Over a dozen student vendors are selling pots, plants, prints, jewellery, with live music and much more, it promises to be an epic event full of students supporting each other’s creative endeavours. Last year, under the name ‘the great student farmers market’ a similar venture reached the final of the Runway Awards competition, and the team are excited to have developed the concept further.
The Pocket Market event was born when four innovation students realised that there was an abundance of student creatives with hobbies at different commercial stages.
Some were making things for fun, others were selling their creations to their friends, and a few were selling to a wider audience. Most glaringly, many were unsure how or where to start selling. The existing options of Depop, eBay, Etsy and Facebook Marketplace seemed a bit intimidating.
The event coincides with wider support for art and craft business through Runway. Mark Neild, Programme Director of Runway said, “we’re exited to support Pocket Market and really want to see a good turnout on the 25th March”.
The Pocket Market team’s support goes well beyond just a platform for sales, their community encourages students take their first commercial steps. By recognising the value in these ‘micro-startups’ the pocket market offers something that existing accelerators and enterprise competitions, with their focus on the next Unicorn, don't. Giving students entrepreneurial experience through small scale projects develops the same drive and determination vital to any start-up but are grounded in the fun and joy of a creative community. Pocket market isn't about ambition so much as building the sales and creative confidence that students deserve.
Organisers of large markets in and around Bristol, like St Nicks and Taunton, are keen to facilitate a greater student vendor presence at their markets, the pocket market team plan to take some of their vendors to take part in these larger market events after their first event. The event on the 25th is an experiment to gauge what appetite exists for support for small hobby sized businesses. The team wants to understand what market vendors want and need, and whether they can attract customers to them? So come along and show your support, see how it works and maybe you will be inspired to start your own micro-business.