NACUE News

NACUE Hosts Inaugural Regional Chair Training Day

Fri 13 Aug 2010, 12:12 AM

On Saturday 31st July, NACUE hosted its inaugural Regional Chair Training Day bringing together our elected Regional Chairs from across the UK for a day of training, strategic planning and celebration.

During the day the Regional Chairs had an in-depth session on NACUE's history, current projects and future plans to allow them to speak on behalf of NACUE with utmost knowledge and understanding. They also spent time carefully practising their NACUE pitch and perfecting their networking and presentation skills in preparation for the variety of events, conferences and other activities that they will be representing NACUE at over the coming year. 

NACUE Advises Small Business Minister on Enterprise Education Policy

Wed 28 Jul 2010, 01:09 PM

On 26th July, Matt Smith represented NACUE at an Enterprise Education Forum hosted at the BIS Conference Centre by Mark Prisk, Minister of State for Business (left) and Adam Jackson, Director of Enterprise in BIS. Present were senior representatives from about 25 organisations involved in Enterprise and Education ranging from Enterprise Educators UK, The Prince's Trust, Young Enterprise and School for Startups through to HEFCE, Dept for Education, NCGE, NUS, Association of Colleges and more.

The overall aim of the forum was to explore the enterprise education space and determine the level of existing activity within schools, colleges and universities. The future role of goverment in driving and/or facilitating the development of enterprise education was also up for discussion by the highly experienced representatives of a broad range of influencial organisations.
With presentations from All Hallows Catholic High School, Sheffield College and University of Plymouth setting the context and giving a taste of existing activity, the delegates spent significant time in groups discussing the challenges around engagement and support of educators as well as sustainability and scalability of programmes.
Before the groups fed back their thoughts to the others, 3 national education organisations active in this space - Specialist Schools & Academies Trust, Association of Colleges and National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship - gave short overviews of their work to support their respective educator communities. A short discussion followed where thoughts from each group were fed back to the Forum.

Present throughout the event were many BIS officials operating in the Enterprise Directorate, taking copious notes to aid Mr Prisk in his planning for future support and initiatives around Enterprise Education. This is very much the start of his planning and NACUE is pleased to be recognised as a key stakeholder within the space with the ability to offer valuable contributions to the ongoing discussions.

NACUE Facilitates Microsoft Student Audience Workshop

Tue 13 Jul 2010, 01:06 PM

NACUE Discusses Youth Unemployment with Tim Campbell & Capital Enterprise

Fri 9 Jul 2010, 11:37 AM

NACUE Attends the G20 Youth Entrepreneurship Summit

Thu 24 Jun 2010, 07:37 PM

On June 20-21, NACUE's CEO Victoria Lennox attended the G20 Youth Entrepreneurship Summit in Toronto as a VIP guest. The summit was hosted by the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF), which provides seed financing and mentorship support to young entrepreneurs across Canada.

The Summit brought together the leaders of youth entrepreneurship organisations and leading young entrepreneurs from the G20 countries, with the objective to connect and generate dialogue on the key messages that young entrepreneurs want to send to their national leaders. Throughout the conference, young entrepreneurs urged their leaders to: facilitate access to funding to young entrepreneurs; provide coordinated support; take steps to foster a national entrepreneurial culture; ensure that regulation and taxation doesn’t stifle entrepreneurship; and, provide enterprise and entrepreneurial education and training to young entrepreneurs from a much earlier age.

"Young entrepreneurs are an essential element in global economic growth," says Lennox. "By working together with other like-minded organizations from around the world, NACUE is contributing to the global discussion surrounding the challenges facing youth entrepreneurship, as well as the policies needed to support innovative young business owners."

From young entrepreneurial panels and keynotes talks from leading entrepreneurs Tom Jenkins, Eric Boyko and John Risley, to elaborate networking sessions at the MaRS Incubator and speeches by Minister Rob Moore, Minister Tony Clement and former Deputy Minister John Manley, the summit was inspiring, stimulating, and certainly increased the profile of global youth entrepreneurship agenda on the world stage – effectively positioning youth entrepreneurship as a significant means for wealth and job creation for the benefit of communities and economies around the world.

