Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

 

Fabio Zoffi 3 Day Entrepreneurship Workshop  

RHS hosted a three-day workshop with high-tech serial entrepreneur Fabio Zoffi and other local entrepreneurs in a successful resilience building event. The workshop titled, 'How to become an entrepreneur in 3 days - by playing' consisted of learning key skills such as data gathering, brainstorming and key research. 80 Year 12 BTEC Enterprise and Entrepreneurship and A-Level Business and Economics pupils experienced a fabulous hands-on experience of modern entrepreneurship. 

Across the three days, pupils took part in carrying out customer surveys to logo, design, pricing, marketing, and much more. To include more practicality in the workshop Fabio added some general sessions, with two presentations on the possible future scenarios for the global society and the fundamental role of new entrepreneurs; and the concept of 'kidpreneurs', i.e. 'playing' with business models to learn the profession of entrepreneur while having fun with science and technology. This was also followed with morning 'walk & talk' sessions, where the participants could ask Fabio any questions they wanted, even outside the business context so that he could pass on to them his knowledge accumulated throughout his 20-year career.    

On the final day, a networking breakfast took place, in which several local entrepreneurs from the East of England gathered to speak to the students ahead of their working day to provide first-hand experience. The entrepreneurs included Jenna Ackerly (Events Under Canvas), Josh Richardson (Superyacht Tenders & Toys), and Guy Hocking (Utilize Group). There were also representatives from Anglia Ruskin University Business School.   

As a high-tech start-up entrepreneur, Fabio Zoffi decided to contribute to the education of the younger generation by speaking at universities all over the world on how new technologies can be used to create successful businesses and at the same time improve the society in which we live. His programme '1 billion entrepreneurs by 2040', teaches how to use technology to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs. 

Fabio decided to host the workshop after choosing to enrol his son Federico at RHS, a school he selected on the basis of the very convincing programme and the comprehensive extracurricular activities offered in a fantastic location. 

He comments; “Right from the start, already in the online communication, we noticed the extreme kindness and professionalism of the staff and teachers, and this made us clearly decide RHS for our son and gave me the personal motivation to offer the students a workshop. 

I had never thought about teaching younger children. Somehow, in a moment of serendipity, meeting the teachers of RHS gave me the idea for the workshop, which was immediately accepted with enthusiasm by business teacher Sarah Williamson. 

Together with Sarah, we developed the concept of using the business model of a coffee shop - seemingly simple but in reality very complex due to the completeness of its value chain - to have workshop participants (15-17 year olds) create a new product, a drink, from scratch. 

The three days with the students were fantastic and exciting and with Sarah we realised that this workshop model could become an innovative approach to teaching entrepreneurship to the younger generation.” 

Sarah Williamson, Head of Business and Economics at RHS comments; 

“It was incredible to watch the Year 12 pupils at RHS engage in this special three-day workshop. Fabio’s approach of becoming an entrepreneur in all aspects of life, not just business, by prioritising your health, sleep diet, to be the best entrepreneur you can be, is a principle that we teach our students daily. Entrepreneurship and building resilience in our students if a key philosophy here at RHS so Fabio’s holistic entrepreneurial approach fitted perfectly into our ethos. 

I’m thrilled the students left inspired and we hope to host future workshops like this going forward to inspire the younger generation.”