With just over a week to go before Phonic Farm head to Exeter for the Young Enterprise Regional Finals final preparations are well underway.
Even though the students are busy revising for their mock examinations, a 2-hour meeting took place yesterday to ensure all aspects of the competition were covered and allocated to the team. Billy chaired the meeting and started by revisiting what was assigned of each Director over the half term break.
First on the agenda was the company report. As this needs to be submitted to the Regional board on Wednesday, it was vital that the comments Hannah, Lily and James made during half term were discussed and approved. The students ran over the comments they made and explained to the board of Directors where they had updated sections or added new content in. It was clear how far the students had progressed since the Area Finals as they had so much new content to include such as their partnership with Western Power Distribution and interest from Asdan, a local literacy charity and the National Literacy Trust. Once all the students outlined their amendments, the three of them sat down to combine their thoughts together and produce the final report.
The 4-minute presentation was the second point on the agenda. Mark, from Brand 51 who came in to do a workshop on branding for the students a matter of weeks ago, kindly agreed to brand their PowerPoint slides ahead of the finals however required content to do that. This reminder lead Billy and Max to highlight the work they had done over the break on literary statistics and research. With this new data found, Billy asked Max, James and Joe to revise the presentation by including this research and build upon the key points in the presentation they did at the Area Finals enabling a slick, up to date pitch.
This then left Billy, Tom and Lily to produce the script. As they had the bones of the script they produced for the finals writing the content was easy. During the meeting, they sat down to create a strong pitch. This pitch built upon the presentation they gave at the Area Finals, the feedback they received, incorporated the new research and included a range of customer comments from all 4 trade fairs showing their development and success.
It was a very productive meeting and provided they were on the right track. As the presentation was complete, Mark from Brand 51 has been given the task to design it and with the report finalised, Billy is doing the final proof read before submitting. As all these elements are ready, Phonic Farm will easily meet the deadlines set by the Regional Board. It is then just down to them to practice the pitch and make it top quality in order for them to do the best they can at the finals on Wednesday.
I wish them all the luck in the world and am delighted to be going with them to Exeter, so watch this space for continued updates on the day and hopefully another win for the West of England and Phonic Farm!