LSBU celebrates enterprising students and graduates
Through Make It Happen and Celebrate Enterprise, LSBU celebrates the ingenuity, creativity and drive of its entrepreneurial students and graduatesLondon South Bank University (LSBU) celebrated the successes of its most enterprising students and graduates through the Make It Happen competition. Make It Happen is a competition for LSBU students and recent graduates who have the ambition, creativity and drive to succeed as entrepreneurs or freelancers. LSBU gives them the chance to win up to £2,000 and on-going support to take their enterprise to the next level.
The annual Celebrate Enterprise event gives students and graduates an opportunity to showcase their innovative businesses and projects, and is also a fantastic opportunity for them to meet and network with LSBU entrepreneurs, successful start-ups and local businesses.
The competition took place at the Clarence Centre for Enterprise and Innovation, and saw more than 30 students and graduates take part.
During the day a pop-up market was held at the Clarence Centre where cakes, sweet treats, arts and crafts, handmade beauty products and free mini massages from the Confucius Institute were available. The NatWest Business Bus was also on site to give free advice to local businesses.
In the evening, the winners of the Make It Happen competition were announced and students were given their Certificates in Enterprise for attending enterprise events throughout the year.
Winners from the competition were:
- Freelance Category: Growing Pains Theatre Company - Emma Grafham, Rachel Buckley, Esmée Gallagher and Maizy Wright (four 3rd year Drama and Performance students). They have won £1,000 and six months' office space to help them to start their freelance careers with a show at the Fringe in Edinburgh.
- Idea Category: Wunderkind Baby Sensory App - Charyl’s Pitts-Howard (Occupational Therapy alumna). Charyl's idea is for a baby sensory app. She has won £1,000 of funding, Institute of Directors membership and six months' office space in the Clarence Centre to help her to turn her idea into a viable business.
- Start-up Category: Falcon DHQ - Tom Williams (Digital Media Arts Alum) and Ben Weld. They have won £2,000 to invest in their business, Institute of Directors membership and 12 months' office space.
On the day, Will Akerman, Managing Director and Founder of MyKindaFuture (also a Technopark tenant), delivered an inspiring keynote speech.
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Gurpreet Jagpal, Director for Research, Enterprise and Innovation LSBU, said:
"Research, Enterprise and Innovation (REI) is at the very heart of everything LSBU does. We want to support students, graduates and alumni and established businesses by helping them to innovate and grow by accessing the wealth of expertise at LSBU.
"The Celebrate Enterprise and Make It Happen events were a huge success, congratulations to all of the winners. The event was a great opportunity for the students and graduates to network with LSBU entrepreneurs, successful start-ups and local businesses, as well as an opportunity to experience some healthy competition.
"The quality of the businesses showcased was phenomenal and it’s great to see the creativity and innovation that so many of our students and graduates presented. This is a testament to the expertise and dedication of colleagues within REI, and to the hardworking students and graduates that we support."
Tom Williams and Ben Weld, Founders of Falcon DHQ, said: "Winning the LSBU Start-Up Award 2016 really means a lot to us as we’ve both been putting in a lot of work over the past 12 months, it’s great to see that our hard work is paying off.
"We’ve received brilliant support and advice during our time at LSBU and we feel that this award will add a lot of weight to our product going forward. We’re aiming to release our product later this year and we cannot wait to explode into the market place!"
Find out more about the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute.