StartupCafe

Can you hear them? Yes, it’s the sound of freshers and the rest of the students coming back from their summer holidays. We thought we would ask Hilary Singer from Launch.ed what their plans are this coming semester … (oh and remember to check out their new website!)

LAUNCH.ed/iCUE Event Series

This year, LAUNCH.ed is teaming up with iCUE to offer a series of events to develop your practical entrepreneurship skills. The iCUE Event Series is free, open to all Edinburgh students and recent graduates, and is intended to be an excellent preparation for this year’s business plans. All events will begin at 18:30 with free beer and pizza unless otherwise stated.

1. October 6th – Get Enterprising. A hands-on introduction to enterprise led by this year’s interns. Expect to participate in a competitive innovation challenge—for prizes.

2. October 13th – Ideas Generation Workshop. Due to popular demand, we bring back the second annual Ideas Generation Workshop. Educating and inspiring us this year is Anthony Ives, Enterprise Programme Director at the Scottish Institute for Enterprise (SIE). Anthony has worked previously at the MIT Entrepreneurship Center and Columbia University,designing and leading new international entrepreneurship educationprograms such as Enterprisers and EDGE (Encouraging Dynamic GlobalEntrepreneurs), and now oversees all of SIE’s educational programmes and activities nationwide.

3. November 10th – Market Research Workshop. Learn to assess the business potential of your ideas. Led by LAUNCH.ed’s Company Formation Executive Becci Difford.

4. November 16th – Enterprise Week. An international celebration of entrepreneurship. The specific 2009 events are still to be decided. Last year, we participated in an international innovation tournament. Watch a video of last year’s participants here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q40aRN7MgzE

Competitions

1. LAUNCH.ed £50 Prize Draw – You may have noticed our sleek new look! To celebrate the launch of our new website, we’re giving away £50 cash. Any Edinburgh student or recent graduate who registers with LAUNCH.ed before 8 Oct. 2009 will be eligible. REGISTER NOW. Registering with LAUNCH.ed gives you access to free downloadable content like business plan templates and market research guidelines. It also means that you’ll start receiving our monthly newsletters about upcoming events and competitions. You can unsubscribe at any time.

2. SIE £150 Twitter Competition – The Scottish Institute for Enterprise (SIE) is welcoming students back to university this year with a Twitter-based prize draw for £150. Details on www.launch.ed.ac.uk.

While the following competitions have not yet launched, here’s a heads up of what’s ahead! Register with LAUNCH.ed to get news updates about the competitions.

3. Business Ideas Competition – This competition rewards students for developing new ideas in:

• Arts and Culture
• E-Commerce/Retail
• Product/Design
• Science, Technology and Engineering (including software)
• Services
• Social Enterprise

The top entrant in each category will win £200 cash before being forwarded to a national round of competition where the prizes are even bigger:

National champion £1500 in business funding
Category winners £500 cash

4. New Ventures Competition – Already in business? Then skip the Business Ideas Competition and head here for bigger prizes: win £5000 of business funding in the New Ventures Competition.

Questions about any of the above? Email hilary.singer@ed.ac.uk.