March 8, 2016, by The Ingenuity Lab

Ingenuity16: Feeling the heat

Friday 26th February saw the East Midlands Conference Centre taken over by 300+ students and alumni, all with bright business ideas, and all wanting their share of the £100,000 Ingenuity16 prize fund.

After whittling the hundreds of entrants to #Ingenuity16 down to over 150 teams, we had some of Nottingham’s brightest and most promising entrepreneurs at the bootcamp.

Simon Mosey, Haydn Green Institute, University of Nottingham, Ingenuity16, east midlands conference centre, large group, students, university of nottingham alumni, entrepreneurs, bootcamp

Introduction talk by Simon Mosey, Director of the Haydn Green Institute

The day provided an opportunity for teams to speak with mentors and coaches from a range of industries in order to help develop their business ideas into successful enterprises. The teams entered ranged from those with exciting apps and software, to those with innovative healthcare solutions, and there were so many interesting discussions buzzing round the room!

Lili Zhu, one of our lab members and director of the up and coming Lian, came along to speak to mentors and build ideas of how she can continue to grow and develop her business. We caught up with her to see how she found the bootcamp…

I really enjoyed bootcamp. Not only was it a great opportunity to meet like-minded entrepreneurs, but also a chance to get feedback from mentors and coaches who have been in similar positions to us in the past.

Being in an environment where you can discuss all these different business ideas was really interesting and inspiring. A great learning experience’

Ingenuity16, east midlands conference centre, university of nottingham students, conference, group, smiling

Some of the entrants got a quick break from the bootcamp to strike a pose for the Ingenuity16 paparrazi!

Talks from Steve Ellis, former M.D. of Molston Coors and Two Sisters Food Group, and Simon Mosey, Director of the Haydn Green Institute, gave teams an insight into their own journeys in business, as well as inspiration as to how budding entrepreneurs can get there themselves.

It was great to hear the positive comments from mentors and coaches about the strength of the business ideas and ability for teams to grasp what it takes to be successful in business so quickly. While this is a great accolade for all who attended, the strength of all the entrants means competition for the prize fund is definitely heating up!

Ingenuity16, mentors, coaches, east midlands conference centre, nottingham, business, entrepreneurs

The Ingenuity16 mentors and coaches

Make sure you keep an eye out on our Facebook, TwitterLinkedIn and Instagram pages for updates on the competition to find out which teams are getting closer to their share of the £100,000 prize fund.

 

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