A North West Regional College (NWRC) student who pitched a business idea that aims to be the ‘Google Earth of sporting facilities’ has won the college’s first ever IDEATOR awards.
Sports student Conan McShane is the owner of digital platform ‘Fitness Maps’ which hugely impressed the judging panel at the IDEATOR final pitch event which was held at Strand Road Campus.
The Fitness Maps concept provides an in-depth search engine of sporting facilities in the UK, giving information such as opening times, busiest and quietest times, facilities on offer, and much more.
This is the first year of NWRC’s IDEATOR Awards which saw £4k of cash prizes being awarded to college students, staff, and recent alumni. The competition, run by NWRC’s first ever Entrepreneur in Residence, Alastair Cameron, has been created to encourage and reward entrepreneurial thinking.
The submitted business ideas were shortlisted and 13 finalists were invited to compete for one of the 7 cash prizes on offer by pitching their ideas and early-stage ventures to a panel of esteemed judges at a special IDEATOR Awards event.
Alastair Cameron, who as well as his role at NWRC is the co-founder of Startacus said: “I was hugely inspired and really impressed with the quality and range of pitches that were presented. It was great to bring NWRC students, alumni, and staff 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 - The Lab Fund, RealTime Recruitment, Alchemy Technology, British Business Bank, Tughans, and Satori Accounting.”
Gillian Moss, Head of Client Services at NWRC said: “The IDEATOR Awards finals was a thoroughly enjoyable event and I congratulate everyone who came along to make their pitch. At NWRC we are committed to support our students increase their potential and creative flair to drive forward entrepreneurship and startup culture throughout the College.”
The other winners of the IDEATORS included student Christian Kotey with his idea Nupitch, a creative service and future platform for startup filmmakers to get investor-ready, students Angela McNutt and Stacey Hinfey who inspired the judges with their pitch on Core Collective, a counselling service focused on 1-2-1 support, workshops and a future app, part-time staff member Pragya Sharma, the founder of Gran Lab, a green MedTech startup aimed at curing psoriasis and eczema, NWRC alumni Ciaran Devine who pitched an exciting E-Tuk operating service, Michael Kavanagh with his Retro Gaming Business idea, and Nathan Frazer with Get Gigged, a tech marketplace for local gigs.
