Re-imagining the World One Mouthful at a Time . . . . .

Make Good Festival 2014

02 June 2014

Mkae Good Festival 2014 Mkae Good Festival 2014 Mkae Good Festival 2014 Mkae Good Festival 2014 Mkae Good Festival 2014 Mkae Good Festival 2014I went along to this year’s MakeGood Festival in central London where I met and heard stories from hundreds of talented creative start-ups. Held at Old Selfridge’s Hotel and with a huge line up brimming with brilliant business minds, I was certainly in for an inspirational day!

MakeGood was a very helpful event for those of us who want to launch their own creative business but didn’t know how and where to start, aiming to help ‘creative’ entrepreneur and startups who want to start out in creative industries. There was also practical advice provided too from creative speakers and business leaders, such as, How To Fund Your Start-Up, using crowdfunding with IndieGoGo to raise finance for a creative project and finding out how to avoid mistakes in The Business of Books. I watched creative start-ups pitch their product to a panel of buyers from Selfridges, ASOS and notonthehighstreet.com – and they did a wonderful job, it takes guts to do something like that. At the end of their pitch each business were provided feedback and constructive criticism – a priceless guidance from the experts!

Independents Making Their Dreams Come True
T
he pinnacle of the festival was the vibrant pop-up ‘Marketplace’, which saw 200 creative start-ups launch their businesses simultaneously. These businesses were run by people who had just completed a  year of training with the School of Creative Startups, and was an opportunity to show their products and services to the public, press and real buyers for the first time. These were people that had taken their passions and turned them into their own businesses. I met a wonderful number of lovely business owners from Aoife of Fanciful Papers – an artisan stationery studio specialising in letterpress printed stationery and hand bound journals; Tammy Fenn of We Love to Party – gorgeous collection of party accessories for Children (and adult) parties! and met Jewellery Maker – Nettie Birch of nbNg, where she shared her experiences of starting up.

I left feeling inspired after seeing and listening to stories of people making their passions/dreams come true! A hall chock full of proper talented independents ‘goal-diggers’. I have to say that I think I often look at successful people and assume that they must be really lucky or have “connections” that have helped them get to where they are, but after MakeGood, these creative startups are going after what they (you) want in life – soughting out the opportunities and pitching themselves in order to make them happen. Reflecting from the event, I learned how important it was to know what my goals are, then taking the right steps to achieve them. It was a great day, thanks MakeGood and Co! – Missie Cindz

{Photos by Cindy Cheung and Keith Donegan}

Missie Cindz

posted under: Events, London