Earlier this week saw another milestone event for this year’s Tata Varsity Pitch Competition, powered by NACUE: the Finalist Bootcamp. The 2-day event took place on the 24th and 25th of October, 2022.
Throughout the course of the two days, our 7 finalists took part in a series of workshops and mentoring sessions to help them accelerate their businesses and fine-tune their entrepreneurial skills. Keep reading to find out what they got up to each day, and how the sessions are helping them prepare for the Final pitch-off next month.
Bootcamp Day One
On the first day of the Bootcamp, the finalists took part in four business-skills sessions led by industry experts. The day was held in partnership with The D Group, a senior leadership membership organisation. Hosted in their central London office, finalists were able to immerse themselves in the interactive sessions and meet each other in-person for the first time.
The day started off with a strategic leadership session hosted by Seumas Kerr CBE, Managing Director at The D Group. This was followed by a Marketing & Sales workshop from Marketing Director Robin Mackenzie and a Networking session led by The D Group. The afternoon was dedicated to an insightful pitch training led by David Trayford from WOW-Media. All finalists had the opportunity to receive valuable feedback on their business pitches to perfect them for the Grand Final.
Bootcamp Day Two
The second day of the Bootcamp was hosted virtually in partnership with Tata Consultancy Services. The Finalists were able to meet seasoned professionals from seven different business areas in 25-minute one-to-one speed mentoring sessions. In these chats, they were able to discuss key elements of their businesses, get feedback, and iterate their ideas. Mentors gave insight into their depth of knowledge in the fields of Marketing, HR, Finance, Tech, Innovation, Sustainability and more.
The Finalists
The close of day two brought us to the end of our #VP2022 Bootcamp, the 48 hours passing at rapid pace due to the amount of knowledge sharing, useful feedback, and new ideas.
This brings us one step closer to the Grand Final of this year’s competition. Now it’s up to the finalists to use all they’ve learned to fine-tune their pitches, readying themselves for the final event on Wednesday, 16th November, to be held at the Six Park Place, home of the Royal Over-Seas League — Princess Alexandra Hall (just five minutes’ walk from Green Park Tube Station) between 1.30pm - 5pm, you can reserve your place to join us here.
To see who will be pitching, meet our fantastic finalists below:
Genuine Innovation with Tata Consumer Products — BoxxDocks allows clients to economically package through the design of smart, collapsible logistics boxes.
Creative & Design with Tata Consultancy Services — Reality Footwear creates 3D printed monomaterial footwear automatically generated from a 3D foot scan providing optimal fit and reducing CO2 emissions.
Digital & Technical with Jaguar Land Rover — Route Konnect provides anonymised vehicle and people movement insights captured across multiple cameras, creating an anonymised alternative to facial recognition.
Health & Wellbeing with Tata Communications — Drill Surgeries develops medical devices powered through AI and tracking algorithms to eliminate the guesswork in surgeries.
Tata Social Impact — Himayat is a digital benefits and human resource management platform supporting female domestic workers and their employers in India.
Tata Early Stage — Fibe extracts textile fibres from potato harvest waste. This solution financially supports food farming, whilst cutting environmental impact without compromising garment quality or cost.
Online People’s Vote — Ethosa is a plant-based, refillable shower gel in powder format, saying goodbye to single-use plastic.
NACUE would like to extend their grateful thanks for the successful 2-day bootcamp to our headline sponsor Tata, category sponsor Tata Consultancy Services and our partner, The D Group, as without their support the event wouldn’t have been possible.
