Last 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 30th and 31st of October, 2023.
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 later this month, on November 15th!
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 sessions, 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 #VP2023 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 Grand Final on Wednesday, 15th November, to be held at Coin Street — Third Floor Suite, Coin Street Centre, 108 Stamford Street, SE1 9NH (just five minutes’ walk from Waterloo Station) from 1:30pm to 4:45pm, 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 — Phare Labs is a fire alarm that uses patent-pending sensors and AI to increase fire detection sensitivity by over 50% and reduce false alarms by 98%.
Creative & Design with Tata Consultancy Services — Tap’N’Tour is a transformative digital platform revolutionising the way travellers experience destinations by empowering guides to create local insights.
Digital & Technical with JLR— Enturi Solutions is a pioneering start-up developing game-changing distributed renewable energy systems for coastal regions.
Health & Wellbeing with Tata Communications — KittMedical a multi-award winning anaphylaxis kitt service building the defibrillator for allergies.
Tata Social Impact — The Even Project are launching the first One-size-fits-all Period Underwear for low income and displaced menstruators.
Tata Early Stage — Pulse, by Defensive Thinking, is a Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance platform tailored for military and crisis management.
Online Peoples’ Vote — The Elbow Engineers are a forward-thinking organization dedicated to innovation and sustainability. Through their product, Elbow Bricks, they’re tackling plastic and construction waste for a more sustainable future.
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.
