Competition Sets Out to Find the Perfect Fusion

Two North East entrepreneurs are teaming up in the hunt to find the region’s perfect fusion of food and drink with a unique new competition that promises some special evenings out for discerning diners.

Fusion 2010, which will takes place at the Newcastle Marriott Gosforth Park Hotel across seven nights in July, brings together eight of the region’s top chefs with eight leading mixologists. The dynamic duos will work together in pairs to create the perfect union of food and drink.

The contest is the brainchild of John Collingwood, a veteran cocktail expert who runs wanttoimpress.com, and Rachel McManus, owner of pzazzevents.com, one of the North East’s leading Event Management companies. Each evening will host 180 dinner guests who will see the dishes and cocktails being prepared by two of the participating pairs. They will then try out the tantalising combinations and decide to vote for who should advance to the next stage.

“This is a unique and innovative event that we’re looking to roll out nationwide following its launch in the North East,” said Rachel who is looking forward to showcasing regional talent and using the North East as a launch platform for what she anticipates will be a hugely successful nationwide event within the food and drink industry.“There’s no other competition that brings together the complementary crafts of cookery and mixology, so we’re expecting some amazing creations for our guests to pass judgement on.” said John, who trained over 10,000 of the UK’s leading mixologist’s in his previous role with Bacardi.

Beginning with four heats, the winners will then advance to one of two semi-finals before the final two face off on the grand final evening. Each evening promises to deliver a totally unique dining experience with some of the finest culinary talents in the North East competing for the Fusion 2010 title.

Each course of meal will need to be accompanied by a bespoke cocktail that perfectly complements the taste and style of the dish. So far, the head chefs from Malmaison, Hotel du Vin, Jesmond Dene House and Café 21 at Fenwick have all expressed an interest in signing up.

John and Rachel are currently searching for mixologists from across the region to put themselves forward for the competition. Twenty possible contestants will be chosen for heats at The Living Room in Newcastle on Sunday 16 May from 12noon to 6pm, when eight will be chosen to go through to the main event.

An FA Cup Style draw will then take place on 20th May at Newcastle Marriott Gosforth Park Hotel, where competing Chefs and Mixologist’s will be drawn from a hat to determine the final eight teams and the dates that they will compete against each other. At this stage the competition will then determine who can and can’t stand the heat in the kitchen.

Tickets for the main event will go on sale soon and will be priced from £45. If you’re a bartender who would like to enter or a prospective diner who would like to find out more, you can call 0845 4505488 or visit http://www.eatdrinkfusion.com.

Challenge 2010 Finalists are revealed

Wow – what a tough job our judges had across the region!

But all made worthwhile because we got to meet some amazing people at the 'Pick Our Brains' Opportunity Panels and have some great discussions about their ideas and businesses. We hope everyone who took part took away some valuable food for thought and maybe even a few actions.

Thanks again to our judges. We’re planning to hold some none-competitive panels so please let us know if you’d like to get involved in the future – on either side of the table!

To find out who the finalists are, please visit www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/challenge

Don’t forget that you can vote in all seven media regions – and voting is simple. All you need to do is either email your selections to Stephen or text 07624 803 199.
(Voting closes at 12 midnight on June 13th - and no multiple votes please!!!)

We’ve set up blogs and twitter accounts for all of the finalists – and even though some are new to the world of social media there are already some great posts. You can access their blogs through the Challenge page.

So good luck everyone! And please tell your friends, family and colleagues about these 14 inspirational entrepreneurs – let’s make this as viral as possible and make sure as many people as possible in the region and beyond (we’ve had votes from all over the world) know about the great things that are happening in the North East.

Barclays Business Springboard Seminars comes to Newcastle

We thought you might like to know of an event taking place on the 12th May at Newcastle United Football Club, being held by Barclays Business Springboard Seminars. Successful entrepreneur and If we can, you can member Will Dracup of Nonlinear Dynamics joins René Carayol for an eveninh Q&A session - hear about how he has made a success of his business.

Here are the details, for more information and to book your place please head to http://www.barclaysbusinessspringboard.co.uk/Newcastle

Evening agenda:

5.30pm – Register, help yourself to our buffet, visit the exhibition and network with other local businesses

6.00pm - Opening welcome address by Barclays Regional Head of Local Business

Introduction from René Carayol

Then find out all about…

Business planning
A look at business planning, your finances and market research.
Discover first hand how a local entrepreneur turned their idea into a successful business with effective planning

Pitch Perfect –
How to market your business, and yourself: perfect pitching is crucial to business survival

7.15pm – Competition Zone & Exhibition
Visit our stands, get some one-on-one advice, and find out more about how you could win £50,000 towards your big business idea with our Take One Small Step competition (terms and conditions apply)

And the highlight of the evening…

René’s Top Tips - not to be missed

René Carayol will use his real life experiences to deliver insightful and compelling tips on how you can get your business idea off the ground

Q&A

René interviews a panel of business experts

Formal close by René Carayol and Barclays

9.00pm – 9.30pm Final networking whilst enjoying refreshments

Latest news from Derek Foxcroft, Carbon Abatement Technology

Latest news from Derek Foxcroft, Carbon Abatement Technology:

We are pleased to announce that we have attained our very first Environmental Award: The Green Business Network – Tees Valley Bronze Award which was presented us at the Boho Centre, Middlesbrough on 20th April. So begins the journey of bigger and better achievement in helping people and businesses to reduce their impact on the environment through commonsense application of low or no cost solutions to transport emissions.

