Hey guys, here it is, the official WIN at EPOCH 2007 video. It’s about 20 minutes long, but it’s totally worth watching the whole thing as it has some classic moments in it:
To view the video full screen, click here, otherwise just hit play below:
Archive for the 'EPOCH 2007' Category
It feels somewhat surreal being back at University. Saturday was mostly about sleep, Sunday was about trying to get back to normal and catching up with friends, and today has been a hefty dose of reality by sitting in lectures learning about networks and protocols.
I want to do EPOCH again now. I want my life to be EPOCH. I want to spend extortionate amounts of money paying at London prices. I want to sleep in a tiny room with four other guys, I want to run around London like a loony selling coffee - because it was all so much FUN!
EPOCH - thank you!!!
So it was; EPOCH 2007 came to an end… well, on Thursday actually, but the whole Worcester adventure was over at around 11 last night.
I don’t really know what to add to this blog that the other guys haven’t said already… so I suppose I’ll just list my thanks and highlights.
I want to thank all the folks at LSE first of all; despite certain organisational niggles, I had the best week of my university career (which, incidentally, is to end in the next couple of weeks) and most of that was due to the gang - in particular Su Ying, Stephanie Cheung, Lana Kapikyan and of course the head honcho, Ricky Patel. You guys were awesome just to think about undertaking such an event, and the fact that you did it has filled me with both admiration and an intense desire to do the same thing at Worcester.
My favourite bunch of new people in the world: Jimmy, Louise, Frazer, Diana, Adanna, Mittul, Toby, Roshni and the man, the myth and the legend that is Dan Dash. Here’s to lots of future drunken reminiscing between Strathclyde, Kingston and Worcester.
And finally, the team. Matt, you’re a born leader. Didn’t let anything get too problematic, took everything in your stride, all of that. Plus, you get points for saying dead nice things about me in your blog post. Flattery goes a long way. Daniel, your snoring was beyond compare; you also kept me in supplies for most of the week, and you’re generally awesome. Paul’s the sanest person ever. Totally fantastic human being, pranks on Matt are never going to get old. And of course, Judith, the most organised person on the planet, and shares the accolade of “EPOCH Eye Candy”. She shares such accolade with me. Seriously, my hair is awesome. Sorry for winding you up so much, Judith.
And so onto highlights. Obviously, my main highlight is Thursday’s market stall challenge, but not for the reasons you may think. Having a market stall 100% dedicated to me and my “art” was just overwhelming, but I loved Thursday for the atmosphere. It was the end of the week, and everyone was in it just for a good time. Course, we did our job, and I got a bit stressed out in the middle, but it was just fantastic. I can seriously see myself being a stall owner professionally. Close links to the city, cheap stall rent, very… eclectic surroundings, and just this buzz throughout the whole day. Would do it again without a second thought.
And that’s it from me. Hope you’ve all enjoyed these blogs of ours. Here’s to EPOCH!
Oh, and just to let you know, you can see all of my photos here
Hey All
Me again, We arrived safely back in Worcester at 11pm last night. I slept for a comfortable 12 hours this morning, to recuperate after a very intense week!!
This week has not only tested my skills and attributes as ‘Team Leader’ but has tested me physically and mentally. It has been a very tough week, with no personal time to myself, which is a first for me. The week has been jam packed with challenges and events hosted by LSE (London School of Economics) to test people’s limits, which has been not easy. EPOCH has been an experience of a lifetime and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with my colleagues Cos, Paul, Judith & Daniel.
EPOCH has taught me valuable lessons in many areas and will no doubt have a positive impact on my CV. Team Worcester overall came Second place in the ranking system but came First (in my view) in team cooperation and passion.
The challenges that we faced during the heats and finals included, Negotiation, Sales, Marketing & Strategy. These tested numerous skills and pushed us to our limits in every way. Even though the challenges were all stressful and hard to complete at times, I really enjoyed pushing myself to achieve the end result.
One thing that I have not mentioned about this competition is the amount of times I have laughed!! I have never laughed as much in my life, with comments and innuendos flying around all week, mainly from Comedian Daniel!! This has kept my spirit high and kept me sane!!
EPOCH has not only tested me, it has introduced me to 40+ people who I thought I would never become friends with!! During the day we were competitors but once the day turned into night, we were like best mates, going out together and having a laugh! This social aspect has given myself and my team contacts for life that may become useful in the near future. A big shout out to Teams Strathclyde & Kingston for whom we became very close to and wish to keep in contact with.