NACUE Ventures Academy Deal Day a Success

Wed 26 May 2010, 05:08 AM

On May 26th 2010 NACUE hosted a Deal Day as a final part of its inaugural Ventures Academy hosted in IdeaSpace at the new Hauser Forum, University of Cambridge with the support of Marks & Clerk and BDO.

The highly successful event brought together 9 leading university start-ups and gave them the opportunity to pitch to 25 leading investors from across the region including business angels, venture capitalists and high net worth individuals. 

Jonathan Reynolds, Founder and CEO of TouchType Ltd said: "“The NACUE Ventures Academy Deal Day was an extremely professional and well-run event, bringing together a range of early stage companies looking for seed investment with experienced Cambridge-based investors. Each company pitched for 10 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of questions and advice from the floor. In the afternoon, we then had the opportunity for further in-depth discussions with interested investors. The event gave us important feedback and advice on our investment proposal and business plan. In each discussion the investors were willing to make further introductions or offer help in the future if appropriate. It was a valuable event and I would recommend the NACUE Ventures Academy to any young company looking for early stage funding and investment advice”.

Investor Cedric Lattessa said: “I am very impressed by the quality of the companies that presented to us this morning”. Sergi Martorell of TTP Ventures also commented:"The quality of the pitches was very high and we met young entrepreneurs with big ambitions. It was refreshing, a truly enjoyable day where disruptive early stage technologies coming out of UK universities were presented to members of the investment and innovation communities. I look forward to the next event”. 

Companies presenting were Lab Minds, Reed Tech, Aeri, Cambridge Nanotubes; Global Biofuels Producers Network, TouchType, MagicSolver, PnuemaCare and CamGan. Investors present include Prof Alan Barrell, Business Angel & Cambridge Entrepreneur-in-Residence; Phil O'Donovan, Co-Founder of Cambridge Silicon Radio & Business Angel; Sergi Martorell, TTP Ventures; Cedric Latessa, DFJ Esprit; Struan McDougall, Cambridge Capital Group; Anthony Biddle, Adelphi Fund; Christopher Smart, Acacia Capital Partners; Mahler Khaled, Cambridge Enterprise; Patric O'Farrell; Simon Gall; Annie Brooking and Dawson King.

If you would like to host a NACUE Ventures Academy at your university, please email victoria@nacue.com

NACUE Speaks at World Economic Forum Round Table on Entrepreneurship Education

Fri 21 May 2010, 12:32 PM

On May 11-12th 2010, Matt Smith, NACUE's Policy Director attended a European Round Table on Entrepreneurship Education in Brussels, hosted by theWorld Economic Forum as part of its Global Education Initiative. The two day conference brought together leading practitioners, policy makers, politicians and corporates from across Europe.

Highlighting the urgent & critical need to "reboot" educational systems worldwide, the World Economic Forum recognises that embedding entrepreneurship and innovation in the educational process ensures that skills such as leadership, creativity, critical thinking, decision-making and social awareness are passed on to students, creating a significant impact on their personal and social development. 

During the conference Matt had the unique opportunity to speak in a session highlighting NACUE as global best practices and leading initiative. As a Discussion Leader for the session, Matt was able to highlight NACUE's history, mission and success. Throughout the conference, NACUE was highlighted by the hosts as a leading example of grassroots activism.

With a range of stakeholders across Europe and further afield expressing interest in NACUE's unique model and the scale of success that we have realised in our first year, it is clear that NACUE is delivering significant impact towards developing enterprising students, graduates and universities.

NACUE Proudly Presents the 2010 National Champion!

Fri 14 May 2010, 12:00 PM

The NACUE National Varsity Pitch Competition is the UK's premier business plan competition for university students. It celebrates student enterprise by showcasing the brightest young minds and the exceptional start-ups coming out of universities today.

