Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) – West Auckland Success

On behalf of DoMM who co-ordinate YES in West Auckland, a note to say thank you to our Young Enterprise Scheme judges, Liz Rainsbury, Helen Mitchell, and Peter Mellalieu who both terrified and encouraged our teams with a combination of exacting questions and generous praise.

The judges panel was completed by Camelia Petrus ( Bus Dev Mgr & Film Producer, Tuatara Pictures) and David Whitley (Bus Dev Mgr, Lineset Design & Print, also Chair of Rotary student exchange) both of whom added the voice of experience to the panel.

For those who were unable to attend, Unitec has now funded four teams to develop their business ideas. Each team will receive $500, and be invited to work more closely with us.

The teams are:

• Jeanius (also regional final winner) who recycle/ up cycle old jeans into high fashion for teenage market, selling Trademe. Already successful and profitable. Our funding will go to strengthening brand through labelling and investigating product range expansion.
• Epresso who are developing a reusable hot/cold drink holder for takeaway coffees. They are using the money to finalise designs and get a prototype made. Aiming at the tourist market.
• Valediction who are producing a ‘leaver’s jacket for senior school leavers in baseball style, upmarket quality, and looking at expanding sales into other schools Tertiarys.  Also producing a ‘souviener’ CD of school music artists as part of pilot venture combining YES with Play-it-Strange singer-songwriter competition. Money will go to finance first production run.
• Mirror-Mirror with a very innovative product of a combination mirror/ magnetic whiteboard/ message pin board, three circles joined at one point, able to configure many ways. other product ideas in pipeline. Money towards prototype development.

Once again thanks to our judges who played a big role in a fun evening celebrating student success.

Nick Kearns (nkearns@unitec.ac.nz)

Lecturer – Enterprise Education

Dept. of Management & Marketing

Unitec

ph: 09 815 4321 ext 7053

mob: 021 030 3320