Budding Rockstars
An educational one-day conference aimed at promoting tech entrepreneurship as a viable career path
Budding Rockstars
Budding Rockstars is an educational one-day conference aimed at promoting tech entrepreneurship as a viable career path. The event is typically organised to coincide with Global Entrepreneurship Week, between late October and early November. The fourth iteration was held on the 8th of November 2018.
The conference comprises inspiring TED-style talks by top local tech entrepreneurs and business leaders, as well as animated panel discussions. These are followed by hands-on entrepreneurship workshops led by the Edward de Bono Institute and a pitching competition for participating students. The event also allocates stage-time for the promotion of support and learning initiatives available in Malta, thus offering a platform for young people to discover what the Maltese startup ecosystem has to offer to budding entrepreneurs.
The target audience for Budding Rockstars is final year secondary school students from all Maltese state, private and church schools. The event is positioned as the national conference on tech entrepreneurship for Malta’s future tech entrepreneurs. Schools are also urged to nominate educators to attend the event. By attending, educators can gain novel insights and seed the lessons learned in their respective school’s entrepreneurship education programmes.
The ultimate objective of the event is to expose students to the exciting world of entrepreneurship and to instil a yearning to change the world through technology-driven innovation. To date, 600 students and 200 accompanying educators experienced Budding Rockstars. The event leveraged the insight and experience of more than 30 speakers, all successful entrepreneurs and leaders in the growing domain of technology business.
Over the years, the Budding Rockstars stage showcased activities such as the Junior Achievement Young Enterprise programme, MITA’s YouStartIT programme, the TAKEOFF Business Incubator, the Edward de Bono Institute’s academic programme, the ZAAR crowdfunding platform, and campaigns such as BeSmartOnline, amongst others.
In 2019, Budding Rockstars was recognised by the Commerce Department as the winning entry in Section A under the National Enterprise Support Awards 2019, for “Promoting the Entrepreneurial Spirit”.
