Somerset Celebration of Entrepreneurship 2020

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FROM THE ...

HEADMASTER

Festivals are part of the fabric of Somerset College. For over 30 years, the College has been a leader in literature and performance festivals through Storyfest and the Somerset Festival for Young Performers. As the first independent coeducational school on the Gold Coast, Somerset was entrepreneurial before that term even existed. That spirit of problem solving and creative thinking was evident in every educational and commercial step we have taken over the past 37 years. We are a proud Gold Coast institution. In 2020, it is time for our fourth Celebration of Entrepreneurship! Through this initiative, the College will again foreground the culture of entrepreneurship for which the Gold Coast is famous. That we have been able to go ahead with the Festival in the midst of a global pandemic is remarkable. I thank the College Board and my College Leadership Team for their hard work and passion to make the Festival happen! 2020 has been a challenge, and it is the entrepreneurial mindset that will allow the Gold Coast and Somerset to overcome our current economic and health challenges and flourish into the future. We hope you enjoy the Celebration of Entrepreneurship. We are excited to welcome you to Somerset College and we are sure you will enjoy the variety of talented entrepreneurs who have generously given their time to the Gold Coast community.

Together, we will make the world a better place, one startling idea at a time.

Craig Bassingthwaighte Headmaster Somerset College

CHAIRPERSON

Since 2017, the Somerset Celebration of Entrepreneurship has developed a reputation as the premier youth entrepreneurship festival in Australia. 4 years since the Festival’s inception, we are still focused on bringing together the problem solvers, creative thinkers and innovators of the Gold Coast and Queensland. As the community is no doubt aware, it has been challenging to hold the Festival in 2020! However, now more than ever we must celebrate entrepreneurship because it will be the light that leads the Gold Coast and Australia out of the health and economic challenges that we currently face. It is with regret that we have had to make some hard decisions this year. We have had to reduce the number of external attendees and implement COVID-safe plans to keep our students and visitors safe. Thank you for embracing these necessary changes, and for understanding if your school and/or some of your students were unable to attend in 2020! We hope that 2021 will see us in a position to again make available the 12,000 tickets we can usually offer to our community. Thank you for working with us to ensure that entrepreneurship remains at the forefront of the Gold Coast and Queensland mindset. We must keep entrepreneurship front and centre to make sure that future generations enjoy the opportunities and benefits of an Australia with a strong and robust economy.

Dane Oman BBus(Hons), Bed(Hons), Med (eLearning) Chairperson Somerset Celebration of Entrepreneurship