Over sixty businesses gathered at Hertfordshire based Bishop’s Stortford College in support of a Sixth Former’s entrepreneurial TrAIDe Business Exhibition, raising just over £10,000 for Inspire Malawi, a charity supporting, promoting and enhancing primary and secondary education in the south-east African country.
Jack Whitehead is part of a team of fourteen fellow pupils who are devoting their Easter holiday to renovating a primary school in Malawi.
He said: “Our target was to raise £10,000 for the amazing work of Inspire Malawi before we travelled so we have been organising lots of different fundraising projects over the past few months. I’m very interested in working in business and hope to run my own company in the future, so I had the idea of contributing to our fundraising target by organising a trade fair for local businesses to build and maintain long-lasting relationships, whilst showcasing their products and services. I would like to thank all our partners and sponsors. I have learnt so much from them and without their help, advice and support, the event would not have been possible.”
A broad range of business sectors was represented at the fair from blue-chip companies such as Stansted Airport and Audi, Swedish banking group Handelsbanken and accountants Price Bailey to a host of smaller businesses, arts organisations and community groups.
During the day, a speed networking event organised by Business Buzz took place and three speakers gave insightful talks about different aspects of business, including Herts & Observer editor Paul Winspear, marketing mentor Steve Clarke and Halifax branch manager Antony Panayi.
A video message from Monitise CEO and former College pupil Alistair Lukies was also played on the day and is now available on the TrAIDe website (www.traidefair.co.uk). Alistair who was scheduled to give a talk, had to pull out at short notice to present his global mobile banking business’s interim results to the London Stock Exchange instead. He said: “TrAIDe is a really worthy cause and is a fantastic entrepreneurial thing to have done. Well done to Jack and the school for their support.”
Sixteen year old Jack was presented earlier this year with the award of ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year’ by Nigel Botterill’s ‘Entrepreneurs Circle’ to acknowledge his outstanding achievements and efforts in conceiving, planning and delivering the charity TrAIDe Business Exhibition.
To date, the Malawi team have raised an amazing total of £20,000 (and still counting) for Inspire Malawi.
Other impressive projects undertaken for the cause included whipping up a unique BSC Bakes cookbook, selling cakes and home-produced honey, bag packing at Waitrose, celebrating Burns Night in style, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, a car boot sale and an archery shoot.