I would like to personally thank the University of Worcester for sponsoring us in this event and fully supporting us throughout the competition. Marilyn Hunt, Andy Corcoran, Kat Jones, Helen Matthews, David Green, Sian Hobday, Pat Finch & Julia Gidney have all contributed to Worcester’s success at EPOCH and I hope you will continue to do so, upon my graduation in May.
I am now going to write what each member (in my view) has has contributed to the team and to our success.
Matt - I believe that I have led this team as best to my ability, with not pressurising people (too much) and taking a step back if things got a bit heated. Personally I feel that I have added attributes such as creativity, confidence, effective communication and warmth to the team. Ironically I am one of the youngest members of the team, which people sometimes are quite stunned to comprehend, but I feel that I managed my team very well and have gained respect because of it.
Daniel - He has contributed a lot to this team! Considering he is only a first year, Daniel has many skills that have proved useful in most of the challenges, especially the marketing challenge. His witty comments and statements have given the team much to laugh about and has kept the team spirit alive. His ability to explain things at a level that everybody can understand is a quality that most people to do not possess for which is a credit to Dan as a person. He also recognised the need to take a break (sharpening our axes) which defiantly helped us in winning the marketing task and has taught me a valuable lesson, thanks Daniel!!
Judith - I have never met such an organised person!! With Judith being the only female in the team, we needed her to keep us boys in line and she did this brilliantly. Her time management is precise and reminded all of us to take a deep breath and not to take things to heart. Also she deserves an award for putting up with many of our immaturities. Judith has contributed a lot to our team and without her, we would have fallen apart. She looked after us boys when we were down, which is needed in a competition like this, so thank you Judith for looking after us!!
Cos - I think the person that will take the most from this competition is Cos, he has realised that his art work, is simply not worthless but can be possibly a way to creating his own business. We sold £210 worth of his artwork at Camden Market on Thursday, which shows he has a real talent. Cos not only helped us come 2nd in the Strategy task but contributed his ability to translate an idea and turning it into reality. Cos has learnt more than many from this competition and I hope that it has helped him in realising he has a real skill and talent. Also thanks for a few giggles along the way Cos, you and Daniel should be a comedy double act!!
Paul - This man has really put a lot into this team. Paul is a very sociable guy and would talk to anybody; he contributed heavily in the negotiation & sales challenges as he can ‘charm the birds out of the trees’. This quality is needed in any business and will help in any career he chooses to follow. Another aspect of Paul is his humour; he has played many pranks on people through this competition, which has defiantly put a smile on all our faces. Not only this, but he is very passionate as well as kind, for which makes him a very unique individual. I hope that Paul will seriously consider taking the ‘torch’ from me and leading WIN next year as he has all the qualities needed to run a society like WIN.
Also a big THANK YOU to Lisa, Lee & Tonia who have supported us all the way through this competition!! Without you guys we would not have been a huge success!! Not only have they offered mental support via the telephone, but came down on Thursday at Camden Market and gave us their full support!! So thank you all very much!!
Also my parents have been nothing but supportive towards me and I would like to personally thank them!!
That’s enough from me!!
Speak soon!!
Matt x
Although second place out of seven teams isn’t bad - I feel personally that we’ve come first. But not just team Worcester, all the teams that were taking part, and even the LSE themselves. I feel this because we’ve all come away with are some valuable lessons.
I would like to tell a story. It’s actually a story I told Matt on Monday night after I remembered being told it a couple of years ago:
In northern Europe they host an annual lumberjack competition. The task at hand is to cut down as many trees using a standard double hand axe as possible. At 8:00 in the morning a whistle blew and all the lumberjacks run off into the woods and start frantically cutting down trees - that is all except one, who instead chooses to sit down for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes he stands up and gets to work - but only for an hour, at which point he sits down for another 10 minutes. This continued for the rest of the day, with an hours work, then 10 minutes of sitting down. At the end of the day another whistle is blown, all the lumberjacks return to base camp, and their wood is weighed.
Now here is the interesting thing, not only did the one who kept sitting down have the most wood - but he had TWICE as much as his nearest competitor. Why do you think this is?
Because he sat down to sharpen his axe!
This is what I learnt on Monday. We did really badly because we rushed off without breakfast, didn’t stop for lunch, and were active for the whole day - we didn’t sharpen our axes. Now even if we had stopped for breakfast and lunch, I doubt we would have done that much better - but I think we would have had a better day ourselves just out of the enjoyment value. After this, I told Matt the story above, and we changed our strategy - we stopped for breakfast and lunch, and it’s quite clear that it worked because of coming 1st and 2nd in the following challenges.
