The Big Pitch 2013 closed with a bang at its Big Final event on Thursday 25 April, in the Helmore Academy, Cambridge. The competition, now in its third successful year, is a CEDAR (Centre for Enterprise Development and Research at Lord Ashcroft International Business School) led initiative encouraging our students - regardless of campus and faculty - to embrace entrepreneurship and work towards starting their own business.

To enter the competition, students were asked to submit a business idea, in the form of a one-minute video, to the competition website (www.thebigpitch.co.uk) by 14 March. 66 student entrepreneurs did just that, and their videos were judged by a group of local entrepreneurs to determine who made it through to the next round. In early April, 25 of those entries - 10 chosen by popular vote and 15 selected by a panel of entrepreneurs - then attended an intensive week of training at The Big Pitch Bootcamp following which 6 finalists were selected.

At The Big Final, those six finalists: ToneKey, Colour Films, Artist Cycle, Hell in Leather, MMO Maker and TV Format, pitched their ideas live to a panel of judges in front of an audience of over 100 students, staff and local business people. The judges, chaired by Walter Herriot, OBE, then selected the first, second and third prize winners. Winners receive £15,000, £10,000 and £5,000 (respectively) of start-up funding, as well as free business banking from Barclays, financial advice workshops from Peters, Elworthy and Moore, legal advice from Mills & Reeve, and mentoring support from CEDAR.

There was a great atmosphere at the event, which was opened by Professor Alan Sibbald, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and Professor Gary Packham, Deputy Dean for Research and Enterprise at Lord Ashcroft International Business School, who described the event as "fabulous". The crowd cheered as the winners were announced, with the top prize being awarded to Dominic Chapman of MMO Maker, second prize to LAIBS' student Helen Russ of Hell in Leather, and third prize to Samareh Azadi and Mehran Sanei of Artist Cycle.

Also at the event were 4 of the competitions' semi-finalists, who were picked out by the judges as being exceptional, but not quite ready to make it into a final. These students, Jessie Brimble of The Treat Tray, Chiyedza Heri of Utano Tea, Samson Achema of Euphoria Wear and Shannon Wyllie of K9 Support, were all invited to have a stall at the event to showcase their products and ideas.


The Big Pitch will return in Semester 2, 2013/4. For more information, please visit www.thebigpitch.co.uk, or contact Lianne Miller: lianne.miller@anglia.ac.uk