First ever Newcastle Startup Day “inspires” the next generation of entrepreneurs

Students at Newcastle College met some of the region’s top entrepreneurs this week at the first ever Newcastle Startup Day within its Synergy Hub.

Produced in collaboration with the team behind Newcastle Startup Week, this event was created especially for Newcastle College students with sessions mirroring core themes from the popular startup week festival, covering “inspiration, getting started, funding and finance, growing and scaling and keep going or pivot”.

Led by the Enterprise Hub’s first Entrepreneur in Residence and founder of Newcastle Startup Week, Paul Lancaster, the event saw over 40 students and 15 businesses taking part.

Most of the event took place within the College’s Enterprise Hub, based within the wider Synergy Hub on Rye Hill campus in Newcastle City Centre, a space that offers businesses access to flexible co-working space, where they can work collaboratively with students and education professionals and access a talent pipeline.

Grant Glendinning, executive principal of NCG North, welcomed the students and businesses alongside Paul Lancaster and the College’s Director of Industrial Strategy Andrew Esson.

The inspiration session was delivered by three local entrepreneurs; founder and director of Powder Butterfly Corinne Lewis-Ward, managing director of Wubbleyou Mark Renney and award-winning Geordie voiceover artist Dan Pye.

Paul Lancaster led the session on getting started followed by a breakout session where teams of students discussed ideas they already had for a business, brainstormed new ideas and worked on live project briefs set on the day.

Paul said: “The purpose of our Newcastle Startup Day event was to inspire, motivate and educate students on what it takes to start their own business or be entrepreneurial within an existing one.”

Grant Glendinning added: “The Enterprise Hub is a facility for local businesses to grow their network and to support them with innovation and growth, by bringing education and business together.

“It is a fantastic space and Newcastle Start Up Day is just the type of event we need to welcome more businesses to see for themselves how working with our students can provide a two-way benefit.”

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