I’ve also learnt that you need to play to people’s strengths when working as a team. A perfect example of this is on Tuesday when Matt spent 45 minutes on the phone to the Orange business desk sorting out which package we were going to produce, Judith did all our research on the competition, and Cos, Paul and I worked on the actual adverts and the presentation - all sticking to what we were good at - and once again, the fact we came 1st in that challenge shows a lot (plus, I just like saying “we came 1st” a lot).
I’ve also learnt various other bits about the business world, such as if you’re selling a product, you don’t sell the product, you sell yourself, and that research goes a LONG way - but I feel the two above are the most valuable, and should I ever get the change to lead a team, I hope I remember these lesions.
It’s official - WIN - representing the University of Worcester - have come second place in the EPOCH 2007 event. That means we’re better than FIVE other universities!!! (Not to mention the ones who were eliminated from the regional heats, and the ones too scared to even turn up).
Alas, we’re not better than Kingston - the final winners - but we’ve grown to become very good friends with them over the past four days, and can’t think of any team we’d rather win.
Not only did they win the total event, but they won BOTH Monday’s and today’s challenges - not as easy task!
We’re a little upset with the mathematics skills of the EPOCH guys however - officially we were joint second with the Stockholm team, each obtaining 14 points - but if you add up the scores from each individual day - we’ve actually got 15 (and Stockholm have 14)… But we’re not going to make a fuss about it - we’ve beaten the winners from last year, and that’s all we need to know!
About today - we were running a market stall in Camden Lock Market selling ‘Cos Art’. Cos, or ‘The Artist’ as he was known on the day, spent the whole day doodling on card and selling commissions to people for unique works of art. But they are more than just doodles, they are wonderfully creative works of art which you can view by visiting his gallery.
Cheap as chips to produce, but selling at a premium because of their ‘uniqueness’, ‘creativity’, and ‘individuality’ (my buzz words for selling to the punters). We were very much selling The Artist - and we feel that’s what helped us to do as well as we did (second place in the third challenge).
I would like to send a huge thank you to the guys at LSE (who are just students themselves remember) for organising EPOCH! They have been running around just as much as we have this week (but at least they got to sleep in their own beds). I learnt a lot from the event, made some friends, and I can’t wait to go back next year!
I feel a bit embarrassed - today I had a hissy fit.
It was over a tiny detail in our action plan to win tomorrows challenge (we’re doing a two-day challenge, today was planning - tomorrow is action - more on the event tomorrow) but it was out of place in regards to my (maybe selfish) vision for what we was doing.
It’s OK now - it was the second I realised I was being an idiot, but only after 5 minutes of ranting!
I went outside for some air shortly after - only to be followed a few minutes later by Judith to make sure I was OK (thank you Judith). The team is strong however, and it’s all forgotten about.
Anyway, back to action - we’ve got a killer concept for tomorrow and I can’t wait to tell you all - but the walls have ears, and I don’t want to give anything away to our competitors - so if you don’t mind waiting another 24 hours, I’ll tell all soon.
Tonight has been good, Paul, Cos and I all went to Planet Hollywood to drink cocktails - obviously choosing the tourist option of going for the more expensive ones which include a free Planet Hollywood glass to keep - these are now officially our trophies for winning yesterday!
Anyway - it’s bedtime for this solder - I’ve got to get up early tomorrow to help run a market stall in Camden Town - so please feel free to come and visit us if you’re in the area!!!
All the members of WIN would like to make a very special shout out and thank you to Katia - the manager of the Nandos resturant we visited to celebrate. She was a wonderful host and we thank her from the bottom of our empty pockets!
Hey you guys. Just thought everyone is leaving a post so might as well get involved. Today we won the marketing challenge. an area which i felt quite strong about. Unlike yesterday this required more skill and less luck. The team worked really well together. It’s almost as if each of our weaknesses, are another member’s strength.
To me personally i felt i really achieved. Not only within the challenge and the team but for myself, having created the strap lines which the judges complimented as one of our strongest stengths. Everything which i wanted to be good at, i shined. As did all the team.
The marketing challenge really stretched not only me but also Daniel as we argued over the best approach. In the end we decided to use both, not even combining them. Side by side these 2 ideas really made the campaign as strong as it was. Finally a chance to put 3 years of a degree into pratice. Although the campaign would have been nothing without Matt and Judith’s extensive research and Cos’s creative input, Daniel was the star of the day in my opinion. He really shined and surprised us all with his confidence, ideas and his ability to answer questions set to test the quality of the project .
The team is undoubtably the best
D’you know what’s really cool? Being told that you’ve won the marketing challenge to a unanimous vote and hearing everyone gasp because - let’s face it - here’s this university based in a city that no one else has never heard of kicking the crap out of specialist entrepreneurial societies. It’s just lovely to hear the resentment in those voices.
That is all.
Cos xxx