|d|
9.April.2008
Dragons Den Event Gets _space Fired Up!
Last Wednesday saw the culmination of two months’ hard work for the _space team and students alike as three schools presented their business ideas to a panel of hungry _space Dragons!
_space have been the first company to sign up to YENE’s ‘One Day’ campaign, where businesses pledge to give up one day of their time or resources to benefit enterprising students. Raising the bar and making life better is what _space stands for as a company and our own _space To Think Differently initiative marked our participation in the initiative. Danielle Gibson, Marketing Coordinator, takes up the story:
"Since the Young Enterprise North East (YENE) trade fair in February, the Marketing team at _space have been working closely with several schools across the region to assist students who have set up businesses as part of the YENE Company programme. _space have devised weekly workshops to help the students focus on a particular area of enterprise, designed to enhance the students’ current ideas and help them to create bigger, better and more profitable businesses. The workshops have had themes as diverse as Business and Financial Planning and Presentation and Communication and have all been chosen to help further the nascent businesses."
Last week saw _space host a final workshop at 20 South Street (formerly the Robert Stephenson engineering works) which saw three schools participate in a Dragon’s Den style event. The schools came from across the region to give a 15 minute presentation on the theme 'What have I learnt from the ‘_space to Think Differently’ initiative and how can this be applied to my business?'. These presentations were each followed by a grilling from a panel of _space Directors who took the role of the Dragons for the day before retiring for a heated discussion over who the overall winners of the event should be.
The performances of the three groups of students were so strong that the result was something nobody had anticipated before the day; a three way tie resulting in each school walking away proud owners of a new laptop and several prizes being awarded for Most Innovative Idea, Best Team and Outstanding Individual. Rob Charlton, _space’s CEO, has also taken the extra step of promising each school additional bespoke help on their individual projects, inviting schools back to _space one at a time and even sponsoring one school’s new product ; an eco-friendly shopping bag.
Rob Charlton said of the event: "The standard of the presentations was incredibly high and we are very proud of what the students have taken away from their experience with us. Listening to what people at the sharp end of business have to say has benefited them enormously and I look forward to finding out how they progress over the next weeks and months."
Media Contact: O Communications - 0191 229 8990