Member Article

ICT Youth Challenge ends SPECtacularly

A team of would-be environmental entrepreneurs from St. Aidan’s School, Sunderland have been announced as overall winners of the Big Ideas ICT Youth Challenge Competition, after over a year of developing their ideas alongside other young innovators with the guidance of leading business figures. The final pitch of Specs’ product idea impressed judges from industry and commerce, including Paul McEldon from the North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC).

Mr McEldon said: “The teams’ pitches were excellent. I think I can speak for all of the judges when I say that, after watching their ideas develop over the year, to see them perform so well at the end of this journey made us all very proud. However, the format of the competition meant that there had to be one overall winner, and Specs’ new and revolutionary answer to the planet’s energy crisis is outstanding.”

Last Friday’s prize giving ceremony 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 quizzes while developing the final presentation of their ideas with the assistance of business experts including Jonathan Gold from NStar, Colin Hewitt from Ward Hadaway Associates, and Simon Roberson from BT. All of the teams were given a year’s virtual tenancy at the Business and Innovation Centre worth over £1,000.

Katherine Mathieson, from NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), said: “What we really want to see at NESTA are programmes that help people to become more innovative – the Big Ideas ICT Youth Challenge has been a perfect example of this process at work. The virtual office provided by the BIC will provide an ideal base for Specs and the other teams to take their ideas to the next level and one step closer to becoming a commercial reality.”

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