Mentor Magic from The Hampshire Chamber of Commerce

I am big believer in mentoring so when I saw the Hampshire Chamber of commerce flyer for their “mentor magic” competition deciding to apply was not a difficult choice. Winning 12 months worth of mentoring would be brilliant. So I sent in my application and returned to the all consuming task of running a startup. A few weeks later I was invited to join heat one in Basingstoke at BCOT. I knew it would be great experience, but the reality went way beyond my expectations.

Prior to the event, all three competitors for heat one were invited to a training session to work on our presentations. We spent two hours together going over our “pitches” with Katie Mattingly from HCC and Lizz Clarke from Logical Creative Marketing. Their advice was clear and detailed, but perhaps just as importantly it was given in such a positive way, that even though I am new to all this, I left the training confident that I could create a good presentation.

On the night of heat one, the panel of four (Angela Rowley, Helen Cawley, Laura Davis, Sarah Brookes and Sue Warden) were sitting in a row “dragon’s den” style, but rather then being intimidating they were supportive and insightful. Each business gave their pitch then at the end of the evening the panel provided feedback for each company, another unexpected bonus of Mentor Magic.

Yes, it wasn’t easy to deliver the pitch but the benefits were so worth it. The whole experience was 100% positive so if you are thinking of signing up or going along to watch I highly recommend it.

There is still time to apply. You can find more details here: Mentor Magic