Percy Emmett

"Percy Emmett has worked as an enterprise trainer on two of Birmingham City University's NESTA Insight Out programmes. Percy key strengths are his passion for developing new ideas with businesses and that his commitment to the programme and the individuals always goes beyond what is required. He is a great team player and works well with the project management team."

• Sara Harris, Senior Lecturer in Digital Media
• Birmingham City University

"Percy has bought knowledge, enthusiasm and a high degree of skill to his mentoring of the Makers and Shapers programme. He looked at the potential of each of the participants and worked with them accordingly, always with the same sort of awareness about their potential and markets. Very inspiring."

• Rhonda Wilson MBE, Creative Director
• Rhubarb-Rhubarb

"Percy Emmett has the combination of skills, passion and knowledge of both business support and industry awareness to be able to deliver very high quality business support provision. His ability to translate the language of business support in an engaging way for creative practitioners has been inspirational."

• Lara Ratnaraja, Sector Manager Creative
• Cultural and Digital, Business Link

"Percy was willing to share his expertise with the rest of the university, and as a result of his reputation on the Insight Out programme, was able to deliver additional sessions for other UCE Birmingham courses. Because of his open and approachable nature, any problems that arose during the course were easily solved. Had we been working with a lead trainer who wasn't as personable and dedicated as Percy, the programme would not have been as successful as it was. It was a pleasure to work with him and we're looking forward to working with him again in the future!"

• Rebecca Birch, Project Co-ordinator
• Screen Media Lab, Birmingham City University

"Percy's enigmatic character, coupled with his experience in creative business start-up, has made him a real personality and feature of our programmes. He quickly establishes a very robust and reciprocal relationship with learners, which I feel sure goes a long way towards securing our high student retention levels. Percy is an asset to the organisation and has helped us expand and diversify the services and training we can offer by utilising his expertise."

• Annie Laughrin, Project Manager
• West Midlands Creative Alliance

"Percy has been working at ECCA (Enterprise Centre for the Creative Arts) at the University of the Arts London since July 2006, to embed the student advisory service at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design. He has been instrumental in pushing the service forward, engaging both course directors and students, delivering advice sessions and contributing to event topics. His expertise in finding opportunities, to integrate ECCA at a college level has been highly valued. As a result of Percy's consultancy work, we're now able to introduce a dedicated part-time post to manage the service and take it to its next level. I hope that there are opportunities to work with Percy again in the future."

• Alison Coward, Lead Officer
• ECCA, www.ecca-london.org

"Percy's enthusiasm and knowledge made the Insight Out programme a huge success in Cornwall, so much so that we'll be running the programme again. The delegates also found, and are still finding, that Percy's mentoring ‘post-programme' helped them a great deal in setting up in business, or in some cases completely re-thinking their ideas and their approach to bringing those ideas to market."

• Jono Wardle, Business Fellow for Advertising and Design
• University College Falmouth

"Turn such a conventional course upside down and you get Insight Out. It started with the fun bits, then the interesting bits, got me thinking and then threw in some scary bits. It continually built my skills, motivation and confidence. Percy was legendary. His mix of enthusiasm, kindness and a lethal ability to hit the nail on the head with every question added 110% to the course. When it comes to confidence building, Percy is definitely the Gok Wan of the creative business world!"

• Sam Lanyon
• Insight Out participant

"This course would be a mere shadow of itself if Percy wasn't involved. He constantly proved himself to be both professional and sincere - a tough call when dealing with issues that are very important to people (and things that they have invested so much time, money and energy into). He went beyond the call of duty to really get to know our particular business in an effort to make sure that the advice and mentoring we received was as applicable to us as possible. Percy was by far the biggest asset to the course, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him as a mentor."

• Richard Wilson
• Mobile Pie

"I thought we'd be sitting taking notes on ‘how to run a business', but the programme isn't like that at all. Being made to do exercises that made us think about ourselves, our ideals, our motivations and the impact of our businesses felt much more valuable to me than simply being told how a business functions."

• Holly McIntyre
• Insight Out participant

"Percy is an excellent advisor and has a great knowledge of the creative environment. From the very beginning I felt I could talk to him freely about any worries affecting my progress. Everybody's different and we don't all relate to the same teaching methods, but Percy's personal skills are fantastic and his one-to-ones really helped each individual."

• Gemma Wilson
• Product Designer

"The course has been very useful. It deconstructed our preconceptions and forced us to look at our business in both emotional and analytical perspectives. Percy is very supportive and positive, and also offers help beyond the duration of the course."

• Jayne Tarasun
• Insight Out participant

"The course went much further than any other business course I have done. The creative thinking that the exercises involved was fun, but at the same challenging and very effective. As a group we were very diverse, but Percy seemed to be attuned to our different ideas and requirements. His informal training style created a relaxed but very productive working environment."

• Sarah Nelson
• Insight Out participant

"Working in groups to explore the modeling of our businesses was an excellent way of understanding the ideas and principles of creative business, learning from each other and exploring our business ideas. Percy was able to help me with in the development of my ideas, to trust myself, and to celebrate the uniqueness of my ideas."

• Andrew Holdsworth-Wild
• Insight Out participant

"Percy was a great asset to the course, and I really can't imagine the course without him. I was amazed at just how easily he was able to take on such a diverse group and their variety of skills, and understand their individual needs as people and their businesses."

• Jessica Mackinnon
• Insight Out participant, Bristol

"One thing I think everybody loved about the programme was our team leader, Percy Emmett. He's completely cut out for the job as motivator, mentor and councillor and is open, approachable and friendly. He's perceptive to other people's needs, and I really valued the advice he gave me."

• Kacha Bilek
• Insight Out participant, Bristol

"Percy is the most inspiring and caring man I have ever met. He has been the shining light that kept us all going through the challenging parts of the programme. Percy pulled the information out of us in a supportive and enlightening manner, and made us think about the bigger picture all of the time and how we fit into it. He gave 200% at all times and I really hope that we get to work together again in the future."

• Philiy Page
• Insight Out, Bournemouth

"Percy Emmett's unique approach in business training has had an exceptional impact on how I approach and carry out my creative activities. As a result of his guidance I am now better equipped in business transactions, and more professional in my daily endeavours."

• Dr Mitra Memarzia
• Creative Producer