Smart $ave win the B-Enterprising Boot Camp

Congratulations to Team Smart $ave who have been crowned champions of the B-Enterprising Boot Camp! 

A total of 21 teams made up of 113 participants took part in the Boot Camp to experience enterprise training: coming up with ideas and building the skills to then make them happen!

The B-Enterprising Boot Camp took place over a long weekend (18-20 November) and students were presented with a choice of four challenges including creating an app, using VR, making a desert space commercially viable and solving a curious problem caused by a Japanese pensioner crime wave.

There were lots of light hearted highlights along the way; the 'People Bingo' icebreaker challenge which saw a rush to find someone wearing green socks, a massive pizza order and also a great debate following the marshmallow and spaghetti challenge 

Following two days of enterprise training, teams pitched their final solutions on the Monday evening in front of one of three judging panels.  The finalists were then announced and the three top teams had the chance to pitch to everyone in Muirhead Lecture Theatre. 

The end results were as followed: 

Winners: Team Smart $ave (Winner of £1,200 Team Prize)

Runners Up: Team Innovator (Winner of £600 Team Prize)

3rd Place: Team Fallon (Winner of £600 vouchers, supplied by Virgin)

The 113 participants represented all five colleges (including Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences) and teams worked together for the first time having entered the programme as individuals, with their eyes on the chance to win the £1,200 top prize. The event was also being filmed for the Dubai Big Ideas Challenge which will follow a similar format at the University of Birmingham Dubai campus later this year.

The Boot Camp was also part of a series of enterprising events run by Careers Network to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week which included: a Tier 1 workshop, company trek to Entrepreneurial Spark, Design Thinking workshop with IBM and a Freelance workshop.  

The Boot Camp will be returning again next year.  If you would like to express your interest in joining Boot Camp 2018, please contact the B-Enterprising Team: benterprising@contacts.bham.ac.uk.  

Find out how you can be enterprising by visiting our B-Enterprising homepage.