Following the success of last year’s Dragons’ Den session at the Warwick Network, we’re running the event again where you will have the opportunity to pitch your idea for either a new on-campus business venture or a service improvement initiative, with the potential to receive management support, business mentoring and resources from the University to turn your idea into a reality.

The event will be held as follows:

• Monday 15 December at 11-12.15pm, in the Arts Centre studio

If you have an idea for a new business or an opportunity to improve a service or efficiency at the University, we want to hear about it! You’ll need to prepare in advance of the session by completing the form on the links below to tell us more about your idea and emailing it to Michele O’Shea by noon on Friday 21 November for both the service improvement and new business ventures.

• Proposal form - Service Improvement
• Proposal form - New Business Ventures

You’ll be notified in advance if your idea has been shortlisted for presentation. If you have an idea and aren’t able to attend the event or you don’t feel comfortable presenting yourself, we’d still like to hear about it – please still submit it by the deadline as this will give the panel time to review all ideas.

The shortlisted applicants will then pitch their ideas to a panel of five Dragons consisting of senior members of staff and / or external guests. The winner (or winners) will be decided and announced during the session. The benefits for winners could include management support, business mentoring, access to expertise, networks, resources and funding.

Get involved

Please note you can sign up to attend the Dragons’ Den sessions without preparing and pitching an idea. Audience participation is just as crucial! The events so far have been fun as well as interesting.

Please register here to reserve your place in the audience. Please also complete this if you are submitting a proposal as this will help us manage numbers. If you have any queries when completing the form, please email Michele O’Shea.

Find out more…

We also ran a Dragons’ Den in July where four intrepid entrepreneurs pitched their ideas for new University-based businesses to a panel of Dragons. The panel, consisting of Ken Sloan, Jo Horsburgh, Delyth Chambers, Geraldine Mills and Tom Britten, got into the spirit of the event and Tom Britten was soaked demonstrating a pitch for a campus based umbrella rental scheme!

Ideas from the last Network Day and the summer Dragons’ Den which gained support included Convibo – a grocery delivery service which is now up and running, a pop-up fancy dress shop in the Arts Centre, a cycle hire scheme which is coming soon, and an Ideas Space – a virtual space for the creation of innovative ideas – which is being progressed.