Forum results!!

The Big Ideas Youth Challenge 2009 has continued as it started and we have had a fantastic Forum event at Southmoor CLC in Sunderland. The judges have yet again been amazed at the level of development, innovation and enthusiasm of all teams. We have had nine judges scoring today from BT, Sunderland Software City, North East Business & Innovation Centre, Finance Tree, Innovation Scout, Ward Hadaway & Wood Holmes. They have decided the following teams, in no particular order, have been successful in getting through to the final of the competition, a five day residential at Otterburn Hall Hotel in Northumberland. The scores are so close that 6 teams are going to the final July!! Thank you so much to all involved.

 Well done to all concerned and thank you again for a wonderful day.

First Pitch Results

After a great day with 31 fantastic presentations from all over the North East our judges had the tough task of selecting the teams to progress to the Forum that takes place in March. Listed below in alphabetical order are the teams who will be progressing to the next stage. If you one of the lucky teams - look out for details of how to log in to our virtual team site to start working on your ideas! And for the unsuccessful teams please don't feel disheartened, it has been a fantastic First Pitch and you have done really well, keep checking the website for updates on how the teams are progressing and for next years competition.

 The results are in!

Thank you so much to all teams who entered the Big Ideas Youth Challenge 2009, we had a fantastic amount of applications and the judges have had a very hard time completing the scoring. The scores were very close, I know we have said that before but at times the scoring has had .25 of a point between teams! Below is the table of the team Numbers and names, in alphabetical order, that have been successful in getting through to the First Pitch which is held on Friday 30 January.

Could all teams please go to their mentor and confirm that they will able to attend the First pitch, we do have two reserves who are available to attend if you are not. Thank you all so for making this a wonderful start to the 2009 competition and look forward to visiting you all in school/college over the next couple of weeks with the essential feedback from judges.

Young Innovators Placed Firmly on Road to Success

A team of budding entrepreneurs have wowed judges from industry and commerce with their idea for a potentially revolutionary twist on satellite navigation, and for the second year running, the top pupils are from St. Aidan’s School, Sunderland.

Big Wide Ears have been announced as overall winners of the Big Ideas ICT Youth Challenge Competition, after almost a year of developing their ideas alongside other young innovators with the guidance of leading business figures.

Paul McEldon, Chief Executive of the North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC), said: “Acting as a judge at the final stage of this competition was extremely difficult as, after such a long and comprehensive development period, all of the teams’ pitches were outstanding.

“As the overall winners, Big Wide Ears have demonstrated exceptional business acumen and entrepreneurial flair at such an early age. The nature of the device that they have developed also shows that they have sound understanding of new and developing technologies.”

A prize-giving ceremony on Friday 4^th July came at the end of a week-long residential at Otterburn Hall which marked the final stage of the competition. The six attending teams engaged in activities ranging from archery, canoeing and raft-building while developing the final presentation of their ideas with the assistance of a variety of business experts including Colin Hewitt, Partner at Ward Hadaway, Jason Ollivent, North of England Business Manager for Microsoft , and Stephen Green, Head of Communications at the Entrepreneurs’ Forum.

Stephen Green said: “It was a pleasure to be part of the ICT Youth Challenge and wonderful to share the energy, enthusiasm and creativity of the students who made it through to the final.

 “What impressed me most was that these young people are coming up with ideas that have real commercial potential. Through our ‘If we can, you can’ campaign, the Entrepreneurs’ Forum aims to create a bridge between enterprise education and the reality of building scalable, sustainable businesses by encouraging connections with those who have ‘been there and done it’. It’s crucial that we harness the potential of these young people and nurture a new generation of emerging entrepreneurs – as the bedrock of the region’s economic future.”

The second Big Ideas ICT Youth Challenge, which is supported by One NorthEast, began in September 2007, when over 70 initial entries from school and college pupils region-wide were received. Teams then battled through two tough rounds, delivering presentations to a panel of the North East’s top business brains to demonstrate their unique ideas for an Information Computer Technology (ICT) solution.

Nathan Mersh (15), Big Wide Ears team member, said: “It’s extremely rewarding to be announced as the winners, as we’ve been working with the other teams for so long and we know how strong their ideas were. The judges must have thought that ours is something really special!”

As the overall winners, Big Wide Ears’ team members were presented with brand new laptop computers. They will visit BT’s headquarters, and have also been awarded with virtual office facilities from which to base their fledgling business.

A second team, Phone Friends, from Jarrow School, were presented with a special Microsoft prize for their idea for a mobile phone service for children, and will travel to the Software Giant’s base to get first-hand experience of cutting edge technologies.

In addition all participants from the final stage have been invited to be founder members of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum ‘If we can, you can talk’ site – which is being launched in September.

Lisa Smith, Big Ideas manager and competition coordinator, said: “In terms of innovation, this year’s teams have really raised the bar. As we will be supporting all of them on an ongoing basis, it will be extremely interesting to monitor their progress in the business world.”