Dear colleagues,
My last email went straight to SPAM so I'm adding a signature and hoping for
the best
GROW NURTURES GOOD BUSINESS IDEAS
Agri-Tech East business plan competition offers mentoring
How do you turn a good idea into an early-stage business? GROW 2016 is the UK's
only agri-tech business plan competition, and aims to encourage people with an
innovative concept to explore if it has the potential to become a new product
or service.
Dr Belinda Clarke, Director of Agri-Tech East, explains how the journey is as
valuable as the destination:
"Good businesses don't emerge fully formed overnight, they take a while to
develop and evolve. This process can be much faster if you have the help of a
mentor who has experience of the industry, understands the best ways to
establish a business and also is aware of the pitfalls to avoid.
"We are aiming to provide this support with the GROW business plan competition.
Individuals or teams need to register their interest before 7th March and they
are then assigned a mentor to help them to develop a business plan. The plans
are submitted for scrutiny by a panel of judges and the teams are given
feedback.
"A short list of the best plans is drawn up and the owners invited to present
to the judges in June. Every stage of the process is a learning opportunity."
There is grant funding available for good ideas and many investors are
interested in agri-tech solutions, however new business development is
unfamiliar to many in agriculture. GROW aims to address this by encouraging an
entrepreneurial culture in agri-tech.
In addition to the support and guidance from a mentor for every entrant, the
winning entry will win £1,000, and the winner and runners-up can also choose
from a number of support prizes to help them progress their business plan into
practice.
This year the support prizes have been provided by: Barr Ellison LLP, Cambridge
Cleantech, Cambridge Network, Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, Cambridge
Judge Business School, Future Business Centre, IdeaSpace, Norwich Research
Park, Norfolk Network.
To find out more visit
www.agritech-east.co.uk/grow<http://www.agritech-east.co.uk/grow>
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.agritech-east.co.uk%2fgrow&data=01%7c01%7cmattsmi%40064d.mgd.microsoft.com%7c6bd4f8b443aa48c2f3c308d326675453%7c72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7c1&sdata=EbHliKd9DRX278Hd8sfOtFKYL1YN4Tx4cLCnXc7i1n4%3d>
Sincerely,
M
______________________________________________
Matthew Smith
Solution Architect for Connected Digital Services, Microsoft
+44(0)7980659917, LinkedIn<https://uk.linkedin.com/in/matthew-smith-a265485a>,
@JungleTeuch<https://twitter.com/JungleTeuch>
