FLUX 2010 – over 200 winners!

Top student entrepreneurs from 33 UK universities attended an intensely competitive final of Flux 500 – a business challenge created and run by Working Knowledge.  See some video highlights here.http://www.vimeo.com/10614021

Hosted by Nottingham Trent University, Flux 500 is now the largest inter-university enterprise competition in UK.

As part of the fast-paced, two-day competition, teams of six students were challenged to create a new business division for Remploy, the national provider of employment services and employment to people with barriers to work. Over 40 business experts, from companies such as event sponsors Experian, Backup Direct, KPMG, and a range of other large and small organisations were on hand to guide the students.

During the competition finals, the team had just five minutes to pitch their strategy to the business experts – who went from consultants in the day to ‘dragons’ in the evening – before facing rigorous questioning and receiving feedback.

After the preliminary heats, four teams from the University of Bedfordshire, University College Plymouth MarJon, Nottingham Trent University and the University of Bristol were chosen to compete in a final head-to-head challenge.

With only 15 minutes to prepare, the teams then faced a tense press conference-style grilling from four of the toughest business experts.  After all the votes were counted the University of Bedfordshire came out as Flux 2010 champions.

Bedfordshire team member Greg Dorban said: “Winning was a fantastic feeling! To come top out of over 30 leading universities is just unbelievable. Obviously we went there to win, but never expected it, especially after seeing and hearing our competition.” Manjunath Basapoor another member of the team added: “I learnt some new skills and tools like XING, which are quite useful especially in preparing business plans. This win is a great credible addition to my CV, and this happened at the right time as I will be entering the job market after my MBA.”

The final day of Flux included the ‘Expo’ – a recruitment fair for students to find out about employment opportunities and take part in workshops to improve their employability skills. The event also gave employers the chance to speak to students who had impressed them during the competition and several approached students as a result of their success.

Flux 500 was developed and is run by The Working Knowledge Group, which bridges the gap between education and the workplace. This year’s event was sponsored by Experian, Backup Direct, NCGE, The Greater Nottingham Partnership and the Nottinghamshire City & County Employment and Skills Board, with support from Experience Nottinghamshire.

Chris Hall, business manager at competition host, The Hive, said: “There were a lot of extremely dedicated people who made this a very exciting and engaging event, from the students, to the business experts and the Hive entrepreneurs who came along to help. It was very enjoyable and we had lots of positive comments about our newly refurbished Newton building where the event was held.”