An ACE event!
ACE EventAcademic Champions of Enterprise (ACEs) from Bangor, Aberystwyth and Swansea Universities consortium met in Aberystwyth University on 18th and 19th May to network, share ideas and plan the enterprise agenda for the future. The first day of the mini conference comprised a training session for all delegates from Bio-TRIZ, a consultancy company based in Bath who have developed a unique toolkit for problem solving and invention.
On Day 2, Bangor ACEs Dr Andy Goodman, Director, Design Studio, Dr James Intriligator, Senior Lecturer, School of Psychology, Dr Iestyn Pierce, Senior Lecturer, School of Electronic Engineering and Dewi Rowlands, Course Director Product Design, School of Education shared ideas with their counterparts in Aberystwyth and Swansea Universities to plan future collaborative enterprise activity across the consortium.
Participants also enjoyed a tour of the campus, organised by Tony Orme, Enterprise Manager at Aberystwyth University, including the new creativity units in the Arts Centre, an award winning creative hub for arts businesses, arts development agencies, artists and craft workers.
The event was also attended by Erika Dawson, Youth Entrepreneurship Manager from the Welsh Government.
ACE is a pilot project managed by the Careers & Employability Service at Bangor University in consortium with Aberystwyth and Swansea Universities. The Welsh Government funded project was developed to promote enterprise activity, as well as identifying opportunities for enterprise support, by engaging with staff through departmental ACEs. It has stimulated interest from external organisations to develop ideas and generated research opportunities to ACEs.
Andy Goodman, Director, Design Studio, Pontio said of the project ‘ACE was the foundation which brought various academics into a forum to discuss enterprise related projects’. James Intriligator, Senior Lecturer and Psychology ACE has said ‘the ACE role has allowed me to pursue many different enterprise projects – eg Enterprise by Design, Social Enterprise Accelerator, Flux, all of which have provided great benefits for students in terms of multidisciplinary working, real world experience of working together in teams and learning skills which are valuable for employers’
The B-Enterprising team would like to thank everyone who took part and we look forward to the next exciting stage of ACE collaboration across our institutions.
To find out more about the ACE project please contact Lowri Owen or Ceri Jones at B-enterprising@bangor.ac.uk.
Publication date: 29 June 2012