At the NACUE 'Business Not As Usual' conference this weekend, a couple of speakers questioned why Shell was involved in youth enterprise so I thought it might be useful / interesting for people on here to know more a little bit more about the history of the Shell LiveWIRE programme and how it has evolved over the years.

Some facts

- Shell LiveWIRE is part of Shell’s ‘Social Investment Programme’ (or CSR), and is actually one of the UK’s longest running youth enterprise schemes offering free business start up information, advice and funding.

- Established in the Aberdeen area in 1982, LiveWIRE was then rolled out across the rest of the UK in 1985 when the contract was awarded to our organisation - the PNE Group (www.pne.org), a not-for-profit local enterprise agency based in Newcastle upon Tyne (formerly known as ‘Project North East’) which began in 1980 as a direct response to the decline of heavy industry.

- The Shell LiveWIRE UK service has obviously changed quite a lot over the past 28yrs, but is now primarily a free online information and advice service for young entrepreneurs (target audience 16-30) offering business guides, videos and award funding through our main website www.shell-livewire.org, a popular advice Discussion Forum (www.shell-livewire.org/forums) and Social Network (www.shell-livewire.org/network).

- We have 2 types of funding available for 16-30yr olds – the annual £10,000 Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award final (see www.shell-livewire.org/news/award2009/ for details) and the monthly £1,000 Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Awards introduced in Jan 2009, specifically for new start ups (see www.shell-livewire.org/awards).

- In addition to the UK scheme, PNE also runs Shell LiveWIRE International, helping to set up and oversee locally-ran projects (each one slightly different) in a further 23 countries around the world (with more to follow) including; Italy, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Argentina, Oman, Libya and Pakistan (see www.shell-livewire.com/home/findprogramme/ for the full list).

I hope this is useful to someone, but if you have anymore questions please feel free to get in touch.

Thanks

Paul Lancaster
Web Development Executive
www.shell-livewire.org

Edwin Broni-Mensah (www.GiveMeTap.co.uk) was awarded £1,000 for his business in a special Shell LiveWIRE elevator pitch competition that took place at the NACUE 'Business Not As Usual' conference at UCL London on 27th-28th March.

23 young student entrepreneurs pitched their ideas to Shell LiveWIRE's Stuart Anderson and Paul Lancaster on Saturday 27th, who then had the difficult task of shortlisting 3 to come back and pitch again to the entire audience of conference delegates the next day.

Despite some excellent pitches from all 3 finalists, it was a landslide victory for Edwin, whose GiveMeTap business enables users of a specially-branded GiveMeTap bottle (costing £7) to get free tap water refills from a network of cafes and restaurant owners in the Manchester area (with London soon to follow).

Paul Lancaster (Shell LiveWIRE) and Edwin Broni-Mensah (GiveMeTap)

GiveMeTap is a wonderfully simple idea, yet pushes all the right buttons by enabling users to save money (otherwise spent on bottled water), help the environment (by reducing wastage of discarded plastic bottles), and helping the cafe and restaurant owners too by increasing footfall to their premises.

Furthermore, Edwin is passionate about helping others without the same access to high quality, clean water around the world - and has therefore pledged 70% of all his profits to funding independent water projects in regions where it's needed most.

To find out more and to support GiveMeTap please visit:

http://www.givemetap.co.uk
http://twitter.com/givemetap
http://www.facebook.com/pages/GiveMeTap/186153408166

The other 2 fantastic finalists were;

• Polina Blochina -  providing a safe and convenient way for people to pay for a taxi home, even without cash or cards, via their mobile phones.
• Tim Yusupov (Zooza.co.uk) - an online retailer selling just one product at a time, on an ever-changing basis, operating a Just In Time (JIT) business model that enables them to sell at a lower price than anywhere else.

Jamie Broadey (Beem) was also invited to deliver his pitch again to the audience as an example of how to do one well for www.beemme.co.uk - the company he works for that enables people to make payments or transfer money to each other using their mobile phone.

