E) conducted a webinar about trends and exciting energy and climate tech innovations, inviting two Techstars entrepreneurs and EDF Ventures. ESCP’s entrepreneurship incubator Blue Factory offered a webinar “Demystifying Blue Factory”, in which two founders, former entrepreneurs of the START and SEED programs, and representatives from the ESCP incubator, talked about its pedagogy, support and learnings. Additionally, founders and representatives from the European startup network met students at the Startup E-Fair. During the fair, seventeen startups had a chance to present their companies and open positions to later exchange, and discuss open questions with more than 250 students in their separate virtual booths. Furthermore, twenty-five entrepreneurship student teams from Berlin, Paris and Madrid conducted workshops to present and test their first prototypes, which were then put to competition.
The Berlin Campus – Impact Fair
The Berlin Campus hosted the Impact Fair, which is ESCP Berlin’s career event dedicated to sustainability organised by Oikos Berlin in cooperation with the ESCP Berlin Career Development Office. They had eleven fascinating hiring companies attend, and hosted seven workshops on careers in sustainability, carbon markets, the chocolate supply chain and more. On campus, there were around 150 attendees throughout the seven workshops and the company booth visits.
The London Campus – Entrepreneurship Winter Fair
London had 132 attendees overall, with nine teams of forty-five Master in Management students showcasing their ventures at a “simulation trade fair”. Students, alumni, faculty, professional services and external visitors were invited to discuss projects one-to-one by joining each stand and observing the first prototypes of each business to be tested. There were two winning teams: MumFit, selected by votes from a panel of eleven members, including alumni, professors, investors and entrepreneurs; and Endless Closet, selected based on Net Promoter Score votes by the audience during the trade fair.
The highlight of the festival were the speeches given by two ESCP alumnae entrepreneurs, Irina Teodora Gheorghiu, the co-founder of Zim Connections and Véronique Forge of Business O’Feminin. The main theme was ‘the good, the bad, and the ugly of entrepreneurship’, and the guest speakers discussed the importance of choosing the right people to work with, from co-founders and employees, to business partners and investors. They emphasised how crucial looking after one’s mental health is, considering the long hours entrepreneurs need to work.
The Paris Campus – Entrepreneurship Education & Networking
On Paris Campus, the Blue Factory opened its doors and offered its coworking space to all who wanted to connect, meet and share a meal together. During the Open Blue: Meet and Create a Pitch and Networking event organised on site, sixty participants came along to discover the presentations of twelve entrepreneurs working on an idea or a project and coming from varied backgrounds, such as engineering, business, design, art and humanities.
The Entrepreneurship Festival is co-created by students, alumni, entrepreneurs and innovation experts. It is hosted in November each year across all campuses. The festival gathers panels, talks and workshops to explore different aspects of entrepreneurship, technology and innovation in Europe. It is hosted by ESCP’s Jean-Baptiste Say Institute for Entrepreneurship, which was developed in 2007 by the Entrepreneurship Chair of ESCP Business School. It relies on ESCP’s unique European network and trains entrepreneurs and leaders around the world. The institute is named in tribute to the man behind the concept of entrepreneurship, who, in 1819, also became one of the founders of ESCP.
Testimonials
Mehdi Fedhila, Director – Business Manager of Societe Generale International Limited who attended in London: ‘Amazing event, very well organised. It was such a pleasure to be on the ESCP London Campus and to be able to share experiences with our bright students, as well as all the ESCP faculty. I’m very proud to have been invited to this Entrepreneurship Festival as jury member/panellist Thanks again to Stela Ivanova, Solene Hoyez and Florence Dupuy Pardo’.
ESCP student Bosse Rüschmann shared his enjoyment: ‘The Startup Fair was so cool. Many companies were so fascinating. I also liked the format. Thank You!’.