Encouraging people and communities to be more enterprising is a challenge. But we found a way with Give it a Go, a new competition to find the most enterprising people and places in Lancashire.
Instead of asking the usual ‘Do you have an idea for a business?’ we asked ‘Do you want things to change for the better?’, ‘Do you have a creative solution for an everyday problem?’, ‘Could you turn your passion into profit for the benefit of the community?’ And hundreds of people thought they could, entering an amazing array of ideas to win up to £25k to ‘give it a go’, as well as training, skills and mentoring support to transform their ideas into success stories.
When we were challenged to do something original to inspire people and communities in Lancashire to be more enterprising we worked with the Skills and Employability team at Lancashire County Developments to develop an exciting new project and a national first. As project managers for over eighteen months we developed and managed the transformation of a great idea into a sustainable vehicle for Lancashire: - transforming it into a high profile robust competition, connecting with partners and funders, involving people in Lancashire and developing a creative team to give the competition an iconic brand and PR worthy of its status as a flagship project for the county. Winners of the first round of the Challenge are already making their ideas happen – the county champions will be announced in November in Global Entrepreneurship Week. Find out more at www.lancashire.gov.uk/giveitago.
Give it a Go: The £5k Challenge has been nominated for Enterprising Britain 2010, a national award for innovation in developing the country’s enterprise culture.
Client: Lancashire County Developments Ltd./Lancashire County Council
Partners: Enterprise UK (North West), SELNET (Social Enterprise Lancashire Network), Helping Hands Partnership
What we did: Project Management, stakeholder engagement, marketing/PR management
Design and Brand: Wash Design, Preston
