{"id":479,"date":"2020-03-12T15:18:45","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T15:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/enterprisesu\/?p=479"},"modified":"2025-03-26T13:34:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T13:34:28","slug":"innovateher-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/2020\/03\/12\/innovateher-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovateher 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last week, 26 entrepreneurial female students celebrated the\ncompletion of Queens\u2019 Students\u2019 Union\u2019s Ninth Annual Innovateher Programme by\npitching their new business ideas in the hopes of winning a share of a \u00a31000\nprize pot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Innovateher is a 13 week programme consisting of a range of\nworkshops and events designed to inspire and equip the next generation of female\nstudents.  Over the course of the\nprogramme, the cohort cover topics such as Idea Generation, Design Thinking,\nPitching, Marketing and Leadership.  This\nyear, we welcomed our new sponsors, Baker McKenzie, alongside our long-term\npartners Women in Business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A highlight of this year\u2019s programme was the \u2018Inspire Me\u2019\nevent which took place during Global Entrepreneurship Week.  The Innovateher cohort were joined by other\nstudents from across Northern Ireland as they heard from a range of\ninspirational females including Marie-Claire Le Houerou and Kerry Thompson, Baker McKenzie;<\/em> Yolanda Cooper, We Are Paradoxx;<\/em> Aim\u00e9e Clint, Books by<\/em> Stellas<\/em> and Yasmin Geddis, Zachary\nGeddis Break the Silence Trust. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final week of this year\u2019s programme saw our group of\nbudding female entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a Judging Panel\ncomprised of Roseann Kelly, Women in\nBusiness;<\/em> Jennifer Ferguson, Baker\nMcKenzie<\/em>; Helen Kirkpatrick, Chairperson\nQUB Students\u2019 Union Management Board<\/em>; and Claire Ferris, Work West Enterprise Agency. <\/em>The ideas\nranged from recycling plants for shopping centres to apps to positively impact\nmental health and a clothing range created through upcycling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The programme came to a close with a graduation event hosted\nat the Women in Business offices in Glandore, Arthur House.  The evening welcomed external sponsors and guest\nspeakers as the group received special awards and proudly celebrated their\ncompletion of the programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a high standard of pitching during the final week of\nthe programme, our judging panel awarded Roisin Kennelly the \u00a3250 cash prize\nfor \u2018Most Innovative Idea\u2019 for her idea \u2018FreeFlow\u2019 which aimed to create a\nsustainable menstrual product for endometriosis patients. After a great pitch\nwhich presented a creative, innovative and a viable product, Roisin\u2019s business\nidea stood out amongst the rest due to her passion, storytelling and industry knowledge.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prize for \u2018Best Use of Technology\u2019 was split between two\nstartup ideas which tackled current issues by offering innovative technological\nsolutions: Ashley Rosen\u2019s \u2018Ever Adaptive\u2019 which uses simulation training to bridge\nthe soft-skills gap in the workplace and \u2018Well2Do\u2019, a new Health and Wellness\napp created by Caroline Coburn, Clare Rhine and Ashley Rosen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prize for Judge\u2019s Choice was awarded to the business\nidea that impressed the panel with both its concept and delivery.  After much deliberation, the \u00a3150 prize money\nwas awarded to Ciara Brady, Sinead Leyden and Megan Swann from \u2018Not Tonight\u2019, a\nreusable straw that detects spiked drinks. \n <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the \u00a3250 prize for \u2018Best Pitch\u2019 was awarded to SZNII,\na sustainable fashion brand, who stood out to the judging panel with their\ncreative and interactive pitch which incorporated props, prototypes and photos.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team at Enterprise SU would like to thank the\nInnovateher cohort of 2020 for all their hard work and participation, our\nsponsors Baker McKenzie and Women In Business for their continued support, and\nGlandore for kindly offering their event space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The QUB Enterprise SU InnovateHer programme was definitely one of my many highlights this year. It has shaped my future study and career pathway irreversibly. <\/p>\nMegan Lowry, QUB student<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, 26 entrepreneurial female students celebrated the completion of Queens\u2019 Students\u2019 Union\u2019s Ninth Annual Innovateher Programme by pitching their new business ideas in the hopes of winning a share of a \u00a31000 prize pot. Innovateher is a 13 week programme consisting of a range of workshops and events designed to inspire and equip the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,52],"tags":[226,227,236,229,224],"class_list":{"0":"post-479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-innovateher","8":"category-student-life","9":"tag-enterprisesu","10":"tag-entrepreneurship","11":"tag-femaleentrepreneur","12":"tag-startup","13":"tag-innovateher","14":"czr-hentry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/03\/4-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6B2ST-7J","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4530,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions\/4530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/studentsunion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}