Our 4 Eden Student Entrepreneurship Challenge Finalists were (LtoR) Gavyn Pedley, Brian O'Connor, Diarmuid Connon and Alex Quigley
Peter Robbins (left), Centre Manager for EDEN, presents the first prize in the 2015 Student Enterprise Competition to winner, Gavyn Pedley.
Gavyn Pedley, a third year, Entrepreneurship student won first prize in the Maynooth University 2015 Eden Student Entrepreneurship Challenge on Thursday, May 7th. The competition, which is run and managed by EDEN, university centre for entrepreneurship, design and innovation has a first prize of €5000 and is co-sponsored by McCann Fitzgerald, Bank of Ireland and Enterprise Ireland.
The competition is designed to engage a wide cross section of the student body in developing novel, creative and promising ideas. EDEN runs a series of creative café’s in Costa Cafe, Phoenix Restaurant, Maynooth University where we coach students in creativity including creative writing, storytelling, sketching, thinking visually and making an elevator pitch. This year, over 250 students attended and we had many cross-functional teams begin work on new ideas and projects. EDEN had a dedicated Moodle page for this competition where students could log on to see examples of entry forms, business models, concept boards and everything they’d need to enter the competition. They could book an appointment with EDEN and many students availed of that.
Gavyn’s idea is for meat and dairy free vegetarian meats – ‘Boss Burgers’ and ‘Bad Ass Bacon’ (moodleymanor.com). Last year, he came second in the final but his idea and his personal passion and energy were so impressive, EDEN put him in touch with Teagasc who did some development work with him and helped him win an EI Innovation Voucher for €5000. Since, then he has gone from strength to strength, winning a place on the New Frontiers Programme and reaching the finals for the Alltech Student Innovation Awards just last month.
The final of the competition is run in a Dragon’s Den format where the students are asked to pitch their idea for 15 minutes using whatever props they wish to an experienced, (generally benign) and influential panel of judges – and the judges decide the winner and award the prize that afternoon.
This year’s judges were:
- Ms Nikki Dwyer, IP Lawyer working for NAMA and an adjunct lecturer for the Entrepreneurship degree in Maynooth University.
- Ms Elieen O’Hara – Manager, Bank of Ireland, Maynooth
- Ms Marianna Kane – Manager of the Design Studio for Product Design, Maynooth University
- Mr Conor Mallaghan – Owner and Manager of Carton House
- Mr Adam Finlay – Partner at McCann Fitzgerald
The judges all spoke glowingly of the finalists and noted that their ideas are more imaginative than in previous years – showing a growing level of creativity among the entrants. They also noted that their ability to present their ideas had soared this year with many sparkling presentations of exceptional quality.
From L/R: Dr Frank Devitt, Brian O’Connor, Conor Mallaghan, Nikki Dwyer, Gavyn Pedley, Marianna Kane, Eileen O’Hara, Diarmuid Connon, Alex Quigley, Adam Finlay and Dr Peter Robbins.
In second place, Diarmuid Connon a first year, studying Astro Physics, presented a wonderful idea called FestiBooth. Diarmuid has created a machine that takes ‘selfies’ at social events. He developed it himself in a garage using a TV screen, a laptop a little duct tape and a lot of imagination. Already, he has used the machine to take photo’s at 21st parties, retirements, 30th’s and even 90th’s. His prize was €2000 which he’ll be using to make a second, more stylish prototype.
In third place was Brian O’Connor, studying for his MSc in Design Innovation. Brian’s idea is a book-keeping cloud application that would cut debtor days dramatically for SME’s.
Reflecting after the final, Dr.Peter Robbins said: ’This competition acts as a depth charge that flushes out smart people with smart ideas – it draws them to the surface and gives us the opportunity to create an innovation community of people who are leaning in towards creativity. It is one of the really great privileges of working in a university that you get to work with students when they are generating and developing radical new ideas. It also appeals to students across every faculty.
We are indebted to our sponsors for supporting the prize fund; also to the judges for giving of their time and expertise. We are also indebted to the Commercialisation Department for having the foresight to create this competition and to build it to become one of the finest of its kind in Irish universities. But, we are especially grateful to the students for getting involved; engaging with EDEN and making their ideas come alive for this competition.’
‘Having run this competition for the last two years, it is gratifying that we are attracting ever more students to our creative café sessions because it is here that they get to meet other smart people, from different disciplines with promising ideas and it’s here that we win the hearts and minds of the students and get them to think that maybe they might have the entrepreneurial spirit.’
The Judges trying out Diarmuid’s Selfie Booth.