Dragon's Den event inspires local students' business innovation

Westmeath County Enterprise Board has hailed response to its 'Dragons Den - What's your big idea?' event organised to encourage secondary school students to dream up innovative business ideas. Over 90 students entered the event and entries were judged in three categories, Junior - 1st year, Intermediate - 2nd year and Senior -TY to 6th year. The hard task of picking the winners were left to Tracey Tallon, Business Advisor with Westmeath County Enterprise Board, John Reilly, Director of Strikebox Innovations and Sadie Wheatley, Director of Sw Design. Dean Gannon, from Mercy Secondary School, Kilbeggan won the senior category a cash prize of €250 with a dual function guitar stand and stool. Dean's clever, innovative idea is a guitar stand that could be turned on its side allowing you to sit on it while playing your guitar. Dean has made his product out of wood. Judges were impressed with his design and how it was made. A very close second were Edel Igoe, Ailish Brooks and Lauren Revins from St. Joseph's College, Summerhill with their innovative 'fruit wipes', a product that allows you to clean your fruit before you eat it while, ideal for busy people on the go and an excellent item to have in the car or the kitchen. James Farrell, from St Aloysius, Athlone, came third with a wonderful solution to prevent the ever annoying problem of headphone tangles! Shauna Langley and Emma Kiernan from Loreto College, Mullingar, won the intermediate category, claiming a cash prize of €200 with their business 'Get The Cert' a board game that helps students to learn various topics. Intermediate runner ups were Andrew Nolan from Columba College Killucan who designed an innovative White Board Ruler, and Elliot Kubath with L Cube from Mullingar Community College. Emma Broughan from St. Finians, Mullingar won the junior category and received a cash prize of €200 with her idea of 'Munchy Net'. 'Munchy Net' is an environmentally-sound solution product for use with silage round bales. Junior 2nd place was Grace O Donnell with Cash Counter and the prize for most commercial entry went to Mary Finch, and Fiona Glynn from Loreto College Mullingar with their idea for a homework website. A cash prize of €75 was given to all second and third prize winners. Many more students received highly recommended certificates for their innovative business ideas. A full list of winners can be found on Westmeath County Enterprise Board's website, www.westmeath-enterprise.ie. All Dragons Den entrants will be helped to develop their idea and hopefully participate in the student enterprise awards programme. The highlight of the Student Enterprise Awards is a county final held yearly in Athlone in March, where students display their businesses to the public. The winners then go forward to represent Westmeath in the national finals, where the overall winner can scoop a prize of a €10,000 trip to Europe.