A first taste of mince pies with the Virgin Unite board today, as we thanked them for their support in helping us to begin our Open Talent journey.
As always with such events, it’s the young people who rightly steal the show. Not because they are under the spot light to talk about their disadvantages, at least not with Open Talent. Today was all about recognising human achievement and potential. Of celebrating how we can harness the talents of all young people by working with them through the right investment. Such as the young person who wants to set up a thai boxing gym to work with those who have been bullied so they too can find their confidence in life. The capacity to turn challenging experiences into inspiring solutions is what drives us to make Open Talent fly. This really is a matter of shaping the future through individual lives.
Today was also a reminder of what happens when you give young people the space to be themselves, when their natural qualities for creativity and daring come effortlessly to the fore. No one else in the room would have plucked up the courage to ask Ben and Jerry to name an ice cream after them. But a young person did. We miss that too often.
As always with such events, it’s the young people who rightly steal the show. Not because they are under the spot light to talk about their disadvantages, at least not with Open Talent. Today was all about recognising human achievement and potential. Of celebrating how we can harness the talents of all young people by working with them through the right investment. Such as the young person who wants to set up a thai boxing gym to work with those who have been bullied so they too can find their confidence in life. The capacity to turn challenging experiences into inspiring solutions is what drives us to make Open Talent fly. This really is a matter of shaping the future through individual lives.
Today was also a reminder of what happens when you give young people the space to be themselves, when their natural qualities for creativity and daring come effortlessly to the fore. No one else in the room would have plucked up the courage to ask Ben and Jerry to name an ice cream after them. But a young person did. We miss that too often.
As for myself, it’s the first Open Talent event when I actually really really needed a drink of coffee to wake up – and there was none in sight. The only coffee in the room was in my powerpoint slides, and the energy of minds lit up by what’s possible. In the end, that was more than enough.
Back in the office, looking through the outline for our new Open Talent qualities framework, it feels more like the beginning of the year ahead than the end of a long year.
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