Winners of the NWRC Ideator awards Calum McCallion and Colm Mulligan who won £1,000 for the best overall business idea for their business Borderlink, pictured with Emma Douds of Realtime Recruitment, Alastair Cameron, NWRC Entreprenuer in Residence, Aaron McElhinney of The Amp, and Erin McFeely from Alchemy Technologies.
Calum McCallion and Colm Mulligan won £1,000 for the best overall business idea after pitching their live business Borderlink Recruitment, a tech recruitment agency aiming to create an AI skill development platform committed to helping candidates develop the critical skills necessary to excel in their roles.
This is the second year of NWRC’s IDEATOR Awards run by NWRC’s Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) Alastair Cameron, designed to encourage and reward entrepreneurial thinking.
The submitted business ideas were shortlisted and nine finalists were invited to compete for one of the cash prizes on offer by pitching their ideas and early-stage ventures to a panel of esteemed judges at a special IDEATOR Awards event.
Among the judges were: Aaron McElhinney of The Amp, Erin McFeely from Alchemy Technologies and Emma Douds of Realtime Recruitment.
Other winners included HND Digital design student Christian Kotey who won £500 for best tech / digital idea (sponsored by Alchemy Technology) for NuPitch, a tech-driven platform for the film industry that aims to streamline the elevator pitch, accelerating film productions from concept through to production.
Foundation degree in Science student Christopher McMonagle won the £500 runner up prize (sponsored by RealTime Recruitment) for Tempsi , a wearable temperature monitoring device to revolutionise paediatric health monitoring.
Access Adult Learning student Leah Weavers was also a runner up for her idea Bio Horizon, a specialist biological consultancy service focused on providing commercial farmers integrated pest management strategies, this prize of £500 was sponsored by The Amp.
And transition student Paul Swann won £500 for best vision for business growth / commercialisation (sponsored by British Business Bank) for BuySellSwap.org – an open marketplace for buying, selling, swapping, auctioning, and giving away goods.
NWRC EIR, Alastair Cameron said entries for the Ideator awards were of an extremely high standard.
He added: “It was great to bring NWRC students and alumni together for this exciting event and it gives me great hope for the future that the college will continue to drive and encourage this spirit of entrepreneurship.
“I’d like to thank all of our sponsors – NWRC, RealTime Recruitment, Alchemy Technology, British Business Bank, and the Amp.”
Gillian Moss, Head of Client Services at NWRC said: “My congratulations to everyone who took part in the Ideator awards.
“At NWRC we are committed to supporting our students who have ambitions to run their own business.
“Entrepreneurship fosters creativity, problem-solving skills, and a spirit of innovation within a society as well as lead to job creation and economic growth.”
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