Friday evening on the 27th June saw the transformation of a previously empty shop front in Liverpool ONE into a networking hub par excellence. Now utilised by the University of Liverpool, they had offered up the space to the Prince’s Trust to hold a networking event for their staff, mentors, mentees, sponsors and selected guests. As a Business Specialist with HSBC, one of the Prince’s Trust key corporate sponsors, JCI Liverpool’s President, Kartik Rajput, already had close links with the organisation. Even so, it was fantastic to hear about the amazing job that the Prince’s Trust does in giving young adults the confidence, skills and advice in setting up their own business.

The business professionals in the room described how much joy they got out of mentoring those who had been selected to graduate through the scheme. Being able to pass on words of wisdom and knowledge obtained over years of experience seemed to provide great satisfaction in giving something back, especially when that resulted in a fledgling start up finding its feet. There did seem to be some ingenious partnerings too, such as a jewelry maker working with a fire juggler or an engineer specialising in tidal energy technology helping a hair styling business get off of the ground.

Best of all was hearing the stories of success directly from those who had passed through and benefitted from the scheme. These included Dave, who gave up a promising career as a secondary school music teacher to pursue his dream of establishing a web design company. Or there was Alissa, who, based on her own experiences as a mother, designed, marketed and sold a teething bangle through her award winning company Izzy Melody. This has led to opportunities such as meeting the Prime Minister or hearing that her product adorns the wrist of royalty in the form of Prince George.

The event was a fantastic opportunity to bring all these people under one roof to celebrate and spread the word about the great work that the Prince’s Trust does. Also, a huge thanks must go to Liverpool based architectural firm MgMaStudio for catering the event and providing copious amounts of Prosecco. A great example of a local innovative and creative company looking to give something back to their community.

JCI Liverpool's next event is Learning From Experience: Business Challenges & How To Overcome Them which is taking place on Tuesday 15th July.

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