Young Enterprise Scotland

The 'new look' Highland Board held its first event for pupils from Highland and Moray schools in November.  Over 100 students came from all over the Highlands to take part in what has probably been the biggest ever event run by the Board.

This is the 3rd year the 'Dragon's Den' style competition has been run and this year it was held over two venues in Drumnadrochit and Nairn.

Each team delivered a short presentation (3-5 minutes long) to 'Dragons' from the local business community - Bob Dalgarno (who own the franchise for Subway in the Highlands), Catherine McDonald (Business Dynamics), Fiona McBeath (newspaper sales and manager for event sponsors, the Press and Journal), David Howie and Gregor Munro. 

The overall winners were:

FIRST PRIZE (£250) - BRANCH - INVERNESS ROYAL ACADEMY

Link Teacher - Malcolm Turner, MD Sam Patience

Branch produce wooden coasters sourced from windfall trees from the Tomatin Distillery Woods.  The coasters are cut, varnished and packaged.  For every pack of coasters produced, the company of 12 will plant a tree - helping out the environment rather than contributing to its destruction.  Branch's slogan is "reviving resources".

SECOND PRIZE (£150) - FARR WOODCRAFT - FARR HIGH SCHOOL

 Link Teacher - David Charnley, MD Jamie Lewis

Farr Woodcraft's product is Adirondack style garden furniture.  A member of the company made the chair as part of an Art and Design project and it was selected as the company's core product.  The team of 5 has sold 23 chairs so far and is exploring new product development.  The Farr team showed its commitment by travelling over 130 miles to take part!

THIRD PRIZE (£100) - ECLIPSE - NAIRN ACADEMY

Link Teacher - Jessica Lee, MDS Jemima Gunn and Chloe Walker

Eclipse's "Ener-checker" is an energy checking system for the home, designed to educate and help consumers to save energy and money.  The company produce 2 packs, one for the home and a colour-coded wheel for children so they can see consumption at a glance.  The devices measure the number of watts each average device uses per minute.  The chart is designed to be easy to read.

Comments from the panel included:

"All the teams showed real promise and potential"

"We were all very impressed by the standard of 'pitch' and the thought that went into selling their products to us.  We did not have an easy task."

Of the winning teams their thoughts included:

"We felt that this company had a product that, while it may not be unique, was individual in design and had a wide appeal in a number of very specific markets."

"The highly innovative product produced by the team impressed the judges greatly.  It was cleverly devised, fitted with current market trends and was skilfully designed and then refined."

"The standard and quality of presentation and the level of research from all the teams was truly outstanding.  Youth today seems to get so much bad press and your product was a superb example of thee good in our society.  The experience gained by those brave youngsters can only stand them in good stead for the future."

The event is designed by the Highland Board to give young people experience of presenting their business idea, to mix with other young entrepreneurs and business people and to gain publicity ahead of the December trade fair. 

The Highland Board would like to thank the Press and Journal who sponsored the event and provided the prize money and also wrote a great article about the event.