To read more about the NACUE 'Business Not As Usual' conference, and the list of 23 people that pitched their ideas, take a look at lordlancaster's blog review at:
www.shell-livewire.org/network/lordlancaster/blog/1206/

If you're starting out in business, or have been trading for less than 12 months, are aged 16-30 and based in the UK, Shell LiveWIRE has 4 x prizes of £1,000 to give away each month, which you can apply for online at www.shell-livewire.org/awards

For anyone that’s concerned about the future of UK business - spend some time with student entrepreneurs and you’ll worry no more.

Day 1 of the NACUE Business Not As Usual conference at UCL London today (Sat 27^th March) was further proof that our universities are full of enthusiastic, passionate young people with great business ideas and the drive to bring them to light.

For anyone that hasn’t heard of them, NACUE (National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs) is a young organisation (launched in early 2009) that ‘supports and represents university enterprise societies across the UK’ and their 2-day ‘Business Not As Usual’ conference was an opportunity to bring them all together with a range of interesting and exciting speakers and panellists from the world of business including an excellent opening Keynote Speech by Julie Meyer (Founder & CEO of Ariadne Capital, First Tuesday, Entrepreneur Country and BBC Online Dragon).

I was there representing Shell LiveWIRE alongside our Project Director Stuart Anderson (www.shell-livewire.org/network/bigstu), hosting a stand, attending workshops / panel discussions, and offering help and advice to anyone needing it whenever we could.

Stu and I were also running a £1,000 elevator pitch competition throughout the day – encouraging young entrepreneurs to tell us about their business ideas with 3 people to be shortlisted and invited to give their pitch again to the entire audience tomorrow (Sunday 28^th) who will then help us choose an overall winner.

23 people pitched their ideas to us over the course of the day and despite very little preparation I felt they were all of a very high quality and it was exciting to hear about such innovative and creative businesses from such highly talented young people. Older businesspeople could certainly learn a thing or two from these young entrepreneurs!

I’ll announce the 3 finalists and eventual winner on this blog, my Twitter profile (@lordlancaster) and on the main Shell LiveWIRE website in due course, but regardless of the result I would encourage you all to keep an eye out for the following bright young entrepreneurs, especially if you are an investor / business angel;

·         - Rodrigo Martinez (Fat Student) – a website for students to upload the YouTube style video alongside their CV and profile for prospective employers to see.

·         - Edwin Broni-Mensah (GiveMeTap) – a network of cafes and eateries providing free refills of tap water to anyone carrying a GiveMeTap branded bottle.

·         - Dan Burton – helping students living in London to find safe accommodation provided by letting agencies who are well-trained, responsible and fair in the service they provide.

·         - Jamie Broadey (Beem) – a unique service enabling people to send money/payments to each other via their mobile phone.

·         - Deborah Tairo – a social enterprise providing an events planning service using single mothers who are makeup artists, hairdressers, photographers and a business support service for their users.

·         - Magdalena Silva Roldan (HMO Doctor) – providing a new service of consultants, project managers and managers of ‘Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMO’s)’ helping to undertake refurbishments for landlords and conversions of properties in the UK.

·         - Sheradine Fearon – a life coach for people on benefits, with a disability or from a disadvantaged background helping them to realise their potential.

·         - Amir Javadi – a pprototype of a new research tool that allows the time spent on data analysis to be cut dramatically from 10 days to 6hrs.

·         - Polina Blochina -  providing a safe and convenient way for people to pay for cabs, even without cash or cards.

·         - Tim Yusupov (Zooza.co.uk) – an online retailer selling just one product at a time, on an ever-changing basis, operating a Just In Time (JIT) business model that enables them to sell at a lower price than anywhere else.

·         - Gustav Borgefalk (StudentCompetitions.com) – a website aggregator that pulls together information on student competitions in one single, handy place.

·         - Gina Davies – providing an online portal for journalists around the world to find up-to-date information on pitching for work, opportunities, translation and rates of payment.

·         - Apurva Amin – providing users with a single webpage listing all their web/social media addresses in one place, along with contact details and a video profile.

·         - Artur Majsterek (1eat.co.uk) – a service where for just £10 a year, students can receive up to 50% off the bill at over 300 restaurants, bars and cafes in London and Warwick.

·         - Sam Smith (Vac-u-Loc) – a device for securing a bicycle to any flat surface on a vehicle, replacing the need for bike racks or roof bars.

