Enterprise Masterclass with Lord David Puttnam

West Cork Schools Enterprise Programme

‘Daring to Be …. Creativity in Life and Business’
with Lord David Puttnam

Tuesday 20th October was an exciting day for Ms Brosnan and Ms Fleming’s TY enterprise students as they eagerly awaited to take part in a live master class delivered by Oscar winner Lord David Puttnam.  The event was organised by the West Cork Schools Enterprise Programme with the running theme ‘Daring to Be … Creativity in Life and Business’.

The event opened with a welcome from Kevin Curran (Head of Enterprise, West Cork Local Enterprise Office) who highlighted Lord Puttnams many successes in the film industry producing award winning films including The Mission Fire, Midnight Express, The Killing Fields, Bugsy Malone and West Cork’s favourite, the War of the Buttons.  Lord Puttnams films have won 10 Oscars and 25 BAFTAs and he is also a member of the House of Lords in Westminster.

Lord Puttnam is also chairman of Atticus Education an online education company which was founded in 2012 and delivers audio visual seminars to students globally.  Mr Curran also highlighted the importance of creativity and adaptability in business particularly during these testing times. 

Lord Puttnam delivered a truly inspiring master class regaling the audience with his passion and work in the film industry and life experiences that led to his success.  He spoke about his love of film from an early age where he spent most of his time enjoying the movies with friends.  At 16 he worked in an advertising agency which encouraged staff to be ‘fearless’ and to take chances to do things. 

Lord Puttnam’s masterclass focused on four topics including resilience, adapting to change, creativity/innovation and digital technology.  Some key messages he gave to students included ‘Creativity is a muscle and like any muscle you must work at it to improve’ and he identified that resilience was a key component in life no matter what you do:  ‘You have to be become extraordinarily resilient. You will have to deal with knockbacks’.

Other notable references made in his masterclass included:

·        ‘The only thing that is constant is change’ – Heralicus, 500 BC

·        ‘If it’s not true don’t say it, If it’s not right don’t do it’ – Marcus Aureluis

It was a very interactive event for students who had the opportunity to take part in a Q&A session with Lord Puttnam.  The event concluded with a closing comment from Lord Puttnam ‘There is nothing out there that is impossible if you really believe in yourself’.

A special thank you to Christine Duggan and Kevin Curran (West Cork Local Enterprise Office) for organising the event and providing our students with this fantastic learning experience.