Neil Bevan was recently invited to be Alumni Speaker at the Young Enterprise Celebration Dinner at the Park House Hotel in Telford on 6th May.

Young Enterprise is a National education charity founded in 1963 to forge links between schools and industry. Its mission is to inspire and equip young people to learn about business and entrepreneurship.

Addressing 200 delegates from the world of business and education, including representatives from 12 of the best Young Enterprise Companies from Shropshire Schools, Neil spoke about his experience in being part of a Young Enterprise company 25 years ago during his time in the Lower Sixth form at Newtown High School.

Neil's experience of Young Enterprise was influential in his decision to go into business at a young age. He took part in a company programme in 1984, designing and publishing a school 'rag mag' called Grapevine, and, amazingly, still has a copy of the very first edition, which he proudly showed to delegates who were interested to hear comments on the computer page such as 'computers are becoming increasingly popular now', and 'most of those in the lower school will probably be involved in computers at some point'.

That was Neil's first real foray into commercial graphic design, and the magazine was put together with hand drawn illustrations, letraset transfers for the headlines and an old IBM golfball typewriter. How things have changed in the last 25 years!

Neil recounted the lessons learned about selling, deadlines, quality issues and people skills, and how that seminal experience influenced his later business life.

The other guest speaker at the Dinner was Mo Chaudry, who appeared on Channel 4's 'Secret Millionaire'. Mo gave an inspirational speech .

For more information on Young Enterprise visit www.young-enterprise.org.uk