Celebrating Global Entrepreneurs Week
To mark the growing spirit of entrepreneurship across campus, Emerge: Be Enterprising organised a fast-track experience to become a business founder during Global Entrepreneurship Week 2024.
Promoted for the first time to students across the whole University, the opportunity for hands-on experience captured the interest of creative thinkers and available places became fully booked within two weeks. Students were tempted by the unique opportunity to think critically about business challenges, and enjoy a free buffet as well!
We were thrilled to deliver our recent Business Ideas Bootcamp, with over 150 students attending across the two days. Participants were fast-tracked through a framework that explored real-world challenges and customer needs leading towards the generation of solutions and business modelling. The variety and richness of ideas was evident as students collaborated from across all university faculties, working in 13 different teams to solve key challenges.
Tom Hemington
Enterprise Officer
Braving the Elements for Entrepreneurial Excellence: Bootcamp Day 1
Despite the wintry weather, the enthusiasm of the participants remained undimmed. Day one of the Bootcamp saw participants delve into the fundamentals of entrepreneurship, exploring convergent thinking, problem statements, customer personas, and solution generation.
It was a fantastic opportunity to meet inspiring individuals, exchange ideas, and expand our networks with like-minded peers and mentors.
This experience has strengthened my understanding of the entrepreneurial journey, and I’m excited to carry these skills forward!Lara
Bootcamp Participant
Igniting Innovation: Bootcamp Day 2
The Bootcamp continued its momentum on the second day, with participants diving deeper into the world of entrepreneurship. Shane Beard, Start-up Founder, shared his valuable insights, guiding teams as they refined their business models and developed minimum viable products (MVPs).
Participants pitched their innovative ideas which were themed around Sustainability, Community, Future Industry and Health. Ideas ranged from helping the homeless into work, supporting those with arthritis and those who are socially isolated, to domestic food production powered by AI.
Our team's focus was on Sustainability, and we came up with a business idea that promoted recycling through education and the creation of community groups. This would enable members to educate themselves about this issue and create positive change, funded through working with the local council to increase recycling rates across the city.
Andrew
Bootcamp Participant
Building a Culture of Entrepreneurship
This successful Bootcamp reaffirms the University's commitment to nurturing a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. By equipping students with the necessary skills and resources in entrepreneurship, the service empowers them to become the future drivers of innovation.
The Emerge team looks forward to introducing the participants into the existing Emerge community and witnessing the continued development of these exciting business ideas. This will prepare the teams in their journey towards applying for the 2025 Awards Showcase!
By completing the two day training programme, students received a certificate of attendance and were able to add the hard and soft skills onto the MySkills platform. Congratulations to all participants, mentors, and organisers on a resounding success!
Customer Discovery and Sales
News article by Victoria Berry