Budding entrepreneurs are being encouraged to – quite literally – reach for the sky, with airborne mentoring from their business heroes.
The MADE Chopper was just one of the new features unveiled at the launch of MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival last night, ahead of the four day event in Sheffield in September.
167 miles away from the festival's host city, inside The Gherkin, an audience which included HRH The Duke of York, heard MADE chair Michael Hayman outline the plans for this year's event, which will be held at the expansive Sheffield City Hall – allowing up to 3,000 entrepreneurs to attend, after last year's venue was oversubscribed.
Up to 2,500 of those visitors are expected to take part in the main event on Thursday: MADE IN BRITAIN, which will include the launch of a new group named The Changemakers – the 50 entrepreneurs expected to change the face of British business.
Described as a 'Glastonbury for enterprise', visitors to the festival will also hear from more than 25 high profile speakers, including a range of past and present Dragons' Den panellists, candidates from The Apprentice, serial-entrepreneur and Red or Dead co-founder Wayne Hemingway and Lord Bilmoria, founder of Cobra beer.
There will also be fringe events across the city – from entrepreneurs speaking to school children to people selling their businesses – and on Wednesday 19 September Chatsworth House will host 'E20': an entrepreneur's summit hosted by the Duke of Devonshire, at which 20 respected business leaders will tackle the issue of youth unemployment.
Described by King of Shaves founder Will King as "the coolest place to be in September", Brendan Moffett, co-founder of the three-year-old festival, explained: "When we started this, it was a start-up. Last year it was like a high growth business.
"This year MADE has become the eminent festival for entrepreneurship in the UK."
Hayman added: "Entrepreneurs don't tend to get together very often and running your own business is a solitary thing. This is a national celebration of entrepreneurs."
Oli Barrett, a co-founder of StartUp Britain with Hayman, concluded: "Half of the country, when asked, want to start a business at some point and only 5% do.
"It's entirely possible that you will find a mentor there. People will find investors, because they'll find people who believe in them. But they'll also get an incredible network behind them."
MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival will take place in Sheffield from Wednesday 19 to Sunday 22 September. For more information, visit the MADE Festival website