Member Article

Entrepreneurial awards night ?great success?

Representatives from the region’s five universities came together last night for the Grand Final of Blueprint: the North East Universities Business Planning Competition. The contest is designed to help the region’s graduates and undergraduates nurture their business ideas and get the most out of the support on offer, with many of the region’s foremost business people backing the competition.

Auricularis, set up by Simon Creek of Durham University to provide secure and comfortable foam-based earpieces, won the Blueprint Business Award. Auricularis was also highly commended in the Blueprint Science and Technology Award, which was won by Conostem. Conostem Ltd provides adult stem cell-derived technologies for the advancement of drug discovery and clinical practice all over the world.

The winner of the Musa ‘Dare to be Different’ Award was won by Denise McLeary for Herbees, a social enterprise scheme which provides employment and training for adults with learning difficulties through the cultivation and retail of herbs.

Vimuse Technologies from Durham University won the Consett Innovation Centre Award with their online social networking system. Vimuse’s Gofr website also brought them runner-up in both the Blueprint Business Award and the Blueprint Science and Technology Award.

The evening was praised as a great success, not least for the winners of the prizes on offer. Tim Pain, Head of Enterprise and Business Support at OneNorthEast, said: “The Blueprint Competition, which is now in its third year, is a really worthwhile way of boosting our enterprise and entrepreneurial culture here in the region. We know that we must change the attitudes of young people, arming them with the belief that they can start their own business, and make a successful living from it, if we are to get to where we want to be.”

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