Reflection: 2morro's speakers - what did they say?
The event took place on the 12 July. The sessions were live blogged (see Amplified), filmed (coming soon) and a TV programme was made (more on that too!). Carry on discussing on Twitter using #2morro2010 and keep in touch with us @2morro2010. We've been keeping in touch with lots of you and we want to hear from you all! :)
Here's a look back on what the 2morro2010 speakers said to us...
Words from Wizdom - Green Jade Hip Hop
Fighting chance: tackling Britain’s gang culture. Hearing about the shootings of 2 young girls in Aston in the New Year of 2003, Wiz realised he had to do something positive with his hip hop talent. After one 15 year old said to him ‘do you think singing against gun and knife crime will really do anything?’ he realised he had to do more. Wiz now talks to schools as part of the XLP Gunz Down Fighting chance show, using drama, music and video, to explore the issues of weapons, gangs and making lifestyle choices.
Wizdom opens with a verse of rap (listen to the audioboo on www.amplified10.com/2morro2010). “Poor or poor war” is one ringing phrase.
Wiz is concerned about the issues of gangs in the UK, and works with XLP, a charity that ‘pimped a riot van’.
“Know your craft”
You need to know your craft if you want to get anywhere. If it’s your life you need to actually know something about it. Get to know its challenges - look at “America’s Top Model” - have you not watched this show?
“Know your audience”
So much more is accessible now. You have to find a way to make sure what you do is great. “When everyone’s super - no one is”. You need to find people who will pay or take an interest in what you do. They may not be like you... but you still need to know who they are and what they like. What will they pay for? Wiz gives an example of Estelle - her tune ‘1980’ was reasonably successful. Then she links up with John Leegend and a record company that understood her and her audience - and she had a smash hit with “American Girl”. You need to realise that lovers may not be buyers.
“Know yourself”
What do you really want to get from what you’re doing? If it’s just money then go for the audience with the money. Decide what you will not or cannot do. Knowing what you can’t do is a good thing. It means you can focus on your strengths. Know what your success is. Success is about doing the best with your life.
Other links that Wizz mentioned:
Justyn Hollett, Brit School
Justyn is 16, and is already a winner of numerous enterprise awards. He says he has ‘done so much’ - and I’m a normal young person. He’s a Croydon Business Champion, he’s a young entrepreneur, freelance photographer, an author and a visionary.
He says young people can be a bit negative but it doesn’t need to be like that. He arranged an event and got 1,500 young people to come to an event to celebrate.
He says you need to:
Dream Big
Dreaming Big is about dreaming differently when you are a young person; you may not dream the same as adults.
The power of planning
You always need ‘two routes’ to what you want to get to.
24/7 initiative
You need to have clear actions each day - “Don’t say I’ll do it tomorrow”. You need to start doing something today.
Be Yourself
Whatever you are - be what you are. If you can laugh, laugh. Whatever you can do you need to be yourself.
Jay mentions his creative enterprise event - designed for young people interested in enterprise. He says his Mum is his biggest supporter - and says that you will have someone like that and you need to make sure you recognise and celebrate that.
Apps for Good’s Aaron Sonson and Satwant Singh: The young inventors
‘Creating apps for the community’. Stop & Search is an app that provides guidance to you if you are stopped and search by the Police. There has been a massive increase in stop and searches - up 3 fold over recent years. Only 6 in 10,000 stop and searches actually result in an arrest. A lot of people are being affected - and they are innocent people. Aaron & Satwant wanted to look at how this people might feel:
- Disempowered
- Frustrated
- Confused
Aaron & Satwant wanted to address this by helping people:
- Know your rights and the procedure
- Log your experience
- See local stops
This app only works on Android so far but others being developed. [A demo was shown - and is on www.amplified10.com/2morro2010]
They want to work with the Police - and provide feedback about both bad and good experiences for people who are Stopped & Searched.
For more information see http://appsforgood.org/
Stacey Dooley, BBC3, Blood Sweat & T-shirts
Stacey was selected for the BAFTA nominated blood sweat and tshirts. She refers to this period of her life as ‘life changing’. She went on to campaign and fundraise, and front her own series ‘Stacey Dooley investigates’ which was nominated for a one world media award. rStacey is now an active campaigner confronting child prostitution and child soldiers in Cambodia and DRCongo.
Stacey was 20 when she went to India. She tells the audience that she was ‘totally blown away, out of the loop’. When she came back she raised money for the kids in the factory where they made the programme. She’s raised thousands - and went on national TV (“I was on with Paxman!”).
“If you don’t know you can’t do anything or make decisions”
She says there are different levels of child labour. She made her own documentary - “Stacey Dooley Investigates”, designed to appeal to young people. She went to Cambodia in January and made a programme on child prostitution.
