Young Enterprise – not me obviously.

Certainly not young if probably a bit enterprising.

Instead the Charity that helps school-age children take part in business activities in a nearly real environment.

It was the Young Enterprise Area Final yesterday evening.

We had three teams competing – not a large number compared with some areas of the country but what it lacked in quantity it certainly made up for by way of quality.

I was one of the judges.

Normally to be a judge you have to be a sponsor of a prize but I do have a client who is very happy to sponsor.

As long as I do the judging. So it would be churlish to say no…

Of course, as it was me involved, some things didn’t quite go to plan.

To be honest, mainly in my travel arrangements.

It was going to involve travelling just before peak flow so it made sense to consider going the “back way” as this was potentially going to have less traffic.

And therefore quicker, despite the windy nature of the road.

Until

discovering you’re fifth in the queue behind a farm tractor with a VERY large trailer on one of the windiest (do love English – it is of course windy rather than windy*) pieces of road…

* – just in case you’re not following I’m talking about a road that goes round corners (wine dee phonetically) than than one where the air is blowing strongly (win dee)

and the temporal advantage is (not so) slowly being eaten away.

FIVE MILES ( Eight kilometres) I was stuck behind that bl00dy tractor.

Until finding a straight enough piece without oncoming traffic (always helps) that I could scoot past.

I was third in line but no one else looked to be doing anything so pedal to the metal, heavy right foot.

My car’s acceleration is pretty awesome.

In general I’m not one for boasting, etc. but I’m going to make an exception here.

Watch out BMWs and Mercs here I come!

Scoot through the byways of Winchester.

Now I know there’s some car parking quite close to the venue so it’s down the narrow back streets to discover the places are all taken.

Sigh.

So it’s three point turn and back to some more “distant” parking about half a mile (800m) away.

So I’m late-ish because of the tractor, now later because of the parking and legging it back

only to discover – say 5-10 minutes later – there are HALF A DOZEN spaces to choose from.

Double sigh.

So round to where the competition had been held the previous year

to find the building (i) locked and the area (ii) deserted and gated.

Which means (and here I’m guessing) it’s in a different building this year!

Which means walking BACK to where the aforementioned parking spaces (still) were.

Twenty minutes late.

But it was fine.

Guess what? No one’s worried bar me.

Gulp a cup of tea down, make acquaintance of my fellow judges, renew acquaintance of several Young Enterprise people and volunteers I know in the room and endeavour to hit the ground running assessment-wise.

The teams had done some super work.

Products ranging from decks of cards to recipe books to tee shirts and compostable coffee cups.

All the participants are in the 17-18 year old bracket for this competition (in the main) and it’s great to hear the teams’ business journeys and how they’ve overcome the inevitable problems that have come their way.

And as I mentioned earlier, they’re all without exception pretty good.

Which makes awarding prizes, etc. a little more exciting.

As it happens, all (genuinely) won at least one prize.

But the top two teams go forward to the Young Enterprise Hampshire final which means someone’s got to come third.

And so we seek to consider which is “best” which involves a judgement call.

Most previous occasions I’ve been involved there has been one team that has been head and shoulders above the rest – but not last night.

And eventually it takes a Dragons Den/Shark Tank type of decision and one of the teams just sneaks ahead.

So a quick shout out to the participants:

• Made By Us
• Evol, and
• Tees and Coffee – our eventual winner

Give their sites a visit, help drive some traffic there.

These are the business leaders of tomorrow. They deserve your time.

And you can volunteer – give up some of YOUR time to help these entrepreneurs of tomorrow on their way – just like me.

Coffee goes in here.