The Silver Award has already started for us and we hope to make a similar announcement in due course.

We are also pleased to announce that we made it into the Low Carbon Vehicle Directory 2010 published by the government. We are shown on page 71 under our old image of Re-Freshco Ltd. Still us, just different stripes! This is a fantastic accolade and we will aim to create an additional stir for next year’s directory.

Finally today we would very much like to ask for your support once again for a competition we have entered. The Barclays Bank “Take One Small Step” competition is both prestigious and financially rewarding for us as a business but we know we cannot win this without you, our friends, avid fans, customers and future customers. Our entry is found here: https://www.takeonesmallstep.co.uk/Entry/View/1400

Our technology has always been about getting it out there and helping people like yourself and your company or business to save money whilst helping the planet too. Without “People Power” or “Power of Mouse” (Thanks to Andy Hanselman for this worthy strap line) we are going to get absolutely nothing from Government to help us do both, so please join in and support our bid to win the North East Regional Vote, at least this way you KNOW your valuable VOTE and OPINION will be a force for change.

Our promise to you is this.

First – Just for voting we will provide you with a discount on our automotive system of 15% or FREE Fitting, whichever means more to you.

Second – If we win the North East Vote we will give you BOTH!

How do you help us? Click the link www.takeonesmallstep.co.uk/Entry/View/1400 Listen to a very nervous Derek on the video and then vote for it when that starts on June 7th to July 4th, support it right now by clicking on the box at the top right hand side, enter the code and you have shown your support. Thank you.

Live testing of our system starts within weeks as we now have a physical prototype fitted to a Heavy Goods Vehicle here in the North East. Results are expected to be better than anticipated due to improvements made to the original design. We have also achieved three customer pre-orders, two of which are based here in the North East and the larger customer is a National company.

We have recently won grant support from NEEIC and are talking to a number of venture capitalists here in the region through one of which we may gain Carbon Trust Incubator status which will boost our exposure, order book and sales beyond measure. This is not just our success story, it is a North East success story too as without the “Can and will do” attitude of the region, we may not have made it so far.

The Entrepreneurs’ Forum has created a quality network for my own development with great advice from Sir Peter Vardy, Roy Stanley and countless others and some fantastic events that have out shone the competitors offerings by a wide mile. Thanks to you all.

North East website - Sharemyplaylists.com - aims to be largest for global Spotify community

A North East entrepreneur, Kieron Donoghue, has launched a social media website that is set to be the largest globally for the Spotify online music community after receiving a six figure investment from four successful internet business investors.

Sharemyplaylists.com (SMP) was developed by Sunderland based Kieron after he noticed a gap in the market to make music discovery easier for Spotify users and give them the ability to share playlists.

Spotify is an online music streaming service that allows subscribers to create their own playlists from any artist, album and genre free of charge.

After developing and launching the site and seeing it grow virally, Kieron pitched the opportunity to Steven Brown, David Brown, Malcolm Cowley and Paul Fellows - the ‘dream team’ that set up www.Buy.at from Newcastle which eventually sold for $125m to AOL in 2008 - who quickly spotted the potential of the business in the wake of other social media successes such as MySpace and Facebook.

Offering a social network so music fans can talk about their favourite artists and bands, as well as the opportunity to discover and rate other people’s music compilations, SMP already works with the major record labels and ran a promotion with Warner Music UK over Christmas to promote the latest R.E.M. album. Celebrity playlists are featured on the site from the likes of Robbie Williams, The Gorillaz, Will Young, The Saturdays, Leona Lewis, La Roux and Alicia Keys amongst others.

SMP will fund its growth through targeted online advertising sales to those wishing to reach music lovers on a national and global level.

Over 16,000 playlists are currently listed on SMP, the largest number on any site of its kind. Its success to date is such that the team are looking for new premises and to recruit full time developers.

SMP founder Kieron Donoghue has been self-employed for ten years and through running UK Offer Media Ltd and Content Now LLP has vast experience of online commerce. He said: “As a big Spotify fan, I was extremely excited by the opportunity to develop a complementary site that would further enhance the offer and just knew the concept had huge potential. Music is a real passion for many and Sharemyplaylists.com allows people to meet others with similar tastes to themselves, bringing in a real social networking element.

“Gaining the support of the former Buy.at team has been a fantastic leap forward and it’s a real privilege to have their expertise involved with the business. A key next step for me now is to use some of the investment to find new offices and get a talented and experienced workforce in place.”

