News and Events
Entrepreneurs flourish at Portsmouth
Wed, Jun 3, 2009
The winners beat over two dozen challenge hopefuls who entered the competition in one of three categories - arts, technology and services.
An educational board game designed to explore the subject of sex and relationships with young people scooped the top prize in the service category for Social Work student, Leila De Lara. The twenty-one year old had the idea while volunteering as a youth worker after discovering how few resources are available to teach youngsters about personal relationships.
She spotted a gap in the market after realising that Personal Health and Social Education (PHSE) would be on the National Curriculum from 2011 and teachers and youth workers would need educational tools.
The other first prizes went to Kelly Blampied and Craig Atherton who won in the Arts category for their design and screen-printing company and Carl Waddington who grabbed the top prize in the technology category with his product for producing sustainable energy.
Winners received a cheque for £2000 and runners up received £750 towards taking their ideas to market.
The student entrepreneurs gathered at ‘Action Stations’ in Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard for the award ceremony which was attended by local businesses and this year’s guest speaker, James Max, from the first of the BBC’s series ‘The Apprentice’.
He told the students that although they were facing a difficult climate, many successful businesses had been launched in tough times including the iPod and Richard Branson’s Virgin. He told organisers that he’d been surprised and impressed with the standard of entry.
Runners-up in the competition demonstrated the diversity of ideas and included a high security bicycle pannier, a fast-food delivery service and a brand of hip hop clothing
A design for carrying fruit without bruising it which encourages people to eat their ‘five-a-day,’ won Tom West £250 in the Rising Star category.
The Enterprise Challenge Awards are organised by the University’s Centre for Enterprise which provides advice, support and mentoring to enterprising students helping them learn and succeed in entrepreneurship through developing enterprise skills and experience.
Enterprise Development Manager Tony Greatbach, thanked the sponsors for their generous donations towards the combined prize pool and without which the awards would not be possible.
Sponsors are:
- Business Link
- Coffin Mew LLP
- De La Rue International Plc
- Portsmouth City Council
- EADS Astrium
- Pall Europe
- Lloyds TSB
- RTL Games
- PricewaterhouseCoopers
- Hampshire Economic Partnerships
- Elliott Group
- Portsmouth Technopole
- Matchtech Group Plc
Full list of winners and runners up
Service-Based
- Runner up (£750) - Lee Murwira, Hip hop/urban wear
- Winner (£2000) - Leila De Lara - educational board game
Arts-Based
- Runner up (£750) - Jordon Boon - hand-printed limited edition garments printer, printing the best local art which is submitted to the website: www.individualthreads.co.uk
- Winner (£2000) - Kelly Blampied and Craig Atherton - The Four Seven Fives is a design company with an open access screen printing studio
Technology Based
- Runner up (£750) - Nicholas Sutton - bicycle panniers ‘Tour Box Pannier’ which can be securely locked onto a specially designed pannier rack
- Winner (£2000) - Carl Waddington - A micro generation product aimed at the housing market focused on sustainable energy production
Rising Stars
- Winner (£750) - Samantha Raymond - a children’s educational card game called spot to spot, which develops vital skills such as visual discrimination and memory/matching skills. At the same time the card game helps to enhance and develop their knowledge and understanding of the natural world
- Runner up (£250) - Tom West - make having to eat your five-a-day a little less boring, whilst cushioning whatever marvellous piece of fruit you have chosen to nourish yourself with against the knocks it may suffer as it tumbles in your bag or briefcase. This product also doubles as an aid to build a fun relationship between children and healthy eating, as it encourages them to handle fruit (and eat more fruit often)