CPUT recently hosted a one-day seminar at the Bellville campus IT Centre with the aim of gathering a number of local entrepreneurs to share the challenges they faced when starting up their now-successful businesses.
The workshop, titled Beyond the Starting Blocks, took place on Wednesday, 13 May 2009 and was a collaborative effort between CPUT, Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town (UCT).
This regional workshop, was funded by the Innovation Fund, and is part of the National Innovation Challenge (NIC) Student Business Plan Competition. It was co-ordinated locally by George Mvalo, Manager: Institutional Transformation and Diversity, who was the Project Manager on behalf of CPUT.
The Innovation Fund is an instrument of the national government Department of Science and Technology (DST) established in 1999 for the funding of innovative science, engineeringand technology development programmes and is managed on behalf of the DST by the National Research Foundation (NRF).
To open the seminar, Dr Andrew Bailey, who is joint Project Manager on behalf of the University of Cape Town and Intellectual Property (IP) Manager for Research Contracts and IP Services in the Research and Innovation Department at UCT, started off proceedings with a welcome and introduction. He explained the purpose of the day’s discussions and highlighted the main aim of “giving young entrepreneurs insight into starting and maintaining a successful business”.
Guest speakers included Dr Greg Starke (DISA Vascular), Dr Justin Devine (Synexa Life Sciences), Ali Brey (Hot Platinum (Pty) Ltd – a spin-off of a UCT/CPUT’s research project) and Retief Krige (Retief Krige Industrial Designers CC), who each gave inspirational and engaging presentations to the group, detailing their challenges from drawing up a sound business plan; finding reliable interested funders; patenting one’s idea/product to developing new concepts and products for the changing market.
One of the greatest outcomes of the day was the information sharing that took place between experts and amateurs in the business arena, with many young entrepreneurs finding mentors amongst the panel members.
Working hand-in-hand with the government, the Innovation Fund aims to improve the lives of South Africans by helping anyone with ideas for technological innovation to enter the business world and contribute to its positive growth.
The Innovation Fund is mandated to promote technological innovation through investing in late - stage research and development, Intellectual Property protection and commercialisation of novel and inventive South African technologies.
Annually, the National Innovation Challenge (NIC) hosts the Student Business Plan Competition which presents tertiary students – particularly those with a keen interest in entrepreneurship – with an opportunity to present their unique and innovative technological business concept to a panel of experts to be judged.
The most outstanding ideas submitted will then have the opportunity to be researched, developed, showcased and ultimately commercialised through the Innovation Fund.
Some of the criteria used to judge the entries include how the student originated the business idea; whether the idea is marketable; where would the entrepreneur obtain financial support and would the business service/product be sustainable in a changing economy?
To find out more information on the National Innovation Challenge, visit the Innovation Fund’s site at http://www.innovationfund.ac.za , the CPUT NIC sign-up site at http://active.cput.ac.za/nic or contact the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Technology on 021 959 6203/6242.
By: Thando J. Moiloa
Photo: George Mvalo of CPUT (second from left) with the Joint Project Managers and guest speakers at the NIC workshop.
Written by CPUT News
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