11 February 2011
SERC students compete at Enterprise Conference.
It was the battle of the Colleges as 3 teams of SERC students went up against students from NWRC and SWC at the Embracing Enterprise Conference in Dungannon, supported by DEL.
Adrian Logan of UTV fame hosted the event; Billy Dixon gave an entertaining talk on personal projection, communication and communication; and entrepreneur Sandra Miskimmin spoke of the personal and financial challenges she faced when starting her own business through Virgin Vie at home.
Then on to the day’s challenge – the 25 teams of students had to come up with a recession busting business idea.
One team of Performing Arts students developed an energy and cost saving device to aid busy mums – Bath E Z. The team worked hard on the concept of a bath level indicator which alerts the user when the bath water has reached a certain level, with various features including mood lights and customised alarm tones. The clever device would save on repair bills when the ceiling falls through from an overflowing bath!!
Modern Underground was developed by the second group of Performing Arts students. They wanted to offer a great night out that was affordable for students like themselves and use local bands and venues for their club nights. The difference being that these events are ‘guerilla’ and the venue & date would only be announced on social networking sites a short time before the actual event!
E-Order was the innovative product developed by the team of Business students. This system allows the customer in a restaurant to order themselves at their table on an i-pad like device. This makes the dining experience faster and more efficient and is cost saving for the business. E-Order impressed the judges from DEL & Invest NI and was selected as one of the top ten ideas of the day. The group pitched their idea to the audience and nervously waited for the judges’ decision.
Drum roll please …. Unfortunately despite a winning pitch in our eyes the panel chose an idea for a jewellery franchise.
A big well done to all our students who took part and thanks to SWC for hosting us!