KAFFEINE / Events

CHILD ENTREPRENEURS CELEBRATED AT KIDZANIA’S KIDPRENEUR FESTIVAL

1 November 2018

An audience of excited children is not what you would normally expect for an festival on entrepreneurship. But this is exactly what KidPreneur, the UK’s first entrepreneurship festival for children, aims to achieve: to excite and inspire children about starting their own business.

KidPreneur is run by KidZania, the transformational children’s attraction that enables children to run their own city. The KidZania city blends learning and reality with entertainment to provide children with the opportunity to explore a range of real-life activities in a variety of professions.  This broadens their awareness of the world of work and enhances skills directly applicable to the national curriculum.

We created KidPreneur to help KidZania further strengthen its leadership status in children’s attractions. KidPreneur also supports schools teaching business studies before it enters the national curriculum in year nine. It does this by enabling children, parents and teachers to learn directly from young CEOs and entrepreneurs about how children can start their own business and the skills they need to excel. 

The initiative has featured in The Financial Times and won praise from Rajesh Agrawal, The Deputy Mayor of London for Business.

This year’s speakers included: 

• Rose Dyson, an 18-year-old beauty entrepreneur who created Pura Cosmetics with a £25 investment and between school and homework. The business generates almost most half a million in annual sales, with national retailers knocking at her door.

• Tommy Mallet, CEO, Mallet Footwear: The 25-year-old ‘The Only Way Is Essex’ star created his footwear brand ‘Mallet’ now stocked in 190 stores across Europe. Tommy has overcome major struggles with Dyslexia to achieve his dream and works with schools to teac children that much can be achieved through determination and hard work, not just exam results.   

• Christian Lovdal, CEO, DinoByteLabs: Christian created indie gaming company Dinobyte Labs in his early twenties, with a drive to make games with diverse player experiences. 

• Jenk Oz, CEO, iCoolKid: Dubbed Britain’s youngest CEO by Business Insider at just 12 years old, Jenk founded the innovative children's digital platform, iCoolKid, with cool content designed by kids, for kids.

Kidpreneur was attended by 535 children and covered in 60 press stories across consumer and business press.