March 24, 2017, by The Ingenuity Lab
Highlights from the Pitch@Palace 7.0 Boot Camp
”The University of Nottingham is the ideal location for this Pitch@Palace Boot Camp. We have a very long heritage of thought leadership, talent development and innovation in entrepreneurship.” – Professor Sir David Greenaway
Pitch@Palace was founded in 2014 by HRH The Duke of York to amplify and accelerate tech focussed Entrepreneurs. It offers entrants the opportunity to pitch their business idea to a global audience of influencers including CEO’s, investors, mentors and key business people.
Last week, the University of Nottingham hosted the Pitch@Palace 7.0 Boot Camp, where 43 teams competed to win a place to pitch at the final event at St James’ Palace in April. 350 guests attended the Nottingham Boot Camp, with over 250,000 joining the conversation online, making #pitchatpalace the second most popular hashtag in the UK, on the day.
”What an experience! We’re having an amazing time @pitchatpalace with @TheDukeOfYork. Thanks for supporting UK business” – Technology Will Save Us (Pitch@Palace 7.0 Finalists) @techwillsaveus
”So grateful to our two mentors for #pitchatpalace Boot Camp @re_crowdcube @JamesCodling. Big learning happening here TX @TheDukeOfYork team” – History Turned On (Pitch@Palace 7.0 Boot Camp Entrepreneur) @towlesarah
”Still buzzing after an incredible day at #PitchatPalace @pitchatpalace yesterday! Inspirational talks & #entrepreneurship! @TheDukeOfYork” – Dr Chris Carter (Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation) @drchrisjcarter
On the day
Pitch@Palace 7.0 Boot Camp opening remarks from HRH The Duke of York, KG
The Pitch@Palace 7.0 Boot Camp provides support and guidance to entrepreneurs in developing and refining their pitches. The pitches themselves are structured to create an atmosphere of enormous pressure for participants, with entrants required to pitch complex ideas to an audience in just 3 minutes.
”I make no apology about putting you under pressure, because that is what is going to make you a better company” – HRH The Duke of York, KG
This pressure was only intensified by the presence of 2 members of The Band of The Royal Regiment of Scotland, poised and ready to signal the end of the entrepreneur’s 3 minutes.
The event provided the perfect opportunity for networking, bringing enthusiastic entrepreneurs together with mentors and industry leaders. Networking sessions encouraged a discussion of ideas between audience members, not limited to those pitching.
”It was incredibly insightful and made lots of contacts and potential sales of our game computer kit”– Play Chimp (The Ingenuity Lab Member)
Key Note Speakers
It was fantastic to welcome University of Nottingham alumni David Ross (BA Hons Law, 1987) Phil Westcott (BEng Hons Environmental Engineering & Resource Management, 2000) back, as Key Note Speakers. The Speakers participated throughout the day, networking with Entrepreneurs and aiding the judging process.
David established his first business while he was at the University of Nottingham and praised the university, for the way it has embraced entrepreneurship:
”This University was undoubtedly the birthplace of my entrepreneurial aspirations” – David Ross, Co-founder of The Carphone Warehouse Group plc
David spoke about the characteristics necessary to succeed as an entrepreneur. These included embracing irregular working patterns, risk taking (and learning from the success and failures that will result), resilience, self-reliance, and really understanding your customers. In short, ‘action, not words’ is the key to success.
Ian Filby, of DFS, focussed on leadership. Ian’s speech, entitled ‘Fit for Purpose,’ explained that for success in business, fit refers to the most appropriate decision, rather than the best.
Ian also spoke on how reflection, physical health, emotional health and building relationships are fundamental for good leadership.
Fundamental to this for all entrepreneurs is surrounding yourself by the right people.
”Get good people around you. Not ‘yes’ people that will let you fall into the bear pits but people with complementary skills, people who will build on your great ideas, that will challenge you.” – Ian Filby, CEO of DFS
Ian also expressed the importance of ‘now,’ by quoting the Dali Lama
Elizabeth Fagan, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Boots spoke about the company’s entrepreneurial inception, and how staying true to Boots’ core values has helped the company stay relevant and operate uniquely.