Investor and ex CEO of buy.at, Steven Brown sits on the SMP board as a non-executive director and is also excited by the venture and working with both Kieron and the investment team once more.

Steven commented: “The online music sector is high growth and Spotify is a fantastic application that offers legal streaming music – a service that will quite simply become the normal way to consume music in future. Sharemyplaylists.com is brilliant in its simplicity and not only plugs a real gap and allows friends to connect through their common passion but, most importantly, is being launched at the perfect time. We have great ambitions for the business and firmly believe it has all the attributes to be tremendously successful.”

A spokesperson for Spotify added: “It is great to see Sharemyplaylists.com and the Spotify ecosystem continue to flourish. Social and sharing features are very important to Spotify and Sharemyplaylists.com has been at the forefront of playlist sharing since early on.”

For more information, please visit www.sharemyplaylists.com.

Not much time left!

As we come to the final week of the entry period for the 3rd If we can, you can Challenge, we just thought we would take the opportunity to reflect on what’s been an amazing, exciting, challenging and fulfilling few months here at Entrepreneurs’ Forum HQ. It’s not that the rest of the year for us is dull, unimaginative and, well, unfulfilling, it’s just that we always look forward to this time of year due to all the new people and businesses we get to meet and be inspired by, and this year has been no exception.

Take for example the words of just a handful of entrants to the Challenge so far. Here’s a pick of what they had to say to the difficult question, “What are your aims and aspirations?” in their entry forms:

“I can see the business growing with local support and with people outside of the area that will help our local rural community and help promote enterprise and stimulate our economy. I would like to see my business create enough revenue to allow more employees, a premises to operate from instead of my home and new opportunities to form for myself and others. I have said in the past that I would like to become a commoner when I retire but try to live life to the full and to challenge myself in places that would be beneficial to obtaining new markets and seeking to help others.”

“A vision is something that I think is very hard to put into words. My 'vision' of where I see myself in five or ten years' time is something very personal to me - I know what I want to do with my life, and that is what drives me, and to write that down would be a very hard thing to do. I want to do big things; I want to influence lives and have a positive impact on the world.”

“My ambition is simply to grow a good strong solid company that may possibly employ people in the future, and create a working environment that promotes lateral thinking within the work force.”

“I want to do well and be happy with what I have achieved. What I have also learnt is that there are so many great and successful people out there who give their time and who work tirelessly for other disadvantaged people. I aspire to be like them and to do the same. If ever my business was to take off I would not hesitate to do likewise....if I fail to do this you can give me a stern telling off but it shouldn't happen :D”

“I feel that with enough hard work, determination and the right ideas I will establish and run a number of successful businesses whilst also in time investing in and nurturing new business talent.”

“I want to be a successful business woman. I want to be financially independent and be able to provide for my mother and daughter. I also want to be a great role model for my 12 year old daughter and demonstrate that a lot of hard work goes a long way and does pay off. I'm now taking my first steps towards fulfilling these goals and ambitions, but I know I have a huge amount of work to do before I get there and the vision will evolve and change - nothing is ever set in stone.”

Inspiring stuff we know you’ll agree. It seems that we’ll continue to have our socks knocked off by the amount of sheer passion, dedication and bloody mindedness of the North East’s entrepreneurs – no matter how experienced they are, if they’re in the process of making their business happen or they’re exploring new opportunities to grow, it seems there’s no barrier too high or learning curve too steep. That’s what sums up the region’s entrepreneurial spirit it seems, and it’s part of our job to continue to nurture and encourage that and keep the entrepreneurial beacon shining brightly in our region.

In spite of the current climate, there are plenty of opportunities and the ‘can do’ entrepreneurial spirit shown by previous winners of the ‘If we can, you can’ Challenge is a shining example of this.

For example, when 2009 Middlesbrough Evening Gazette winner Louise Bell won the Challenge she was just starting her home spray tanning business, Healthy Glow. She says, “Since winning the Challenge the business has moved forward more than I could have imagined. I was really pretty naïve and probably didn’t know much about running a business, but I knew I had something worth pushing and the determination to get Healthy Glow going, whatever it took. I’ve got two Healthy Glow franchisees in place – in Darlington and Stokesley. The Challenge has given me so much confidence to trust my instinct, get on with it and not let any hurdle stand in my way. I know there are lots more opportunities and lots of challenges to come but the ‘tada’ moments keep coming – and long may it continue.”

There’s still time left to enter the Challenge and be crowned our 2010 winner but not much! You have until the 3rd of May (midnight) to log on at www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/challenge and put yourself forward.

To see what previous finalists have said about being involved with the Challenge, click here

More details of the format of the competition and the all important prizes can be found on this page too. Good luck to all.

Challenge alumni share their views

Finalists from the 2008 and 2009 If we can, you can Challenge talk about what they've gained from being involved, and how their aspirations for their businesses have since evolved

If you would like to enter this year's Challenge, don't hesitate to do so at www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/challenge before the deadline of May 3rd 2010