Member Article

Business planning competition sees unrivalled spirit of enterprise

A business planning competition which brings together the region’s five universities has seen a record number of entries with months still to go before the deadline. The £50,000 Blueprint competition has already attracted 259 business plans, compared to last’s year’s 144, and the organisers expect many more to flood in before August’s closing date.Each of the North East’s five universities – Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside - have held their own business planning competition with the winners of these going forward to enter the Blueprint region-wide final, in the general business category.But entries for the science and technology category, which is open to academics and university staff as well as students, remain open until August 25, with until September 22 to draw up the full plan. The total prize value for both categories is more than £50,000.Organiser Professor Max Robinson, Enterprise Education Director at the North-East Centre for Scientific Enterprise, said: “The response to this year’s competition has already been absolutely overwhelming. This is the third year of Blueprint and every year it just gets stronger, with more entries and bigger prize funds, making it the most significant competition of its kind in the UK and the envy of other regions. “Last year the competition saw the creation of 43 businesses and 84 jobs and this year we are hoping to do even better than that. This is what Blueprint is all about – encouraging and unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit in our universities, where some of the North East’s greatest talent is to be found, and harnessing it to create wealth and high quality jobs for the region’s economy.’’Already the university heats have thrown up some original and exciting business ideas, including a motorcycle hearse company, gay and lesbian online literature, a hot glass studio and foam-based earplugs. For more information about Blueprint: the North East Universities Business Planning Competition, please visit: www.blueprintcompetition.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .