Royal Bank of Scotland: Entrepreneur Accelerator
Guest Curator & Entrepreneur
Mar 2018 - Mar 2019
When you work across the cultural, heritage and community sectors, it’s not standard to think of yourself as an entrepreneur – a term more commonly associated with the corporate, retail, and ‘business’ worlds. But we are in business. I believe in trying to develop solid business models for the work I do. To be paid reasonably for your expertise and the work you do, and pay that forward to the next generation of peers. It’s not easy and failure does happen when passion overtakes what I give to a project.
With a view to consolidating my business, I was successful in joining the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Entrepreneur Accelerator Programme. Following in the footsteps of previous alumni INDY Cinema Group, I was keen to identify the growth potential in my business and get it on a surer footing. It was a useful, productive and fascinating experience. Through really helpful workshops around your mindset about your business, I realised how unique A Kind of Seeing is and how I need to be able to communicate this to others who haven’t experienced one of my events. The Pitch is crucial in the programme: 60 seconds to sell your business, refined and presented to your mentor and the whole Accelerator community every week. And that community is a diverse range of businesses, from products keeping ship secure against pirates on the high seas to developing the equivalent of Tinder for gamers.
I felt I had to give my peers a taste of what I do, so the RBS team hired me to run the Accelerator’s Christmas event with a 45-minute A Kind of Seeing screening with my trademark blether. And this was another special one: featuring an STV documentary made in 1985 about Entrepreneur and Managing Director of CR Smith double glazing, Gerard Eadie, complete with carphone and Italian handmade suits. 34 years later I invited Mr Eadie to join me to reflect on the film and his career and I was delighted he agreed. We had a fantastic event as Mr Eadie generously gave us so much of his time to participate in the screening and talking individually to the entrepreneurs afterwards about his innovative employer sponsorship programme supporting young people into employment, Hand Picked Scotland.
VIDEO: A Kind of Seeing / Shot by Cutscene Media