Fish on Toast Southampton Entrepreneurs won the award for Best Society in Southampton in 2010, beating over 100 other societies to gain the title. The interest in entrepreneurship has been increasing dramatically over the past few years, with more students than ever before considering becoming their own boss and starting a business for themselves.
Despite the strange name, Fish on Toast means serious business. Run by a 15 strong committee of student volunteers, the society hosts events most Thursday nights at Southampton University with entrepreneurial guest speakers. The Bridge Bar in Southampton has seen the likes of Will King, the founder of King of Shaves, young entrepreneur Sabirul Islam, the beermat entrepreneur Mike Southon and many more!
My role within the society as the Vice President is to now help lead the committee and organise the speaker events, from securing the guests to organising the format of the evenings. I also head up new competitions that will be implemented in the coming year, and design marketing material for the society. My experience as Sponsorship Director also gave me the chance to liaise with potential corporate sponsors and negotiate agreements.
Over the past year we held 14 different speaker events, a series of small competitions and in November 2010 we launched our first ever Southampton Apprentice competition. The Southampton Apprentice was as would be expected, much like the popular TV programme. Students applied to take part and completed 4 separate challenges from designing a new product to selling cupcakes in Southampton markets. An overall Southampton winner was selected after the gruelling process, and won £333 and secured her place in the national Apprentice Challenge run by NACUE. The winner of the national competition will win a 3 month paid internship with BBC Dragons Den star Doug Richard. Episodes of the Southampton Apprentice can be found here: http://www.susu.tv/videos/category/EntertainmentSETsquared Award Submission - Student Enterprise Champions - Fish on Toast from Southampton Enterprise on Vimeo.