She was trained for hostile environments and went to Congo to make a programme about child soldiers and militias. She says you need to “learn bits about other people to realise how lucky we are. That sounds a bit Miss World but you know what I mean.”
She was in Ivory Coast and they built a school and she’d like to do more.
See more here (and click on the 'ethical pests' video to see an overview of Blood, Sweat & T-Shirts and Stacey's work after the show) or here to see details of her Ethical Pests initiative.
Patrick Philpott, Visionpath http://www.visionpath.co.uk/
Patrick set up his first business when he was 15. He talks about this experience and what he thinks the future of the world of work will look like.
“I wanted to be an entrepreneur from the age of 11. I wanted to make enough money to buy a Bentley. Shows how shallow I am!” he jokes. He wrote to successful entrepreneurs - Branson, Murdoch - some wrote back and gave the usual old chat about ‘never giving up’. But the best piece of advice he got was “start early as it gives you more time to make mistakes and learn from them.”
His first venture was a business events company - trying to get local businesses to work better together. But he also had GCSEs to deal with. so he let the business go which he says was a bit of a failure. He then felt he should leave business for a bit and focus on his education.
He worked with Make your Mark - and spoke at an event in Tottenham. He realised that there was a gap in training young people and equipping them to be entrepreneurial - both ‘hard’ business skills and ‘softer’ interpersonal skills.
He launched Visionpath one week before the last of his A Level exams. He decided not to go to University despite 4 good A Levels.
“University is a rite of passage” regardless of your life path. He felt that University wasn’t the way way to go for him though. More people are becoming freelancers and self-employed. There aren’t the jobs available for graduates now.
“Freelancing will become more common for younger people. You’ll need to create a lot of your own opportunities. Some of it is luck. But you need to get in front of people to create your own luck”. Sees the need to focus on alternative careers - especially as there are fewer secure jobs.
Three key points:
- Just do it. Don’t agonise over the details.
• “Think like a freelancer” - and adopt those behaviours. Look for opportunities to work with other people
• “You need a positive energy” and drive and determination to get through the difficulties.
Tom Robbins has represented the UK on the World Summit on Media for children and youth, on issues that affect them in the World Media.
Creativity alongside media is a very powerful tool and can be used to strengthen and uphold moral values. [Tom reads a beautiful poem - “If Martians Made Media - it would be the worst media in the world”]. Listen to the Audioboo of his talk on www.amplified10.com/2morro2010)
“Screens are watched for up to 6 hours a day”
“We should all be the creators of peace and equality”.
“There are definite problems in the Media. Lack of media literacy and attitudes of the media towards young people.” Mentions Samuel Smiles and his view of entrepreneurs as the artisans of today’s civilisation.
“We are not alien to the media - we are all part of it”. We need to shape and invent what the media should be tomorrow.
You'l find links to Tom’s interests below:
http://globalyouthmediacouncil.wordpress.com/
KG & Marsten: Spoof gangsters gone viral
“They Got No Chicken Wings” by Caramel - see YouTube video on www.amplified10.com/2morro2010
Social media is very powerful in terms of how we connect - have nearly 2,000 followers altogether. We use Facebook - we need to use social media to connect to the audience. “At the end of the day it’s called the entertainment business”.
“Comedy skits - is hard work; you need to do the work and build the relationships. We also use Twitter and Ustream. You need to people to become advocates for your brand. They send you messages - and you need to respond.
“We hope you’ll see more of us on TV and independent films - and we use the internet to promote what we do. So can you”.
One of their biggest hits - Shadrack and Mandem
“You don’t need to have a badman persona - you can just be yourself.’
Over 1m hits on Youtube for this spoof. Working...
Duncan and McCoy - “we’re basically heavy-handed Police officers” - and we show the other side of it. We get to a hard to reach market. We have over 75,000 hists for Duncan and McCoy.
Michelle Clothier, ‘Stories from Livity’
She says she is out of the ‘core age range for this audience!’. She wants to show people the campaigns Livity has worked on with young people.
Spinebreakers - edited and directed by young people.
Everything that we do is about inspiring and celebrating young people. She and co-founder Sam Conniff were in conventional marketing jobs - selling fizzy drinks, trainers and mobile phones. They decided they wanted to do something more valid.
They do still work with fizzy drinks, trainers and mobile phones - but they’re trying to use the marketing budgets of the big brands to do something for good.
Michelle provided examples of young people who work with Livity: Emil who has become Music Editor of Live, Joe who has been on a music4good apprenticeship, Fabien a photographer, Jelly Ellie wrote “How Teenagers Think” and is working with Spinebreakers, Jordan who worked as Joint Editor of Live - now DJing and playing basketball in Italy, Kalise reluctantly came to Live and now she feels she can ‘conquer the world - she’s now doing a law degree at Southbank University; and Albert - who is involved in a Sony Playstation project, and didn’t let go of the opportunity and is now an apprentice at Livity.
