Warwick Entrepreneurs society (WE) have just hosted one of the largest student-led summits in the UK ‘The Impact Summit 2023’: a two-day conference featuring accomplished industry leaders including the likes of Daniel Shakhani, the Co-founder of Salary Finance, Ed Greig, the Chief Disruptor at Deloitte, Yang Liu, the Founder of JustWears, and many more award-winning entrepreneurs.
A total of 20 speakers and trailblazers in their respective industries made the Summit a truly impactful, diverse, and insightful event for all attendees alike. This event, organised by WE’s Flagship Events team led by Ishwari Ade and Hao Li enabled students of all backgrounds to learn about the world of Entrepreneurship through a variety of sessions ranging from a sales workshop prepared by current BBC Apprentice candidate Avi Sharma to an inspiring keynote by Daniel Shakhani around his journey of co-founding Salary Finance and now working towards his goal of improving the financial wellness of a billion people.
Ultimately, these events fostered the opportunity for students to develop meaningful connections to enable them in sourcing internships and startup collaborations. Yet, the Impact Summit was just one example of the many opportunities that the society offers to their rapidly growing community. Warwick Entrepreneurs, currently led by Hassan El Gindy, Rafik El Mary and Ankit Mehta, is the largest entrepreneurial society at the University of Warwick and one of the biggest in the UK. The society aims to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs by providing them with the necessary tools and skills to materialise their goals and lead the entrepreneurial community into a new era of growth and transformation.
More recently, WE have also launched an incubator programme called ‘Xelerate’ in collaboration with various partners including Techandover offering the opportunity for student founders around the UK to pitch their startups for an investment pool of up to £1,000,000. This programme is complemented by 5 weeks of intensive workshops and mentorship that are designed to take students from ideation to pitching; all culminating with a Demo Day at the Shard involving a panel of angel investors, venture capitalists and industry experts.
All these activities come back to the society’s fundamental focus on the social aspects of entrepreneurship, hammering home the cliché but ultimate fact that above all “your network is your net worth”. This ethos is embedded throughout the culture of the society through weekly formal and informal social events organised for members to develop a sense of community among the WE family.
Warwick Entrepreneurs will continue to grow and adapt its offerings to change, as in the wise
words of Peter Drucker: ‘the best way to predict the future is to create it’.
Written by: Nabil Sheta
