ESCP Business School’s London Campus hosted its annual summer edition of the JB Say Entrepreneurship Festival on 26th May 2021.
The Summer Edition is run exclusively by the London Campus as part of the MSc in Marketing & Creativity (ranked 5th by QS World University Rankings) and MSc in Marketing & Digital Media programmes.
Led by Prof. Davide Sola and Prof. Christian Linder, the vision of this event is to unite students, alumni, entrepreneurs, investors and potential customers to exchange ideas and learn from each other.
The 2021 Summer Edition
Open to all, this year’s festival saw more than 132 attendees during the fully-virtual event. Guests joined from France, Spain, United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico, Mauritius, Côte d'Ivoire, Poland, United States, Brazil, Netherlands, Venezuela, India, Lebanon and Hong Kong SAR.
Nine innovative teams showed how entrepreneurial thinking and problem solving could be applied to the current market, building customer-centric and sustainable value propositions.
The event started with the teams showcasing their ventures at a virtual simulation trade fair. Customers, investors and other guests were then able to discuss projects one-to-one at virtual stands, and the first prototypes (MVP - Minimum Viable Product) of each business were tested. With around 50% of new ventures failing due to lack of validating the initial key dimensions of the project, the students were working through this vital step to ensure the success of their projects. During the competition, all nine ventures presented their pitches to a panel of entrepreneurs and executives.
The Keynote Speaker
Prior to announcing the winners a keynote speech was given by Pierre Battu, Founder at Selavi Global and ESCP Alumnus (1999). After graduating from ESCP, Pierre discovered the world of entrepreneurship while working for an industrial paper company in New York City. Pierre created his first company with a business partner he met there; they acted as trading agents for French Textile producers, selling over three million French products to US clients in the first year. However, so-called “French-Bashing” in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks and the lack of French political backing for the invasion of Iraq by the US government created extreme instability on this market. Many French suppliers were forced out in an already declining market.
At that time, Pierre realised there was an opportunity to re-enforce the social links in the growing French Community living in the tri-state area. Thus, what was meant to become an international “social” brand and an engagement platform for affluent Millennials was born. The business quickly extended globally, and Selavi, an activation agency in charge of “Selling” the aggregated demography to premium brands, was created to monetise this platform further. With offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Jakarta, Selavi’s expertise focuses on content creation, education, experiential marketing and amplification strategies.
The winners of the Entrepreneurship Festival 2021 (Summer Edition)
Overall winner: MSc in Marketing & Digital Media – ‘MANING’
Sixtine De Misouard
Sally Jaeger
Priyanka Rambujoo
Marina Sanchez Gomez
Sara Tolardo
MSc in Marketing & Creativity – ‘For A Change’
Akshay Bhatia
Lea Bou Fadel
Antoine Malakhia
Nina Steinlechner
Isabela Tenório
MSc in Marketing & Digital Media - ‘SelfOut’
Floriane Blanc
Mateo Burdairon
Domitille Chignon
Kelly Fakhry
Emma Finkelstein
Testimonials from the Festival panellists
Carolina Decastri shared: “Extremely thrilled to have been part of the jury panellists in this summer’s ESCP Entrepreneurship Festival! It has been a wonderful learning and growth opportunity. Absolutely amazed by all the great ideas and concepts presented by the students - loved the enthusiasm and discussions!”
Veronica Wera Kiejnich added: “What a great event! Congratulations ESCP! I learned a lot myself - always on the lookout for opportunities to grow.”
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