Bangor’s ‘Enterprise by Design’ students bring entrepreneurship skills and products to a ‘Dragon’s Den’

A Competition that is expected to result in new products coming to market, takes place at Bangor University this week.

With one product from a previous competition already approaching commercialisation, an exciting innovation pilot project, Enterprise by Design 2012, will see students pitching their products in the Final of the competition, taking place on Thursday 22nd March at 6.30pm at Bangor University’s Wheldon building.

Enterprise by Design involves 40 undergraduate students across five specialist subject areas in the University, who are split into multidisciplinary teams of four or five members. These students are vying to create a product, from conception to prototype, and deliver a pitch to a judging panel for their chance of winning an investment of part of a £10,000 prize Seed Fund towards the development, and potentially the creation and commercialisation, of their chosen design.

This year’s brief is provided by DMM, a Llanberis based company that design and manufactures recreational climbing and mountaineering equipment. DMM noted that an increasing number of young children are visiting indoor rock-walls and suggested that the demographics of the climbing market are becoming increasingly bottom heavy. With that in mind, they invited the teams to ‘propose a product concept for children of climbers that extends but does not dilute the DMM brand’.

During the Final the teams will be delivering four minute presentations including a screening of a 30 second product video to the judges. The judging panel consists of David Noddings and Fred Hall (DMM) Professor David Shepherd (Deputy Vice Chancellor, Bangor University) Phil Nelson (Director, Surf-Lines) Huw Watkins (Business Development Manager, BIC Innovations). Also on hand to scrutinise the products will be a junior judging panel comprising of five children in the 7-14 year old age range. There will be an opportunity for the judges to attend a ‘Product Trade Fair’ where the judges will have an opportunity to see prototypes of the products and will provide an opportunity for the judges to ask any questions to the Flower teams.

Publication date: 21 March 2012