Last week was an extremely busy one in the Innovation Centre as the UMI3 Entrepreneurship Forum got well and truly underway with four exciting and informative events. The aim of the Forum is to unite the external community, whose interests lie in entrepreneurship and innovation, with the University’s academic/research community through a series of workshops, seminars and events
The week started on Monday 23rd with the third Deloitte & UMI3 CEO Readiness Workshops for academics & fledgling companies. The workshop is for new start and growing businesses, composed of both academic start-ups and UMIC tenants. Delegates heard from Harold Sharples of Flightplan on how to deliver investor ready high growth enabled start-ups; Scott Bayne and Tim Grogan of Deloitte explained how to prepare for exit from a commercial success. Finally Derek Bannister of Insource Finance & Marketing Ltd gave some insights into his experience of two successful exits from life science companies and his search for the third!
Tuesday morning saw 50 attendees at the UMI3 Manchester MicroMasterclass breakfast networking event sponsored by CBG Group. There was an expert panel giving an update on social media trends and tips for use for 2012 including;-Stuart Smith (3Sheep Ltd) who looked at Beyond Social Media and The Mobile Effect. Elizabeth Clark (Dreamagility) talked about Foursquare and Google+ and monitoring the customer journey across all the social media touch for ‘SMEs maximising their potential’. Annie Bannister (WSI Internet Consulting) covered a range of tactical uses for LinkedIn and the ability to reach out through other professional contacts for business development. Finally Dr Anita Greenhill (Programme Director at MBS) discussed her research findings into the developing hyper local media industry and its use for marketing and advertising. Four attendees including Neil Lewis of Media Modo LLP and Charlotte Reilly of George Davies Solicitors had their ‘one minute moment’ on the podium to present their business and its social media issues to the panel.
Claire Arkwright, Licensing Manager at the University’s IP commercialisation company, UMIP, said: “I did enjoy the Masterclass and came away with information that was new to me and helped me start to think about more effective use of social media in the workplace. The breadth of knowledge of the speaker panel was good.”
The newly launched ‘MicroMasterclass +’ was a follow on event with the Access To Finance team from Manchester Solutions. The seminar covered a selection of topics including assessing your financial position and funding requirements and developing your business plan with financial and other supporting information. Following this the delegates had an opportunity to participate in a one-2-one session with a member of the Access to Finance team.
Elizabeth Clarke of DreamAgility said ‘The Access to Finance event was also really interesting, we have been looking at various things, but to have all that advice in one place is brilliant, so thanks for that’
Finally on Thursday evening UMI3 hosted the Envestors business angel network ‘Investing in Innovation’ event. Dr Rich Ferrie, Head of UMIP, outlined the commercialisation successes at The University of Manchester since 2004 and introduced some of the new and emerging opportunities looking for investment in the next few months.
Finally three companies pitched to the assembled business angels for funding including London-based medical devices company Forte Medical hoping to secure £500,000, and Corcost, based in Selby, which has designed a product that makes hospital beds more mobile pitched for £200,000 of funding.
Tom Wilkins, managing director of Manchester-based Envestors, said: “Our Investing in Innovation events have proved very successful for all concerned and we are pleased to be hosting another one. The key is the high-quality of the businesses seeking investment, as well as the calibre of those watching the pitch and deciding whether to invest. It shows there are great opportunities out there for the business angel community.”
Please see our calendar at www.www.umic.co.uk/events for information on upcoming events.
