The team of four Dragons, led by Surinder Arora, had three minutes in which to grill the competitors over their market research, financial planning and project feasibility.

Rashique is told his ice cream will be introduced to the 5* Sofitel Hotel at Heathrow

First prize was awarded to Rashique Siddique, a student who had invented a new flavour of ice cream, Avoretto. The avocado and amaretto ice cream, which the student is already selling in his father’s Indian restaurant, received complimentary comments from all four Dragons.  Surinder presented the winner with a cheque for £1,000 to develop his business.  To the excitement of the audience, he then proceeded to secure the future success of the venture by also offering to put the ice cream on the menu of his luxury 5 Star Sofitel at Heathrow.

Rashique Siddique said ‘It was a great honour to pitch my business idea to the dragons. The last two days have been hectic, from trying to get the pitch right to making sure the product was immaculate. It was also great to see other amazing ‘out of the box’ ideas, and it just shows that people do have business acumen. I remember yesterday morning, walking out of my room, looking at Nora Robert’s quote. “If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.”

Surinder Arora said: “Choosing a winning idea from ten strong contenders was a tough call for us ‘Dragon’s’. The student entrepreneurs responded well to our questioning and I was so impressed with the winning Ice Cream concept presented by Rashique, that I have offered him the opportunity to feature his products on the menu at our flagship hotel – Sofitel London Heathrow at Terminal 5. I am delighted to strengthen my relationship with Royal Holloway, a university for which I have had great respect during my twenty year association through the launch of Arora’s Den and the Arora Awards for Enterprise”, Surinder Arora, Founder & CEO, Arora Hotels.

The second prize of £150 was presented to a Music student, Joanna Hardy, whose innovative project was intended to appeal to everyone with a love of old-fashioned vinyl records.  Her proposal was to bulk-buy records from charity shops, then up-cycle them by backing them with cork and market the products to shops and restaurants as table placemats.

At the end of the evening no one left empty handed.  Each contestant was delighted to receive a cheque for £50 to encourage them in their future business ventures.

I was absolutely delighted with both the success and response to the evening. This event epitomises what we see as the mission of Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs- to deliver, in a professional and entertaining format, events that inspire, motivate and support students in pursuing and developing their enterprising ideas. What we witnessed here this evening was a life changing event for not only the winner, but for everybody present who felt the thrill and energy of innovative pursuit present in the hall this evening, and from now on will have the courage to believe in their own ideas.

Giving a hilarious and insightful speech, Sir Alec told an avid audience about his early days as an 8 year old ‘slave’ to his elder brother’s business ideas, his strong and supportive mother, his early passion for business and the confidence that was the key to his success.

He awarded the 2011 Enterprise Minigrants to:

Overall Winners – £2,000
Opera Holloway
Student Shops (Anna Bruce)

Winners – £1,000
Terrho (Nathan Nasrallah & Crystal Ho)
Paulius Satkauskas
Passengerfilms
Patricia Perez
Potters Lane (Anna Bruce)

Runners-up – £500
Neda Milanova & Elizabeth Nalumansi
Lauren McIlroy

Sir Alec was thanked by the Principal of Royal Holloway, Professor Paul Layzell, for the support he has given to the College over the years, and was presented with ‘Paintings from the Reign of Victoria’, the book which accompanied the Royal Holloway Collection tour.

For downloadable photos from the event visit http://picasaweb.google.com/rhentrepreneurs/SirAlecReedCBE17Mar11

David Langer (Groupspaces)
Emma-Jane Parkes (SquidLondon)

This prestigious new award is given to the UK society that has acheived the most to promote entrepreneurship at their insitution – and we are the first winners.

Victoria Lennox, CEO of the National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs said, “Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs has already secured its place as one of the strongest societies in the UK. They have engaged students with a range of interests – from internet to creative enterprises – and embraced social media marketing. The future holds great things for this new society. Watch out Cambridge and Oxford!”

Here’s a photo of Jack accepting the award from Matt Smith, NACUE Groups Director. Well done to all the team!