·         - Pravash Dey (Bollywood-Calling.com) – a creative talent management website helping with recruitment, training and investment for artistic endeavours.

·         - Dr Colin Fu (Extraordinary Balls) – a social enterprise helping to educate women around the world about women’s rights, providing resources, education and training for them to help themselves and their communities, and funded by corporate balls where funding / donations can be collected.

·         - Stephen Greening – helping to tackle childhood obesity and overuse of computer games, his new software allows parents to limit the amount of time their child can use a computer console (initially the Xbox) which can only be unlocked with their permission using a special top-up code.

·         - Sumeet Gulati (El Toro Distributors) – an import/export business bringing wines to the UK from around the world.

·         - Candy Willems – a website for creative types to upload a portfolio of their work and for others to hire / commission them to deliver projects.

·         - James Pursey (ElectroCute Systems) – providing touchscreen advertising panels / displays that can be placed in prominent locations within low-budget hotels across the UK.

·         - Sadie Gee (The Big M) – a service enabling small businesses to outsource their marketing / rebranding to a pool of marketing professionals along with 4-day workshops and campaign planning.

For anyone reading this in need of start up funding for their business, don't forget you can always apply online for one of our 4 x monthly £1,000 Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Awards throughout the year at www.shell-livewire.org/awards

Details of Day 2 of the NACUE Business Not As Usual conference to follow at www.shell-livewire.org/network/lordlancaster/blog/

Paul Lancaster
Web Development Executive
www.shell-livewire.org
paul.lancaster@shell-livewire.org

Follow me @lordlancaster
Facebook Page www.facebook.com/ShellLiveWIREUK

Watch Shell LiveWIRE's latest FREE video on 'Effective Marketing Planning' by Viper Marketing and follow Neil Wilkins' 12-step process to ensure best return on investment in marketing strategy and campaigns at www.shell-livewire.org/video-lounge/vipermarketing1

You can also find more marketing help and advice in the Shell LiveWIRE Business Library at: www.shell-livewire.org/business-library/marketing-and-promotion

bigstu and I will be appearing at, and running a 'live' Shell LiveWIRE elevator pitch competition at the NACUE conference on 26th-28th March. Would be great to see some of the LiveWIRE members there (details below)

National Student Enterprise Conference 2010: Business NOT as Usual
The UK's Must-Attend Student Enterprise Conference

Tickets £10 (only 20 tickets left as of Friday 12th March)!
March 26-28, 2010
University College London
www.nacue.com/nsec
Register Now! at http://nsec.eventbrite.com

Engage with Julie Meyer, Penny Power, Google, Huddle, Microsoft, UnLtd, Tata, MMC Ventures, SIFE, Smith & Williamson, Find Invest Grow, Social Enterprise Coalition, Worksnug, Enterprise UK, Groupspaces, Shell LiveWIRE, Newspepper, The Cube, Enternships, The Next Women, Sun Microsystems, Brave New Talent, Student Hubs, eOffice and many, many more...

From 26-28th March, NACUE, UCL Entrepreneurs, UCL Enterprise Society and UCL Advances partner to host a premier conference for 200 of the most promising young entrepreneurs and enterprising students from universities across the UK.

As the country climbs out of recession, business as usual approaches to economic growth simply will not cut it. Championing innovation and entrepreneur-led growth, this conference 'Business NOT as Usual', brings together investors, policy makers, international corporates and global entrepreneurs to inspire, educate and connect young entrepreneurs and discuss the role of enterprise and innovation in the 21st century.

More details at: www.nacue.com/nsec/

For anyone that couldn't make it today, for a full transcript of what was said in our 1hr Live Chat with Modwenna Rees-Mogg (AngelNews), click on the link below;

http://www.shell-livewire.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=24495#post150941

Congratulations to Adam Hastings (Drink Tea Eat Biscuits), James Martin (AAAS Steering), Shira Rubin (Learn2Lingo) and Tristan Watson (Kwince) for winning our latest £1,000 Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Awards.

The 4 winners were chosen from a shortlist of 8 entries after receiving the highest scores from a panel of independent judges combined with the number of online votes for their 1min elevator pitch videos.

For full details please visit: http://www.shell-livewire.org/news/grandideas-decjan2010/