Title: Idea Competition

Department: WMG

Staff Lead: Ali Ahmad

Overview:

WMG held a pitching event, funded, and supported by Warwick Enterprise through the Innovation 23 campaign. The event was design by Dr Ali Ahmed and the IAE team to encourage students to develop highly impactful project ideas, as an extension of their existing project design process.

This activity aimed to increase student engagement and contestify the project submission process. The objective was to address ongoing issues of students not having viable business/project ideas to work with and leaving their project work until too late in the academic year.

The activity involved complimented existing systems by capturing the entire cohort's project ambitions, providing feedback on these concepts, and encouraging students to pitch these in a competitive environment. The event spanned a few weeks, with a submission deadline in December.

Outcomes:

The MSc IAE team set a deadline of December 15 for the submission of all project ideas from the 100 registered students. The team then created a shortlist of 10 who would be invited to pitch to panel of judges on January 15, the rest of the cohort would observe and provide peer feedback. The judges then chose 3 finalists from the shortlist, and a prize was awarded for the best concept.

The event was a great success, the judges were impressed by the quality, creativity, and innovative potential of the presentations. The top three students were: Annisa Nindyaningrum, who pitched a Med-Tech concept, Waranpas Lohavattanakul, who pitched a fast fashion rental company, and Salma El-Rufai, who pitched a renewable technology broker.

Annisa Nindyaningrum, the winner of the £1000 prize, expressed that she is:

"...delighted and feel challenged by myself at the same time. Being chosen as the winner of the business pitching creates a new challenge for me to realise this idea. Because I believe that if I try harder, I'll be able to obtain the right resources that I need, one of which is by making good networking. From the first time I submitted a business idea, I tried to find ideas that were currently being highlighted, namely the combination of healthcare and technology. And I'm grateful that what I had planned was able to make this idea well received.”

Evaluation:

The pitching event provided students with feedback and encouragement beforehand on the IAE project, which gave them more confidence and the ability to find the best supervisor as quickly as possible. This would ultimately help resolve the recurring problem of the supervisor-student connection. However, there is room for further improvement to address ongoing issues such as student engagement, project ideation difficulties, and the need for more opportunities.

To address these issues, WMG could consider scaling up the event and inviting other MSc cohorts to participate. This would provide a larger pool of students to ideate and present their business ideas, fostering greater creativity and innovation. Additionally, WMG could develop a more refined system to capture and evaluate student idea submissions. This would reduce the overall workload on the IAE teaching team when it comes to delivering feedback and enable students to receive more comprehensive and constructive feedback on their ideas.

Embedding:

The success of the pitching event organized by WMG for their IAE master students provides a strong rationale for embedding similar opportunities for students to receive external validation and recognition for their efforts. For example, WMG could consider making the pitching event a regular part of the annual IAE calendar of activities. Moreover, WMG could also look to prepare students to participate in more prestigious domestic and overseas competitions.

By exploring ways to provide more such opportunities, WMG can help students gain valuable experience and recognition around innovation and entrepreneurship, while also enhancing the reputation of the IAE program and the Warwick Enterprise. To achieve this, Warwick Enterprise could provide additional training and support to students to help them explore ideas, develop skills, and launch ventures as well as connect them with experts and mentors who can provide guidance and feedback.