Entrepreneurial students prepare for Enterprise Showcase Final

Over 4000 students from across SERC have spent their first two weeks of the new academic term developing exciting and innovative solutions to real world challenges. They have been working tirelessly on innovative projects for the inter-campus enterprise competition throughout September. 

From the initial 500 teams that took part, 6 teams made it through to the final, having previously impressed the judges at the Campus heats which took place last week.

The Enterprise Showcase Final will be held on Friday 21 September at 10:30am in the Bangor Campus.

The first phase of the challenge took place during the two-week induction, with student voting deciding who got through to the final. Staff also shortlisted projects based on presentations at the Enterprise Showcase events last Thursday and Friday. Since then, the five finalists have been working tirelessly to adapt, tweak and perfect their enterprising concepts.

The following talented groups have made it through to the finals:

• The Courtyard (Bangor) - student designed College ‘spaces’ to enhance student wellbeing and support student networking.
• Slurry Safety (Downpatrick) - an innovative solution to minimise the risks to farm workers posed by slurry fumes.
• SERC PRO (Downpatrick) - an app designed to enable staff to complete gym inductions anywhere and anytime. 
• Someone Say Brownies? (Lisburn) - brownies but with a twist. Has potential to become a profit-making company.
• Revival Watch (Bangor) - personal jewellery embedded with sensors to help relatives keep track of sick loved ones. Data captured includes blood pressure and movement.
• Gene Genies (Bangor) – a multi-disciplinary project involving Art, Science, Photography and Engineering students.

Teams will be using mediums that they are most comfortable with such as PowerPoint, flip charts or a practical demonstration to pitch their ideas to the judges in the final, in a Dragons Den style event.

The judging panel will be made up of SERC Senior Management as well as guest judges from local business including Belinda O’Neill, a Commercial Branch Manager for Bank of Ireland Lisburn. Belinda has a diverse range of roles which include; Business Development, Risk Management, People Development and Customer Relationship Management.

Andy and Cat Hill, local Entrepreneurs who founded Hill’s Mixtape Coffee Company in 2016 during their studies at SERC. After finding themselves homeless with two small children in 2011 they developed their idea of a sustainable and ethical coffee company. After studying for a Foundation Degree in Hospitality, Tourism, and Events through SERC’s Bangor Campus the duo successfully launched NI’s first bottled iced coffee range distributing to stores like Supervalu and Centra.  

The winning team will need to demonstrate how their idea is innovative, creative and strong  teamwork. The viability of the business idea will also be taken into consideration.  

The event will be streamed live on the SERC intranet and can be viewed by clicking here. The winning team will receive £200 of Amazon vouchers and business mentoring for 12 months.  

SERC recognises the incredible hard work that all students who have participated through the competition have produced so far and wish the very best of luck to all the students competing at the Enterprise Showcase Final.