'Making the Difference' Awards 2012

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Overview

The Awards Night is recognition of all the hard work and effort each and every Bright Futures Society has put into their year as committee members. Each committee complete an ‘Annual Achievement Report’ which reviews their activities and successes, allows them to reflect on their struggles and what they’ve learnt, then rewarding those who have stood out.
The Awards themselves reflect both, individual & team achievement as well as some of the key focuses / objectives of the Society as a whole; acknowledging new ideas, their processes and also the collaborations they embrace.
Our Recruiter clients (‘Investors’) are also recognised for their efforts and activities throughout the year along with a special award for Careers Service Collaboration. This Award actively encourages both the Society and the Careers Service to work along side and support one another in their goal to make the students of their university more employable.
The full list of Awards presented are:

  • Society of the Year
  • Newcomer of the Year
  • President of the Year
  • Event of the Year
  • Fastest Growing Society
  • Careers Service Collaboration
  • Most Employable
  • Most Inclusive
  • Investor of the Year


How are the Awards judged?


Each year the committee writes an ‘Annual Achievement Report’ outlining of their society’s achievements, this is reviewed along with feedback from by their Bright Futures Regional Manager and the Recruiter clients that have worked with them. Some of the Awards are decided upon on the basis of the report and feedback, whilst others are shortlisted and presented & voted for on the night itself. 


When?


This conference typically occurs every Easter vacation period prior to the beginning of the exams season. Please view the events calendar to find out when our conferences are running or contact us to get more information on how you can get involved.

Bright Futures Business Champions - Winners 2011-12

Bright Futures held the finals of their national business competition - Business Champions - on Tuesday 21st March 2012, hosted by the official sponsors, PwC.


Now in its 3rd year, the competition was initially created to help students increase their overall employability and commercial skills by running a real business competition with real money and real profits and losses! By taking part in Business Champions each student will have something powerful on their CV to differentiate themselves when job hunting.

Students from across UK Universities were encouraged to come up with a business idea that they felt would make money. Working as a team, they were then given £250 of seed funding, a mentor from PwC, a day’s worth of training and 3 months to bring their idea to life and make money. All the profits were donated to PwC’s chosen charity— SSE (the School of Social Entrepreneurs) - http://www.the-sse.org/

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What began with 50 teams back in November last year, culminated in 7 at the National Finals presenting to a panel of judges, from PwC, SSE and Bright Futures. Ideas ranged from creating & selling an app, a University Guide Magazine, and web based businesses tapping into the power of collective consumerism. The Universities making it to the Finals were Brunel, Exeter, Hull, Manchester, Staffordshire & York. 

Each team was tasked with delivering a presentation and were then questioned by the panel on their idea, their challenges, the financials and what they learned. Teams were also encouraged to reflect on what was needed to take an idea and turn it into reality. Key messages from the team on this included:

  •  the importance of setting realistic objectives
  •  the fact that everything takes longer to happen than planned
  •  the absolute need to be persistent
  •  the ability and flexibility to adapt an idea if it was not working
  •  making the most of your mentor 
  •  and most important of all the need to be passionate about your idea

With discussion had and votes passed the decisions were made. Runners up were Team ‘Prolific Solutions’ from Brunel, with the Winners being Team ‘Uni and Co’ from Manchester with their branded T-shirts for Manchester University and the Business School – who more than doubled their money and created a business with a long term & very bright future!

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 Prizes on offer varied from an iPad2; retail vouchers; further funding for their idea; additional mentoring and employment opportunities at PwC. Above and beyond these competition prizes, both teams got a lot more, with Uni & Co winning a one year contract with the Manchester Business School to provide them their branded T-shirts and Prolific Solutions securing a massive £10,000 of funding for their Brunel i-app!

Well done to all the teams who took part!

Prizes on offer varied from an iPad2; retail vouchers; further funding for their idea; additional mentoring and employment opportunities at PwC. Above and beyond these competition prizes, both teams got a lot more, with Uni & Co winning a one year contract with the Manchester Business School to provide them their branded T-shirts and Prolific Solutions securing a massive £10,000 of funding for their Brunel i-app!

Well done to all the teams who took part!

About the Winners:

Uni and Co is a newly founded clothing brand, run by four students at the University of Manchester.

Its aim is to provide the students at Manchester who are keen to represent the University, with an alternative to the official clothing. Currently, Uni and Co is focusing on developing t-shirts, which are very high quality and produced by American Apparel. The designs are completely unique, and very student oriented.

See a further article about the competition from The Manchester Evening News.

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