By Page Wood • August 13, 2013

A few weeks ago, I was asked by Steve Sue if I wanted to serve as a “mentor” during Camp BizGym and to help create some videos. Little did I know, I was about to go through one of the most rewarding experiences since moving out here to Hawaii.

“Putting the Fun in CrowdFunding”

This year’s edition of Camp BizGym was created to encourage young students to become entrepreneurs. Day one walked kids through the process of coming up with a business concept, and taking that concept to the market via crowd-funding. On Day two, all of the kids had already split up into groups based on their business ideas, and it was time to create some videos showcasing the various products. Day two was scheduled as the first day of video shooting, which was my cue. I was paired with a young group of kids who had formed team Omeyogi.

Team Omeyogi came up with a concept for a durable cooler to safely transport food on airplanes. The kids on the team wanted to make sure that when they travel to see their aunties on the neighboring islands, their Maunapuas are able to make the trip safely. For those who aren’t from Hawaii, A Maunapua is a fresh pastry that doesn’t hold up well without sturdy packaging. With the “Omeyogi Box,” the kids could safely deliver fresh Maunapuas to their aunties and uncles across the state of Hawaii.

For the first day, I mostly tried to nudge the kids in the right direction with their video planning. We ended up shooting a bit on their iPhones, but mostly we just worked on condensing their ideas into a solid pitch. On the following day, I brought my DSLR Setup and got the kids rolling with some real video. This was the first video that I had shot in over a year. Needless to say, I was stoked.

After the cameras came out, I spent the next three days of camp helping numerous groups through the process of filming, editing, and exporting. These kids were all so stoked on their ideas, and so eager to learn. I helped one group shoot a lego stop motion video, something neither they nor I had ever attempted. The stop motion didn’t quite go as planned and took us down to the wire as far as time goes, but it turned out pretty great.

To keep a long story short, I had only planned to be at Camp BizGym for two days. Those kids were so much fun, and so inspiring that I just had to come back for the rest of the week. I had such an awesome time! Camp BizGym took me back to Video Productions in High School, which I should probably attribute my creative career-path to. The time that I spent working on videos in high school with freedom to create just about whatever came to mind, truly inspired me to unlock my creative spirit. Hopefully I helped a few kids unlock some of their own creativity at Camp BizGym this year. And who knows, maybe some of those crowd funding videos will unlock some amazing businesses for those kids. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Check out the Camp BizGym website for more!

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