The need for companies to work in cooperation for each other was also a focus, Elizabeth drew on Boots’ own experiences, describing how collaboration can create success stories. Elizabeth’s keynote echoed the earlier sentiments of David and Ian; that understanding your customer and their future needs is key to success.
Phil Westcott, Director of Internet of Things at IBM Watson, spoke on the technology opportunities for entrepreneurs. Phil believes that Artificial Intelligence will complement our decision-making processes, rather than replacing the workforce.
The Internet of Things presents opportunities for businesses as it redefines our physical environment using software, turning products into services and disrupting business models. Westcott’s speech highlighted the fact that technology integrated into the workforce will provide new and exciting opportunities.
(l to r) David Ross (Co-founder, The Carphone Warehouse Group plc), Ian Filby (CEO, DFS), Elizabeth Fagan (Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Boots UK) and Phil Westcott (Director, IBM Internet of Things)
If you missed out on seeing the Keynote Speakers at the Boot Camp, you can watch them, and all of the pitches, as they happened here.
Expo Space
On display throughout the day, there was an exposition celebrating Nottingham’s local food, drink and business entrepreneurs
Pitch@Palace 7.0 Boot Camp Expo
Guests were invited to sample food from outstanding Nottingham-based food and drink businesses including Delilah Fine Foods, The Clucking Pig, Joyful.And.Mellow, Nutri2Go, The Treat Kitchen, Redsmith Distillery and The Amazing Chocolate Workshop.
”We had a great time and met some really useful contacts” – The Amazing Chocolate Workshop
”We enjoyed the event and it was a great opportunity for us to promote Nutri2Go” – Nutri2Go (The Ingenuity Lab Member)
Pitch@Palace 7.0 Boot Camp Expo
The Ingenuity Lab members were also in attendance, explaining their business ideas to HRH The Duke of York.
(l to r) Elnaz Sedighara (Director, Iran Sheen), HRH the Duke of York, KG, Alec Machin (Director, Decorate Paints), Anna Gray (Director, Model Students), Dr Mattia Fosci (Director, Yoop), and Trishna Daswaney (Director, Kohl Kreatives)
Winners
Using the Pitch@Palace app, the audience cast their votes for their favourite business ideas, and the judges selected the final 12 businesses to go through to the final event at St James’ Palace, based on votes made.
The following 12 teams were crowned the finalists on the day:
Blink: a communications device, redefining the relationship between pedestrians and self-driving vehicles.
BrainWaveBank: a neuroscience platform that makes daily in-home brain health monitoring accessibly to everyone.
CAERvest: providing ultra-early powerful cooling heat to compromised patients in remote locations.
CENTURY Tech: using AI technology to engage learners with a personalised learning experience, whilst empowering educators with real-time data insights.
Desolenator: transforming seawater or contaminated water into low cost drinking water using solar power.
Limitless Travel: revolutionising travel for people with disabilities by using the power of technology to make the world accessible to all.
Open Bionics: turning children with limb differences into bionic superheroes.
Oxford Heartbeat: making cardiovascular surgery more accurate and safe by enabling clinicians to rehearse surgeries to choose the best option for each patient.
SafetyNet Technologies: using light devises to lower by-catch – saving fish, helping fishermen, and making the industry more sustainable.
SMARTIFY: using advanced0image recognition and Augmented Reality to help people make meaningful connections with art.
Technology Will Save Us: Developing multi-award winning ‘build it yourself’ kits and digital tools to help kids make, play, code and invent.
TryLife: creating interactive films that allow users worldwide to make life choices on behalf of film characters and see the consequences of their actions.
(l to r) Jaspal Kaur (Director of HR, UoN), Dr Gabriele Neher (Senate member, University Council), Dame Elizabeth Fradd (Vice-President, University Council), and Breda Walls (Chief Student Management Officer, UoN)
Next week, we speak to Ingenuity Lab Member’s Pharmaseal, about their experience pitching at the Pitch@Palace 7.0 Bootcamp.
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