November 2, 2016, by The Ingenuity Lab
Ingenuity17 is open!
First UoN tri-campus competition
3 day dynamic conference
£100,000 prize fund
What a week!
After a busy week celebrating the opening of The Ingenuity Centre, soon to become the new home for the Ingenuity Lab, a new member of our team Shalen Fu and taking a day trip to London to take part in Nottingham in Parliament Day – The fun has not ended at The Ingenuity Lab and we can officially announce that our annual competition, Ingenuity17 is OPEN for applications!
Nottingham in Parliament: Pitching to Parliament
Opening of The Ingenuity Centre by Business Minister, Jo Johnson
Shalen Fu trying face recognition: Technology Demonstrator, The Ingenuity Centre
Ingenuity17 seeks students, researchers and alumni entrepreneurs
This year, University of Nottingham (UoN) students, researchers and alumni entrepreneurs will compete to be in with a chance of winning a share of the £100,000 prize fund. This will be University’s first tri-campus entrepreneurship competition, inviting UoN students and alumni in both Ningbo and Malaysia to enter the process.
Sponsored by the University’s Asia Business Centre, Careers and Employability Team and partners including Santander Universities, Shakespeare Martineau, Potter Clarkson, BDO and Paragon Law. Entrants will have the opportunity to pitch for a range of cash prizes and support in kind, including advice on patenting, accounting, contracts work and more.
During February 2017, The Ingenuity Lab will take over the Trent Building delivering a 3-day ideas development conference. Entrants will take a new idea through a variety of activities, in order to submit an outlined business plan and financials. At the same time, participants in Ningbo and Malaysia will attend localised events. The top 20 entrants will be invited to pitch in the semi-finals, followed by the final pitch event for the top 5 entrants. The competition will culminate in a prize ceremony in April, where winners will be awarded a share of the £100,000 prize fund.
A winning story and entrepreneurial journey
2016 Winner Jonny Pryn Ng has gone from strength to strength since scooping £35,000, including the Vice-Chancellor’s Entrepreneurial Potential Award. One Third Stories, pioneered by Alumnus Jonny Pryn (English, 2014) and business partner Alex Somervell, have set up a unique company One Third Stories, a language learning revolution, developing children’s stories that start in English and finish in a different language.
“Taking part in Ingenuity16 was an invaluable opportunity to share ideas with other entrepreneurs and get lots of practice pitching. We learnt so much from the process and actually winning the competition completely transformed our business. It gave us the resources we needed to test our products in schools and run a successful Kickstarter campaign that resulted in £40,000 of pre-orders. Soon, we’ll be launching a new product range and raising further investment. Ingenuity16 was a major factor in our successes so far and I’d recommend it to anyone with entrepreneurial ambitions.”
Jonny Pryn, Director of One Third Stories
Directors Alex Somervell and Alumnus Jonny Pryn (English 2014)
Share your eureka moment by the 27 January 2017
If you are a student, researcher or alumni in the UK, Ningbo or Malaysia and have an interesting business idea, why not take five minutes out of your day to apply.
External candidates may enter as long as they are part of a UoN team. Teams, or individuals, must fully complete the online registration form, which requires a brief outline of your idea, details about your team, and your availability for the various seminars and activities across the competition.
Prizes include the Vice-Chancellor’s Entrepreneurial Potential Award, a prize for the best pitch and an Asia Business Prize.
Want to be an Ingneuity17 Mentor?
We are also looking for mentors to support candidates during our 3-day conference over 17 – 19 February 2017. If you would like to share your business experience and coach candidate toward their chance of winning a share of the £100,000 prize fund – please email ingenuitylab@nottingham.ac.uk.
For more information
Look out for the posters on campus and to find out more about Ingenuity17 via http://www.bit.ly/Ingenuity17 and follow The Ingenuity Lab on Twitter, @UoNIngLab (#Ingenuity17).
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