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Alessandra Caggiano

Founder and Managing Director, e-Luminate Festivals
Stuck in traffic one day with her very young yet very successful boss, Alessandra decided she wanted success, too – but to get there, she also needed more confidence as well as strategic and business skills. She decided then and there to go back to university.

Alessandra’s previous studies in Italy had focused on the conservation of cultural heritage and arts management, but she now wanted to develop some business skills. Therefore she chose a brand-new Anglia Ruskin MA course called Cultures and Organisational Leadership. During her studies, she also began volunteering with Cambridge University Technology and Enterprise Club, and got the entrepreneurial bug: she started her first company just three months after handing in her MA dissertation!

Her businesses include e-Luminate Festivals, a community-interest company which creates collaborative events on the theme of light, making innovative technology and art accessible to all. e-Luminate was one of the first UK adopters of Kickstarter, the crowd-funding platform.

Alessandra also started Cambridge Event Management, specialising in corporate events and conferences which enable people to connect and sow the seeds of long-lasting business relationships.