After two years of delivering the event online, Westminster Enterprise Network (WeNetwork) are excited to deliver 2022’s Big Idea Final in person, complete with pitches from entrepreneurial students and graduates, networking opportunities and live entertainment.
The Westminster Big Idea Competition is a University-wide student business idea competition, which is generously supported by Santander Universities UK. At the Final and Award Ceremony participants will get the opportunity to network with Westminster’s entrepreneurial community, see live pitches from competition finalists, and watch the award ceremony.
Our panel of judges will award over £22,000 worth of funding across three competition categories: Freelance, Ideation and Acceleration. This year’s judges are Yewande Akinola MBE, Innovate UK, Jenny Garrett OBE, Yvonne Bajela and Matthew Sarre.
Within the Freelance category, candidates will be judged on their ability to showcase their portfolio and present their freelance services. Throughout the Big Idea programme, candidates took part in workshops and worked with peers to learn how to find paid work and commissions and work as a professional freelancer. For the Freelance Category, Kareena Ravaliya, Soreya Koura, Urte Mitkaite, Dana Bratu, Clara Lungu, Claudia Cantarini, Ceyda Ilgen, Marc Fegarski and Anna Stanczyszyn have been shortlisted.
Within the Ideation category, candidates will be judged on their ability to pitch the potential of a viable product or service idea. Throughout the Big Idea programme, candidates took part in workshops and worked with peers to learn how to build and frame a business model, work towards a proof of concept and pitch to get feedback on their idea. For Ideation, Cristina Militaru, Elizabeth Ola, Ali Lubulwa, Liliana Upegiu, Leigh-Ann Smith, Brandon Myers, Sandiaa Vasanthi Paramasivam, Asma Hassan, Charlotte Donivar, Anahita Mohammadkhani, Jamille do Carmo, Anuja Patel, Rebecca Veliu, Csilla Jakab, Giada Baire, Tobias Gamper and Hannah Davis have been shortlisted.
For the Acceleration category, candidates will be judged on their ability to pitch an existing and trading business and its potential to grow. Throughout the Big Idea programme, candidates took part in workshops and worked with peers to take their existing business to the next level, get investment ready, identify a strategy to grow their team and scale production, customer and revenue growth. Within Acceleration, Aram Tufan, Penny Clark, Arnau Gil, Riccardo Facciolongo, Pavlina Andreevska, Salvatore Casto, Olufemi Davies, Jevgenij Rodionov, Youmin Ho, Katherine Rojas, Thomas Capone, Yousef Skandari, Valerio Pompili, Evelyn Namutebi and Jak Kohen Kasar have been shortlisted.
Throughout the Big Idea programme, candidates took part in workshops and worked with peers to take their existing business to the next level, get investment ready, identify a strategy to grow their team and scale production, customer and revenue growth. For the Finale, finalists will be selected to pitch during the event.
Talking about the competition, Miguel Noite, Student and Graduate Engagement Officer at WeNetwork, said: ”We are thrilled to see the quality and range of ideas we received in the first stage of the competition, from different courses and campuses across the University. The upskill workshops were an important element of the competition, where students developed their ideas with guidance from industry experts. The range of ideas is brilliant, and we are looking forward to the grand final, where 9 finalists will pitch live in front a group of judges, colleagues, academics and the general public.”
Find out more on the Big Idea Competition website.
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