We are delighted to invite you to our inaugural Showcase event, celebrating the phenomenal entrepreneurial talent that resides within The University of Manchester. Celebrating entrepreneurship and innovation, this event will highlight the importance of building confidence and improving the employability prospects of our graduates, whilst increasing diversity and inclusion across the University ecosystem through entrepreneurial activities.
Showcasing Success
Vikas Shah MBE (Swiscot Group) joins us, in conversation with some inspiring individuals & success stories from a plethora of MEC Alumni across the years.
We're joined by:
- Somayeh Taheri, CEO & Founder of Urban Chain
- Wai Lau, First VF Winner & CEO and Founder of Cloud Enterprise
- Aldo De Leonibus, CEO of Inventya LTD
- Kwame Asamoah, CEO of PolicyCon & Former Executive Director of Manchester Student's Union
LEARN, DEVELOP, LAUNCH - Building Foundations for Impact
Through academic excellence, taught units and researcher development activities, MEC helps aspiring entrepreneurs build the foundations for impact and contribute to making the world a better place.
The ISIKLE Project in partnership with UCL
Increasing and Evaluating Student Impact in Knowledge and Learning Exchange. Hannah Williams ( Strand Coordinator and Evaluator, ISIKLE @ UCL) will be highlighting some of the key learnings around ‘developing an entrepreneurial mind-set’ for PGR students as part of the ISIKLE Project.
ARC Aspect Accelerator
Chris Fellingham (Social Sciences and Humanities Lead @ Oxford University, Director of ARC Accelerator) joins us to discuss the creation & impact of the ARC Aspect Accelerator, the first accelerator programme for researchers in the SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for People and the Economy) disciplines.
R2I Researcher to Innovator
Aline Miller (Associate Dean for Innovation and Business Engagement in Science and Engineering @ UoM) & Dr Simon Brown (CEO of P2T Consulting LTD) will be delivering a focused talk on the structure of R2I and how the programme supports FSE researchers & FSE activities at The University of Manchester. We'll be listening to an inspiring case study on one of the 2022 winners of R2I who successfully completed the programme, where they are now and their aspirations for the future.
An Insight into The Network Thinking™ methodology with Honorary Professor Daria Tataj
Daria is the author of 'Innovation and Entrepreneurship. A Growth Model for Europe beyond the Crisis’ and was Chair of Advisors to European Commissioner for Research, Science & Innovation Carlos Moedas. Daria has also worked closely with Prof Luke Georgiou, most recently at the European Science Festival in Manchester.
Daria has developed The Network Thinking™ methodology, which is founded on the research, conducted for the past 15 years and the hands-on experience of building the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and its knowledge innovation communities (KICs) - a daring policy experiment of the European Union. This experiment was to network research, education, innovation and entrepreneurship into high performance distributed innovation ecosystems.
Daria will deliver an inspirational speech on the dynamics of utilising the ecosystems, including;
1) The skills needed to succeed in these ecosystems
2) Relevant case studies of the learnings from failures and successes
3) KPIs to drive impactful growth
Ask @ MCR
After the break, we're hosting the very first Ask @ MCR pitching session. We've handpicked 10 Entrepreneurs from our MEC Alumni to pitch to our esteemed panel of investors, angels, alumni & business stakeholders.
Our pitchees will have 2 minutes to make their Ask in this Dragon's Den style quick fire pitching session!
Meet the Investors!
- Nick Sanders, Executive Chairman of Carclo & Donor for the Nick Sanders Kickstarter Award
- David Newns, Founding Partner of Fearless Adventures
- Jack Fleet, Business Development Director of Creator Fund
- Sue Barnard, Senior Manager North West Network UK, British Business Bank
- Masamba Senghore, Investor @ MMC Ventures
- Jess Jackson, Head Of Investment @ GC Angels
- Sam Patchitt, Investment and Portfolio Manager @ GC Angels
Join us for this spectacular celebratory showcase and see how MEC can help make your entrepreneurship dreams a reality.