Advice rom Michelle:
- Have confidence. Sometimes you just have to dig deep and go for it
- Be professional - it makes a big different
- Have fun and be yourself. Be real and authentic. Its is much less painful than being something you are not
- Take the initiative - and make the opportunities work for you
“Shine like a generation has never shone before”
“The media misrepresents young people” - a series of The TeenAGE Monologues
The Respect? Campaign is led by a group of young people demonstrating why it’s important for everyone to speak up about negative public perceptions of young people and youth discrimination. The Respect? campaign is supported by YouthNet and the British Youth Council.
(You can listen to them in the Audioboo box on the main 2morro event page, at the top right)
The negative stories about young people and the fact that we can’t vote means we are any easy target for politicians and the media.
They are campaigning for “Respect” and they are keen to make sure that young people do something to counteract the negative images in the media of young people. Young people need to see that positive stories can be brought to the attention of the media.
Sign the Respect Pledge - and make your voice heard - comment online, write, call in to TV and radio whenever you hear or see anything that needs to be corrected and that continues the negative reporting of young people.
Andre Campbell: Achieving your potential: 7 stories.
Andre gets everyone to stand up and turn to the person next to you and say “Let’s Go!” [they do].
Born and bred in East London [cheers and applause], Andre is a recent economics graduate.
“Where I lived, I could see Canary Wharf every day - but I wasn’t really aware of what it was. Through University and a leadership event at HSBC, I realised that I could ; 'think big’.
Andre asks the audience to think for 10 seconds about your own world view. How do you contribute to this picture?
Action
Seize the opportunity
M.A.S.T.E.R.
Measurable
Attainable
Specific
Time-bound
Exciting
Relevant
The network
Use the network to get your voice out. Pick up the phone.
T.E.A.M.
Together Everyone Achieves More
Expert
Know your craft and really learn about your industry
Mentor
Get a mentor - could be somebody you look up to. Get their help and advice.
Andre has just come back from working with Enthuse Youth in Ethiopia - ‘taking the steps necessary to start up new ventures’. Likes working on cross-generational initiatives.
He likes to think more broadly than the UK - and uses the term ‘glocal’.
Andre’s other projects - the Spirit of London Awards - celebrating youth across London.
On twitter he’s @andre_campbell or you can find him via his website
Babs Williams, co-founder of New Turn
“Change in our society means saying ‘this isn’t here, why not?”
Babs was made homeless in his early teenage years. He was abused. His parents were ‘borough swapping’ to escape social services. He was 17 and he was ‘in limbo’ when he walked out and left home. The authorities told him he might be ‘making up’ his story. Under 18 he would not be looked after by the council and social services would only do something if he made a complain to the police - which he would not do.
He was helped by 2 people who he met in the Library he used to take refuge in. He did not agree with their politics, but they looked after him and fed him and clothed him; they took him in.
He got a job in an an investment bank - with Max Edgling who was not interested in politics - and after leaving the Bank, he started Newturn as a new kind of thinktank for engaging with young people irrespective of their political affiliations in discussion ans debate on important issues with politicans and others.
“Real power is in the seat of power in Westminister. If we want to change a system that disempowers young people then we have to engage with it and force it to bear down on the issues that we think are important.”
“We must force through real change and not turn around.”
“Local issues are really important but we also need to engage at the seat of power in Westminster”.
Lucian Tarnowski: Entrepreneurship and social media.
Most people in this room are Gen Y - he says (born after 1980).
“For the first time in history the youngest people entering the workforce are an authority on something that actually matters economically. You should use this to your own advantage.”
“What we do is like Facebook but it connects you with companies you might like to work for - but they can’t see what you did at the weekend!”
The market has gone from print to online to social. The difference between online and social is as big as the change from print to online.
“The education system is broken, it’s flightlining and new ways are needed to find jobs for people.”
“Gen Y are often accused of having more confidence than talent.”
In Gen Y 96% of them have joined a social network. It’s a fundamental change in the way we communicate. Was a monologue, then a dialogue now it’s a multilogue. Gen Yers see 3,000 ads per day but only 14% of gen Yers believe in advertising.
“We’re competing with the 4m grads who graduate in India each year. China is now the largest English speaking country on earth”.
Be fast, fail fast, fix fast and learn fast.
Lucian sees massive potential for digital business which is changing every sector. There are 1m young people who are Not in Employment, Education or Training. Create things that people want.
Hot sectors - green business, sustainability and CSR.
Innovation lies at the edge.
Find Lucian Tarnowski here
