SIR Tom Hunter and other leading entrepreneurs will address hundreds of Scottish university students and business community representatives at an event taking place in Glasgow today to inspire and encourage students to start their own businesses.
Sir Tom will reveal his early experiences as an entrepreneur and top tips for success at the Scottish Institute for Enterprise (SIE) 2011 Student Enterprise Summit which is taking place in the city’s Royal Concert Hall.
Sharing their entrepreneurial insights on the podium with Sir Tom, is Mick Jackson, founder of social enterprise firm WildHearts, Oli Norman of PR and events firm, DaDa, Joanne McLeod of Brewhaha Tea, Gillian O’Neil of moviecom. tv.
Sponsored by Enterprise Rent-A-Car, the annual SIE Student Enterprise Summit is the main event in a full calendar of activity which SIE organise throughout the academic year to promote and foster an enterprise culture among higher education students in Scotland.
Explaining, SIE chief executive, Fiona Godsman, said: “The Summit aims to inspire higher education students throughout Scotland to discover and pursue their entrepreneurial talents.
“They will hear how some of Scotland’s most talented business leaders transformed a seed of an idea into an entrepreneurial success story and from some recent graduates who have benefited from the SIE enterprise programme and are already running their own fledgling start-up companies.”
She added: “It’s a fantastic day for the students, which brings together inspirational speakers, challenging activities and great networking opportunities with other like-minded young entrepreneurs, professional advisers, and business community representatives.”
During the day, the winners of the SIE New Ideas and New Ventures competitions will also be announced. The competitions attract hundreds of entries every year and over £10,000 in cash and in-kind business support will be awarded to the winners and runners-up.
“The competitions provide a focus for students who are interested in applying their enterprise skills and have become a launch pad for many successful business start-ups,” said Fiona Godsman.
“This year the emphasis was on innovative new ways of doing things rather than ‘me too’s’ and the judging panel was very impressed by the standard of entries this year, which was very high indeed.”
The overall winner of the New Ventures competition [also winning the Science, Technology and Engineering Business category] is University of Glasgow graduate, Paolo Di Prodi.
He founded Robomotic Ltd (www.robomotic.com) in 2008 which specialises in robotic technology for assisted living. The team are currently working on a wrist sensor which supports independent living and reduces the fear of falling by an estimated 90 per cent.
The sensor learns the walking pattern of the person wearing it and is able to discriminate between normal walking and abnormal patterns. If the wearer has a fall, the sensor will automatically alert a predefined list of emergency contact by email, sms or by phone.
Overall winner of the New Ideas competition is Heji Jeong from the Glasgow School of Art for ‘Follow Me!’ an innovative application which will allows tourists to create their own custom visitor experience.
Ends
Issued on behalf of SIE by Jen Nash, Panache Communications Ltd. Tel. 07971 466 220 e. jen@panachecommunications.co.uk. Alternatively please contact Scott McKellar at the Scottish Institute for Enterprise on t. 0141 330 8788 or visit www.sie.ac.uk
NOTES TO EDITORS
About SIE
Established in 1999, the Scottish Institute for Enterprise (SIE) aims to foster a culture of entrepreneurship among students in Scottish universities by equipping them with the enterprise skills, and providing the support and resources for students to start up and grow their own business or social enterprise.
Funded by the Scottish Funding Council and Scottish Enterprise, SIE works with all nineteen of Scotland’s higher education institutions to increase the number of students who consider entrepreneurship a real career option during and after their studies. A dedicated team of SIE advisors help students discover their entrepreneurial talent through hands-on learning opportunities, activities and events which are delivered through a network of student Interns and enterprise managers located on campus.
SIE also provides ongoing advice once a business has started trading and commercialisation support for ventures which have the potential to become high growth businesses. 15 per cent of students who contact SIE go on to form a business and of those, up to 20 per cent have the potential to be high growth. In the last ten years, SIE has supported the filings of 63 patents and 24 trademarks. Many companies that receive patent funding go on to develop international patent portfolios in Europe, Japan, USA and elsewhere.
SIE’s vision is to be recognised as experts in entrepreneurial education within the higher education sector in Scotland.
The New Venture category winners are :
- Winner of the Arts & Cultural category is ECA graduate, Aldo Kahane who has launched 1ina100, which provide a canvass to promote up-and-coming local artists in major cities. www.1in100.com
- Winner of the Product category is University of Glasgow graduate Sarah Findlay, who launched her own chocolate company last year called Miss Coco. www.misscoco.co.uk
- Winner for the E-Commerce/Retail category is University of Edinburgh graduate, Eimear O-Carroll, co-founder of Restored Hearing which specialises creating innovative solutions to auditory problems and promoting healthy hearing. www.restoredhearing.com
- Winner of the Service category is University of Stirling graduate Jodie Hughes who launched My Health Cards Limited, a company specialising in information cards for people with different allergies, conditions and intolerances. www.myhealthcards.com
- Winner for the Social Enterprise category is Edinburgh Napier University, Brian McNally who formed Youth Football Scotland, a not-for-profit social enterprise providing a one stop shop for anyone connected to the game of youth football Scotland-wide. www.youthfootballscotland.co.uk
The New Ideas category winners are:
The New Ideas category winners are Chris Whitehouse from the RSAMD (Arts and Cultural), David Murray and Euan McTurk from the University of Dundee (Sci/Tech/Engineering), Douglas Deans from the University of Glasgow (Product/Design), Katherine Jane McLean from the ECA (Services), and Simon Messenger and Gordon Cox from the University of Edinburgh (Social Enterprise).
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Contact: Jen Nash
Phone: 07971 466 220
Email: jen@panachecommunications.co.uk
Website: http://www.panachecommunications.co.uk
