UHI Business Idea Competition 2012

It's that time of year again....

"At CREATE we want to help all learners to acquire an enterprising mind-set. We seek to inspire and support students to realise their potential and to develop entrepreneurial behaviours and skills for business and self-employment. 

The UHI Business Idea Competition is an ideal opportunity for anyone who has an interesting and innovative business idea. The competition is open to all students enrolled at any UHI College, and to everybody aged 16 or over living in the Highlands and Islands, Moray or Perthshire. 

It is very straightforward to enter, with only four questions to answer. If you have more than one idea, why not submit them all? You may submit as many applications as you wish, and the on-line entry system allows you to have more than one entry in preparation at one time. 

 Completed entries must be received by the judges by 24 October 2012 to be eligible to win a share of the £7,500 prize fund...."

For more info and to apply follow this link:

Create: Introduction to Creative Thinking

The lovely people at Inverness College's Create programme have anounced a new workshop to be held on 23 May 2012.

"Introduction to Creative Thinking and Idea Generation is a free one day course offered by CREATE, Inverness College’s enterprise centre. The workshop will introduce you to: the concepts of creativity and innovation; more effective brainstorming; and provide tools to help you find and develop new ideas for your business."

For more info, follow this link

Create - Make it Happen

I had a great time yesterday, meeting some of the entrepreneurs involved with the Create Programme including some of the finalists from this year's Business Ideas Competition. Guest Speakers included local entrepreneurs - and representatives from Highland Venture Capital,  ICASS, Johnson & Carmichael, HISEZ, Harper MacLeod (and yours truly).

Congratulations to Carol Langston and her team for organising another fantastic event.

Business Idea Competition

Create (part of Inverness College's Highland Centre for Enterprise & Innovation) have launched this year's Business Idea Competition for would-be entrepreneurs in the Highlands & Islands, Perthshire and Moray.

"At CREATE we want to help all learners to acquire an enterprising mind-set. We seek to inspire and support students to realise their potential and to develop entrepreneurial behaviours and skills for business and self employment. The UHI Business Idea Competition is an ideal opportunity for anyone who has an interesting and innovative business idea.

The competition is open to everybody aged 16 or over living in the Highlands and Islands, Moray or Perthshire. It is very straightforward to enter, with only four questions to answer. 

If you have more than one idea why not submit them all? You may submit as many applications as you wish, however you can only save and submit one application at a time using the on-line form.

Completed entries must be received by the judges by 26 October 2011 to be eligible to win a share of the £7,000 prize fund.

Shortlisted candidates must be available on the Finals Day, Wednesday 16 November 2011, to come to Inverness College UHI to discuss their idea with our panel of expert judges and attend the prize giving event."

The very simple application form can be found at at www.createhighland.com

Business Idea Competition - now with added Social Enterprise

Well, it's that time of year again.  Here's a message from our friends at UHI and Create.

"To encourage enterprise and innovation in the region, UHI is launching the 2010 Business Idea Competition for commercial or social enterprise ideas. Last year this competition was extremely successful, with high quality ideas coming forward. Since the competition we have actually seen a number of entrants commence trading.

We think there are many people in the region with interesting and innovative commercial business or social enterprise ideas and we want to encourage them. This competition is simple and straightforward to enter, with only five questions to answer. All the entrants will be given advice on how to take their ideas forward and can win money at the same time.

The competition is open to everyone living in the Highlands and Islands, Perth-shire or Moray aged 16 or over who has a great idea for a business, this includes Social Enterprise concepts. Ideas should be submitted to our expert panel of judges by Wednesday 27th October 2010 to be eligible to win a share of our £3,800 prize fund."

For more details and to download a copy of the ridiculously simple Application Form, follow this link

DK at Go4It

I include this without comment other than "Business Start Specialist" is probably over-egging it a bit.....



Video by Highland Productions and filmed at Inverness College as part of Go4It on 3 June 2010.

Student Enterprise Event - Go4it

Carol Langston and her team at Create, based in Inverness College, are hosting an event at the Longman Campus on Thursday 3rd June from 2.30 to 4.30pm to promote student enterprise.

Guest Speakers include Karen Darke, adventurer and entrepreneur; and Gordon Adam, who will talk about his experiences as a BBC War Correspondent. (There's also a bit from me but my stories are possibly less intrepid)

Gateway will be in attendance and there'll be a chance to hear about Create's business and incubation centre and meet some of the students working to develop their own businesses.

All students are welcome; for more information contact Create by email