On Monday stress levels were high for all involved in Illuminate Mini Co as the Kildare Enterprise Board Regional Finals would take place later that day. To prepare ourselves we presented our product and speech to a fifth year class. They gave us lots of feedback and support :)
After we set up our display and suited up like professional businesswomen, we sat through 16 other presentations, and a very yummy lunch. Last but not least it was our turn. We stepped up onto the stage and took a look around. I don't know about everyone else, but I was shaking as I stepped up to the mic. I introduced my team and it took off from there..
The questions they asked us at the end of our presentation were terrifying! But luckily the other Illuminators had it under control and calmly showed the judges that nobody knows our product, the Illumakey, and our company better than we do! :)
As the judges deliberated we made some sales and caught up with our loyal supporters; Ms P, Ms B our school principal and Sive's Mam :)
There were 17 competing mini companies altogether and only 6 awards; Best Display, Best Business Report, Best Presentation, Best Innovation, Runner-Up and of course the Winner. The judges came back in and there was nervous whispers all over the room.
Although obviously hoping for the best, I didn't really expect much, especially because we were nervous about not having our own Managing Director there alongside us. Best Display was awarded to a watch company and Best Report Book was awarded to a web company. Best Presentation was then awarded to none other than Illuminate!! It was really exciting and we ran up to the stage to accept our prize!
This really proved to me that if you put in enough hard work and energy you can succeed, despite any hiccups you might have on the day! It was a really great day and I'm really proud of everyone in Illuminate! :D
I'm sure those fifth years never expected that award entering our school anyway :L
So we really need to get started on mini company. We haven't had a lot of Fresh ideas for our mini company to run with. We're not feeling very motivated or inspired :( We've got an idea about little lights now and we're getting information on that. We had our first Mini company module last Thursday and St. Wolstan's girls definitely mad an impression, especially with us taking up 5 rows and the other schools only 1 each. There were lots of great ideas flying around that morning. A group from another school were thinking of doing pocket socks and they had everything pretty much planned out and organised. It made me think I should really hurry up the deciding on the product process. The girls in my group elected me Managing Director of our company. I don't mind as long as we have a good product that we can put in lots of effort and work into. All the girls also got different roles in the company such as finance manager, production manager and sales and marketing manager.
What we've heard most about when Mini Company is brought up with past TYs, is that there are LOTS of fights. We haven't had one.. yet. I'm anxiously awaiting it just so we can get it over with and continue on! We went over to Meg's to see if we could get any work done, but we just ate AMAZING buns. Meg's a great baker :D We managed to write 3 sentences for our proposal and printed off our survey. If anyone out there's interested in getting a light to fit around your keyhole, to solve your ongoing problem in the dark, contact us at illuminateminico@gmail.com .
