Group Size
?
1.) Small group (teams of 4-6)
2.) Individual Task
3.) Large Group
4.) Any
Any
Learning Environment
?
1.) Lecture Theatre
2.) Presentation Space
3.) Carousel Tables (small working group)
4.) Any
5.) Outside
6.) Special
Any
QAA Enterprise Theme(s)
?
1.) Creativity and Innovation
2.) Opportunity recognition, creation and evaluation
3.) Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement
4.) Implementation of ideas through leadership and management
5.) Reflection and Action
6.) Interpersonal Skills
7.) Communication and Strategy
1Creativity and Innovation
2Opportunity recognition‚ creation and evaluation
3Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement
4Implementation of ideas through leadership and management
5Reflection and Action
6Interpersonal Skills
7Communication and Strategy
0Digital and Data Skills
Taking #EntEdOnline: What did you need to do to deliver your Enterprise Support programme online?
The Enterprise Support programme at Oxford Brookes which consists of three elements: Support for Start-Ups, Tier 1 Start Up Visa programme (T1SUV) and Partnership Work.
The challenges of working online or at a distance include:
The key challenge is networking in a digital landscape as well as running and operation of an Incubator (IceQube) virtually. We explored launching a new co-working Incubator space for our enterprise community; how to co-work in a social distance landscape and using telephone calls / inquiries to keep communication available and accessible.
(note: voice communication options have been limited to the above whereby you must make an account on a video call platform or have access to a work mobile phone to make a voice call.
Our biggest challenge was making changes to our offerings for a "biggest idea pitching competition" working out how best to support our entrepreneurs in the current climate, and communicating these changes to them efficiently through calls and emails, as well as changes to the delivery of the event which was set to be held as a gala dinner.
What were your concerns, constraints and priorities?
With delivery and supporting clients our priority, we focused on mentoring despite the technical constraints. In order to conduct face to face mentoring for students, staff and recent graduates and that mentee’s must have access to a strong internet connection and video call software such as Zoom, Google Hangouts or Skype with microphone.
We also needed to address what would be the direct line of contact for our community? Without open office hours for those on Campus to speak to the Enterprise Support Team. Programme administration, the preparation and production of official documents on behalf of the University was key. This process now requires people to sign documents digitally and substitute headed paper for a digital option. We needed to deliver a programme of live events including a pitching competition and monthly meet-up. The issues to be aware of when taking these online were, training our team, participants and audience on how to engage in these events online.
What did you do?
We acknowledged the covid-19 situation on all our communication/across all channels to keep our content relevant to our audience and what they are preoccupied about. We provided digital solutions to access our services in a matter of days and reassured our audience that we could go ahead with the rest of our programme. We delivered our two main funding programmes online with the first webinar ‘Pitch@ The Zoom’ seeing 12 people pitch for funding and our idea pitching competition Fuel which followed the same tested format via the Zoom platform. We encouraged and nurtured audience engagement through the interactive Q&A features and the polling features. We addressed our partnership work by ceasing the opportunity to work with individuals or organisations which could play a role in providing additional mentoring support, expert guidance, signposting for us. This was achieved by putting a call out to host a series of ‘How to Webinars’ to directly help towards building and developing business ideas. Fostering relationships with an existing and growing network of alumni, who can play a role in accompanying our enterprise community of students, staff and recent graduates on their journey to starting or growing a company. We plan to share their stories through our digital marketing and PR.
What resources, links, advice, guidance did you consult?
Alongside the existing resources EEUK already provides, we have looked to Enterprise Nation alongside Zoom who offer a plethora of support including demonstrations for how their different services work, and step by step how-to guides for every feature.
What other challenges do you have that you have not yet resolved
One challenge we are facing is that it is harder to host networking because for both our audience and ourselves, we are not used to networking online. We need to get comfortable with this new way of doing things. As an example we are trying to work out how to host our monthly networking events online (Monthly Meet-Up). We usually provide food and drink, and host games for our attendees to win prizes. We originally planned on utilising Zoom and are considering running a virtual pub quiz, but feel this is still quite isolating in its nature for those who would normally attend our events and speak with new people. Ability to generate individual conversations in a group setting isn't something that Zoom can easily facilitate and is key for us.
With grateful thanks to Katrina Gill Enterprise Support, Oxford Brookes University for sharing to support the sector.
