English Irregular Verbs

On John Prescott’s continuing troubles:

• I participated in an exchange.
• You took part in a discussion.
• They are just a puppet for CCO.

Impressions of Entrepreneurship

I was reminded on the Enviro-Entrepreneurship Summer School that I recently attended of Wilde’s Impressions of America where he claims:

“The exercise of ingenuity, the application of science to the work of man, is there the shortest road to wealth.”

Remarkably, this is not the only insight of his that could arguably be truer today as in 1882:

“There is a good deal of beauty to be seen in them now and then, but only where the American has not attempted to create it.”

“One is impressed in America, but not favourably impressed, by the inordinate size of everything. The country seems to try to bully one into a belief in its power by its impressive bigness.”

Sadly, some things have changed:

“In going to America one learns that poverty is not a necessary accompaniment to civilisation.”

To Keele and Back

I have just returned from the Enviro-Entrepreneur Summer School run by QED Consulting (with help from various kind sponsors) at the University of Keele.

A great time, I think, was had by 30 or so attendees, and we explored the mysterious realms of business planning, intellectual property, environmental regulation, finance, networking, and marketing. We also heard from some established firms in the environmental sector, as described on ecoaesthete.

I attended the course to gain help developing my environmental product business that is based around my ecoaesthete brand. Everyone on the Summer School had fascinating business concepts and ideas, ranging from trained artists looking to develop their work as a business to already established businesses.

Confidentiality limits what I can really say, but some things are publically available:

• Nicola @ Bog (http://www.bogblog.com – UPDATE: she mentioned this address, but doesn’t seem to be the registrant)
• Amy @ PrincessAlmighty (http://www.princessalmighty.com – which sadly doesn’t do her justice)
• + loads of others but I’m afraid until I get the contact list I’ve forgotten their website details…

Getting to Keele on Wednesday was a bit of a struggle: I left College at midnight only to learn three hours later that my National Express coach had been cancelled due to an accident on the M40. Fortunately, I was sent off to Birmingham in a taxi and managed to connect with a coach to Stoke, from where I got a bus to Keele’s campus. Rather rudely a few people were hours late for the start of the School, all blaming public transport; but they clearly hadn’t made the effort to ensure they were there on time, something I found disrespectful. This was repeated at the end of the School when others left hours early, saying that they had to go home early. I was still sat in Birmingham at 3am waiting for my coach home because I stayed until the end thereby missing the coach at 7pm. I was left wondering whether I was mad showing such committment, but I hope the experience of the School and the interesting people I met will pay great dividends in the future.