Make Your Mark Challenge, 2008

Make Your Mark is the campaign to give young people in the UK the confidence, skills and ambition to be enterprising – to have ideas and make them happen – and this year, I was asked to judge at Brechin High School. I have to say, it was inspiring watching the teams work and hear their ideas presented.

This years Make Your Mark (MYM) challenge, was only released on Monday morning, 19th of November, 2008. The challenge this year was to create an entrepreneurial idea – either a product or service – that was inspired by the seven Olympic and Paralympic Values: Respect, Excellence, Friendship, Courage, Determination, Equality and Inspiration.

There were three teams involved at Brechin High School, which conveniently ended up being divided into a girls team, a boys team and a mixed team. These teams were spending the first day of the MYM Challenge, competing against each other to be entered into the National MYM Challenge.

Team 1 – SAM (mixed)
Concept: Mobile updates following the Olympics, with GPS location for events. After 2012 Olympics ends, the service would be available for continual sporting events and scores.

Team 2 – HuverCraft (boys)
Concept: A wheelchair attachment, allowing disabled persons to vacuum clean themselves, giving them accessability to a little more independence.

Team 3 – Flash (girls)
Concept: A sports community centre for both abled and disabled people; hosting training programs, competitions and events.

All the teams performed brilliantly, presenting their ideas well to the panel of judges in which I was included. While each team had their own strengths and weaknesses, there was a unanimous decision from the judges that the winning team going forward to compete in the National Make Your Mark Competition, were the Girls of Flash (can be seen here on the right).

I’m reminded of a story I heard when I was at High School, where a bus was unable to pass under a bridge by only a fraction of an inch. The driver and passengers, all educated men and women, were unable to find a way through. It was only eventually the mind of a child watching from the roadside who solved the problem. “Why not deflate the tyres, roll slowly under the bridge and inflate them again at the other side?” he said. Genius, I say.

I run Zen Elements Ltd at a relatively young age, so I’m told. I get reminded of this too when I meet potential clients for the first time and they are quite surprised. Once meeting me though, they do not have negative views of myself or my business but there is that little first impression hurdle to get over. (Hurdle… see what I did there? )

I think that everyone should be able to take something from Make your Mark and that is that some of the greatest ideas may just come from even the youngest of minds.

If you are looking to find out more about Make Your Mark…
- Visit their Website
- Follow them on Twitter
- View photographs on Flickr
- Join them on facebook, mySpace or even Bebo!

Thanks for reading,

Alex | Zen