“You are all Winners” :)

Another busy and very productive enterprise camp has come to an end and what a great week it was!!  All the teams put in great work and commitment to produce business ideas with fantastic potential.

After a morning working together to perfect their business pitches the teams pitched their ideas to a panel of judges.  The judges commented on the professional manner in which they all presented and how cleverly thought out their ideas where.  All of the market research and work on their ideas has obviously paid off!!

Some of the ideas included; self-repairing screens for phones, an app for scanning clothing styles, a smart fuel management system, a phone case that protects your earphones and waterproof socks.

Many of the students asked us to pick our favourite but we were so impressed with all the hard work it would be like picking our favourite child!!!  As I said “you are all winners in my eyes” 🙂

The groups were then presented with their certificates for completing the camp by the CIT president and ACE the innovation mascot of CIT.

The enterprise camp staff would like to wish each participant the very best of luck in the future and don’t forget we are always here to offer any advice along the way if needed.

The Business ideas are coming together…

A day of market research, marketing offline and on-line, costing and pricing their products meant that the groups business ideas are showing great potential.

Deirdre from CIT’s management and enterprise department showed the group how necessary a good marketing plan is for a start up.  Eoin and Will from the successful multimedia company based in the Rubicon Centre, Dog Day Media, went through the importance of video for businesses today using their own innovative and fun videos as examples. Hazel from the on campus Bank of Ireland gave an overview of costing and pricing for the teams products and stayed in the camp to help out each group.

After only a few days the hard working teams are ensuring that the business ideas they present will be well and truly impressive….We are excited to see the end result!!

Innovation at Logitech

After an early lunch for some much needed energy, the group headed off to one of the leaders in tech innovation, Logitech, for an exciting and extremely interesting tour of their Cork company.  After hearing about the trends in the industry and the reasoning behind the direction that Logitech has taken over the years, we went for a tour of the design centre to check out the evolution of their products designs and creative surroundings where they come up with ideas for their sleek and impressive product line.

The group were then treated to a trip down to the lab to see a drop test of an iPad to test the newly launched Blok protective case.

Entrepreneurial Stories

The morning was spent listening to the stories of some of the hard working entrepreneurs based in the Rubicon Centre.  Each entrepreneur explained how they developed their ideas and some brought along a prototype to show the enterprise camp group their business ideas in real life!

One of the ideas on display included a motion sensor linked with gaming technology to offer an innovative solution to rehabilitation patients.  Some of the Student Inc. programme entrepreneurs then went through their projects which included food projects such as healthy sous vide packs and gluten free cookies and a equestrian training device for children learning horse riding.

A quick break with Munster Rugby

After a busy morning of coming up with business ideas the group took a break to watch the Munster Rugby team’s training session.  Donnacha O’Callaghan popped over to chat about the Enterprise Camp activities and to encourage the groups on developing their ideas for the rest of the week.

EOY Ireland

James from the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year (EOY) team visited the camp today to talk about the prestigious EOY programme that aims to promote entrepreneurship across Ireland and empower entrepreneurs to grow their businesses both in Ireland and around the world.

An overview of the selection process, the entrepreneur retreats and the awards ceremony offered great insight for the group on the fantastic VIP treatment our top entrepreneurs in Ireland receive for all their hard work.

One of those hard working entrepreneurs, Colette Twomey, Managing Director of Clonakilty Black Pudding, told the fascinating story of Clonakilty Black Pudding and how it has grown and developed over the years.  Colette, who is one of the EOY finalists for 2015, also discussed the merits of being part of the EOY programme and networking amongst Ireland’s top entrepreneurs.

Pages of Ideas

The idea generation session kicked off with a few exercises to get some ideas flowing……and flow they did!!

Pages of flip chart paper have been used and a long list of ideas have been stored.  It looks like it will be an exciting week full of creativity and innovation!!

Exploring the CIT campus and some new technology!

The group were treated to a detailed tour around the facilities in CIT, stopping for some much needed relaxation and fresh air in the impressive sports grounds.  When they ventured back to the Rubicon Centre they visited a number of companies while they busily worked away on their start-ups.

To inspire the group for the week we paid a visit to the team in the Nimbus Centre that came up with the innovative Tip Tap Tap interactive school desk, a desk that allows all students to interact simultaneously across the classroom, providing support for a more collaborative & participatory learning experience.  The group were brought through the concept, creation and design development of this innovative device and invited to try it out for themselves.

Paper Towers, Spaghetti stacks and a Marshmallow!

The first day of the CIT Enterprise camp finally arrived!!  What a busy day it was too…

Once the group got settled in it was time to give an overview of the programme, the centre and entrepreneurship in general.  Some motivational examples of young successful entrepreneurs set the tone for the week as we have no doubt there will be some successful stories out of this group in years to come.

After assigning the groups their team-mates for the week it was time for some team building activities.  Starting with the paper tower challenge, the groups started strong, working together to achieve the tallest tower.  A few light gusts of wind and tower repairs later the teams realised “it’s not as easy as you’d think”.

After some practice in teamwork and time management we moved on to the trickier Marshmallow challenge.  After the initial disappointment that they couldn’t tuck in to the marshmallow wore off they all got stuck in to build the tallest structure out of their supplies.  Each team did very well with their structure standing tall at one stage in the challenge, although some took a bit of a tumble before the end.  The winning team seemed content with their prize…..the bag of marshmallows!

Presentations and Photographs

All good things must come to an end and today was the day.  A bunch of enthusiastic camp participants came in this morning to finish their business presentations in their groups.  After a bit of finishing and practicing, it was time to pitch their ideas to our judging panel.  The judges included experienced entrepreneur, Myles Murray of PMD Solutions, Sylvia Coakley, Bank of Ireland CIT branch manager, Orla Flynn, Vice President for External Affairs in CIT and Gerard O’Donovan, Head of Faculty of Business and Humanities in CIT.

All of the judges agreed that the ideas, the thought behind the ideas and the presentation styles were all of a very high standard.  Sylvia treated all to a free money box so they can start saving towards their successful future business venture!!

After the presentations the groups were awarded certificates for their participation in the camp over the week accompanied by ACE, CIT’s innovation robot.  After all of the hard work we feel the certificates and recognition of their hard work is well deserved and have no doubt that we will be seeing some of these entrepreneurial bunch around again to discuss the many options that await them.  We look forward to seeing some of them back around CIT and the Rubicon centre in the future.