Review
Review of The Enterprising Engineer
– By Timothy Swift, Civil Engineering MEng, Finalist
17th-19th March 2008
Edited by Glynis Perkin
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Imagine for a moment that you have an idea. Now that idea, to you at least, is revolutionary. It will undoubtedly change something for the better, make someone (hopefully you!) money, or at least solve that niggling problem that you’ve had to deal with during your whole life.
The problem is now not the problem you once had; it’s doing something about it. And importantly doing something that will benefit the end users and of course its brilliant creator (you again). How do you go about that? How do you take an idea and make it a reality?
Well perhaps no-one can give a one-size-fits-all answer to that question, but that’s what The Enterprising Engineer is for.
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This 3-day event covers the whole spectrum of this process - an undertaking that typically requires effort, utilising initiative and resourcefulness, often relating to business; commonly known as Enterprise.
Now I’m not suggesting this is a sure-fire route to make us all squillions of pounds, but it might just be that starting place you need. I know I have certainly been inspired to renew many of my Entrepreneurial visions so watch this space!
The course itself is what you would imagine lectures should be – i.e. not lectures at all! Really it comprises of a series of stripped-down talks, dotted with mini-group work activities and then one large group project that culminates in a Dragons' Den style showdown between groups.
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So, firstly, the talks get the wheels on the bus going round – getting our mindset from what it usually revolves around (equations, computers, routines, perhaps last night’s episode of Scrubs) and in staying with the bus analogy, taking the B-route, the one where you explore potential - not just taking the main road. They are simple and effective: no academic showboating and no talking to a white board. Not surprising really, since the course is run by the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning – one would hope they know a thing or two about effective communication in learning! They will help you think of aspects of an idea and how it fits into the real world.
Then there are the activities: the minor ones focus on getting our…well, our focus. They work quite effectively with the talks to really get our brain into the next gear, really waking up! Definitely useful if Scrubs left you feeling a little confused.
The main group activity is really a scaled down version of what you, or your friends, would have to go through to effectively raise funding or at least support for your idea. If you can’t apply these tasks to your own idea, then you might have to rethink your idea!
This culminates in a group-wide showdown of ideas, reminiscent of the Dragons' Den: three judges with serious backing determine the credibility of your idea and its plan. How well you do depends on your presentation, your business plan, your patent application, your model of the product, your poster, the viability of your idea, all of which are covered at some point in the course. You can imagine, for people to go into a real-life situation like this takes your average potential Dyson months and years to prepare – we did it in 3 days. And I’ll be honest: if I'd had money there and then (and if they were real products, mind) I would have invested some money in a couple of the ideas myself! To be frank, this is the process by which any idea of yours will be judged – don’t fool yourself into thinking that a good idea alone will win praise, you have to win that too.
My favourite part of the whole event, however, was in between these sessions: a number of talks given by people in the real world who really know what it is like to be an Enterprising Engineer. The first talk we had was particularly poignant to myself as I felt we shared a lot of common interests at heart – a love for how things work, and the need to fiddle and fix and create things. We heard Phillip Tillyard's story (former Managing Director of Trent Aero Engineering Ltd.), from where he started to the events that culminated in his being a very successful Engineering Entrepreneur. How he took his knowledge, his ideas and his passions, and forged them into a lifelong career that made him rich in friends, experiences and not forgetting wealth.
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Now, if you’re reading this and feel that you wouldn’t be inspired by this to go out and take life by the reins and do your own thing – then this is most definitely not an event for you to attend. But, if like me, you find the prospect of creating your own working life – perhaps influenced by 'lady luck' but certainly not dictated by others – extremely appealing and potentially hugely satisfying, then The Enterprising Engineer is definitely worth 3 days of your time to help realise those ideas and most importantly – your potential.
