Could you be the next dragon? Photo; smarta.com

Dragon’s Den competition to be held for students

Students will be invited to take part in an entrepreneurial Dragon’s Den style competition next month.

The  sessions will be on Thursday 22 May, 12.30 – 14.00 in the Helen Martin studio in the Art Centre, and again on Tuesday 22 July in the Art Centre studio at the same time.

The first event will focus on service improvement and the second session on new business ideas.

Shortlisted applicants for the presentation will be notified in advance before the event. Students who do not want to present may still take part by submitting their ideas by the deadline in order to give the panel time to review the ideas.

Students can sign up and attend the Dragons’ Den sessions without having prepared a pitch. In order to attend people do however need to register online to reserve a place in the audience.

On the day of the event shortlisted applicants will pitch their ideas to a panel of five Dragons consisting of senior members of staff and external guests. The winners will be announced during the session.

Successful applicants will receive management support, business mentoring and resources from the University. Other benefits include access to expertise, networks and funding.

This is the second year the competition has been held by Warwick Network.

During Warwick’s Network Day 2013, four applicants pitched their ideas to dragon’s Ken Sloan, Abhinay Muthoo, Allyson Reed, Quentin Compton-Bishop and Tom Britten.

The winning ideas were ‘Fuzzy Duck Fancy Dress’ and ‘Warwick on Wheels’. As a result, the university bookshop now sells a range of fancy dress and the university bike hire scheme will launch at the start of the academic year in 2014.

Tom Britten and Bob Hogg, directors of business development said: “Dragons’ Den is a great opportunity for students to showcase their business or service ideas to senior members of university staff.

Dragons’ Den proved popular and fun when it premiered at the Warwick Network Day last year and we actively encourage students’ ideas and participation in the event.”

In order to take part, students will need to prepare in advance for the sessions by completing the form at www2.warwick.ac.uk/news/intnews2/dragons_den.

 The completed forms should be sent to Michele O’Shea at M.O-Shea@warwick.ac.uk by noon on Thursday 17 April for service improvement applications and Friday 27 June for new business ventures.

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