Our search began earlier this year at the Industry Semi-finals, where 42 candidates competed within one of the distinct industry categories:

• Clean Technology & Green Business
• Software, Internet & Mobile Technologies
• Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM)
• Social Entrepreneurship
• London Metropolitan Business School Leisure, Hospitality and Services
• Creative Industries
• TATA Blue Skies Award for Disruptive Innovations

All winners and leaders of their Industry Awards, 7 businesses went onto a gruelling pitching boot camp, and prepared to go head-to-head for the National Title, £10,000, a golden ticket to the Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards and a business support package.

On May 5th, we arrived at the Grand Final, at the prestigious British Library, in anticipation for competition we were about to view. Each business took the stage and delivered a 2-minute pitch in front of a panel of esteemed judges including original BBC2 Dragon, Doug Richard, Guy Rigby, Entrepreneurs Director at Smith & Williamson, Richard Tyler of the Daily Telegraph and David Bozward, Director of Flying Start, as well as a VIP audience of 250 entrepreneurs, investors, innovators, public figures and members of the national media.

The Finalists

• Plus Minus Design – Leeds University
• GaBoom – Royal Holloway University
• Lab Minds – Oxford University
• SMA Football – Queen Mary’s University
• E-resistible – Warwick University
• Squid London – London College of Fashion
• Move-It – Royal College of Art

After an exciting night of pitches, interrogation of business models by the judges, we all discovered that these were no ordinary group people; they were talented, ambitious and hungry for the National Title.

A final decision was reached; the People’s Choice Award went to Squid London, with GaBoom taking the National Varsity Pitch Competition 2010 Title.

This competition celebrated the leading entrepreneurs and innovators coming out of UK universities. It was an evening dedicated to the celebration of student enterprise and was a testament to why young entrepreneurs across the country should be supported.

NACUE is thankful to all its partners who have supported us in delivering this spectacular national event, including: NCGE; British Library Business & IP Centre; Tata; University of Hertfordshire; Lloyds TSB Commercial; London Metropolitan University; Warwick Business School Enterprise Hub; and Sun Oracle.

By celebrating these talents through NVPC and bringing forth the student voice on enterprise, NACUE hopes to change entrepreneurial Britain as we know it, and we begin at the grassroots.

For further information about this prestigious national event, please contact Hushpreet Dhaliwal at hushpreet.dhaliwal@nacue.com or 07850 182 571.

NACUE Hosts International Round Table & Launches I-CUE - the International Consortium of University

Tue 4 May 2010, 12:28 PM

Since NACUE launched in May 2008 we have attracted significant interest from student enterprise societies across the World looking to benefit from the the skills, resources and networks that we offer our member societies. Over the past year as NACUE has developed we have kept in contact with an ever increasing number of societies spread across Canada, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Finland, South Africa, Ethiopia and Bulgaria, among others. 

On May 1-2 we were delighted to welcome international delegates from Spain, Sweden, Denmark and Bulgaria to our 2nd Annual NACUE Leaders Training Conference. With advice, guidance and mentoring from the NACUE team, each of these delegates are now working to develop NACUE-like national organisations in their countries to support and stimulate student enterprise. In Denmark 5 enterprise societies have joined together to form 'Stardust', in Sweden two individuals have started 'FENA' and in Spain we are working with students to create 'NACUE Spain'.

Following the Leaders Training Conference, NACUE hosted a one day International Round Table to allow the International delegates to share their visions for their organisations and to get an in-depth walkthrough of the unique NACUE model developed over the past year.

As a result of this Round Table a new organisation, I-CUE - the International Consortium of University Entrepreneurs - was launched. I-CUE is an informal network of national grassroots organisations that each work to stimulate and support student entrepreneurship within their respective countries. I-CUE will allow such organisations to share best practice, collaborate on joint programmes and events, and conduct lobbying and advocacy campaigns at an International scale.

NACUE will be working with its global partners to set out the specific aims, objectives and deliverables for I-CUE and to launch a website.