It was right at the very end of the Futurising exhibition that, for me at least, the most exciting thing happened. UnLtd(http://www.unltd.org.uk/) were offering an unbelievable grant of up to £5,000 to help a young person start their own social entrepreneur business... and we, the audience, had to pick the winner! I wasn't sure I was up to the challenge, but I took my seat, eager to hear the three finalists pitch their dreams.
The sponsors Unltd are a UK wide charity that has already helped 7000 people in the seven years it has been running. The charity helps mentor and sponsor young social entrepreneurs to bring their projects to life and describe their mission as "to reach out and unleash the energies of people who can transform the way in which they live."
Katie from Unltd introduced us to the expert panel, who would be giving their professional opinion on each pitch. Cyndi Rhoades is CEO of fashion upcycling company Worn Again (http://www.wornagain.co.uk/).She firmly believes that "every product has a story to tell" and leads the company in its mission to find innovative and cost-effective solutions to corporate textile waste. Worn Again makes incredible clothes out of unusual fabrics - at the moment there are raincoats made of a Virgin air balloon and bags reconstructed from Eurostar uniforms available to buy in their online shop!
Richard Tyrie is a trustee of UnLtd and was one of the first businessmen to jump on the dot com bandwagon, joining the UK's first career site, Taps.com. His company is best known for launching www.jobsgopublic.com, a career site that attracts over a million visitors a month and is one of the UK's most popular recruitment sites.
Natalie Campbell combines broadcast journalism, consultancy and film-making alongside her work as an UnLtd trustee. She's been creating video blogs for up and coming entrepreneurs and seems to cram a lot into her hectic schedule!
After introductions, it was onto the best bit: the pitches. Each person had five minutes to pitch, which was then followed by the panel's opinions and a few questions from the audience.
Tom Rendell had the hard task of going first but talked confidently and enthusiastically about his scheme. Have you had an amazing idea that you can't don't have all the necessary skills for? Or do you want to lend your talents to an existing project team and gain some useful experience? Open Society (http://open-society.co.uk/) might be your answer! The project is a network of teams of young people working together on creative projects, with funds available for some of the best.
40 people are already involved in working in teams on Open Society and Tom was looking for a grant of £4,000 to expand the project beyond London and to keep it free for users. The panel, especially Richard and Natalie, were concerned that his focus was "too studenty" and warned Tom that he needed to expand his vision to include others, saying that the projects would benefit from a wider taskforce.
Eva Bayford followed, with an assured pitch about expansion ideas for her on-going project. Eva has worked for fifteen years as a film-maker, barmaid and events promoter and currently runs The Bootleg Bus bar and Cinema, which cleverly multi-tasks, selling alcohol and projecting films on the side of it!
She wants to work with young people in disadvantaged areas to start a community cinema, working first with young people ages 13 and up to make short films and then screening them. Eva says that "the cinema is uniquely powerful in the way it allows you to represent yourself" and asked for £4,500 to buy a better projector and PA for the bus and to contribute towards film-making equipment.
Natalie said that Eva needs to "bring more people on board and engage the community more." Eva agreed that this project needs to be about "bringing the art community and the everyday community together." Richard liked the idea, not least because he's a Peckham man himself and that's where Eva plans to start!
Last but not least came Alison Alexander. Alison's project is an inventive idea to create awareness for the mental illness dementia, which, as Alison says "breaks down the connections between one memory and another." 1 in 3 people over 65 in the UK will die with dementia and Alison's own personal experiences of dealing with her grandmother's illness prompted her to start Genius Sweatshop (http://www.geniussweatshop.com).
The project involves getting families of all ages to work with circus projects which Alison says "are physical and get people engaged" and puppetry shows. Alison says that juggling fires areas in the mind proven to hold back the symptoms of dementia, helping those who suffer, while simultaneously raising awareness and creating beautiful memories for the families that get involved.
Richard advised Alison to try contacting her local Primary Care Trust, saying they may be able to help. Cyndi said that Alison's project could be a nice sideline for a bigger charity, while Natalie was worried about the sustainability of the project, saying "You need to think about your story, your message and your business model."
Voting was a hard decision, especially with so much money at stake, but I finally managed to decide. It was a close run, but the winner was... EVA! She was absolutely delighted, saying "Now the hard work starts. I can't wait!" Commiserations to Tom and Alison but congratulations are still due for their hard work. They did get a free meringue from the UnLtd team, however, and gracious winner Eva kindly offered them both a free drink from her bus!