Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Congratulations to Peter and Oscar - our winning entrepreneurs from Essencial - on their innovative multi-language solution for conducting international business and study

Entrepreneurship and Innovation Showcase Evening

Year 10 and Year 11 students in Ms Johnson’s Stage 1 Entrepreneurship and Innovation class have spent this term developing a business product or service they believed would have potential in the marketplace. They worked towards ‘pitching’ their idea, Shark Tank style, to their family and friends at a recent showcase evening. Students considered a problem or hole in the market and how to solve it with their product or service. The boys then developed a marketing plan considering the domination of technology in today’s world. Each group designed their brand slogan and logo and developed a website and social media presence. At the showcase evening the group had a booth to display their work, and then one-by-one they presented their idea to the audience.

The students were judged by an expert panel with prizes on offer for first, second and third. Thank you to our judges for taking the time to attend the evening; Chris Hannaford the Director of Business and Innovation at the City of Prospect, Allan O’Connor Associate Professor in Enterprise Dynamics at the University of South Australia and Blackfriars' own Business teaching guru mR Michael O’Brien. Special thanks to Emma Bulling the Student Liaison Officer from the University of South Australia who also attended on the night. Emma has supported this program by organising a marketing lecture from the Ehrenberg-Bass institute, a law lecture about Patents by Dr Ping Xiong and campus tour for the boys.

Congratulations to all the students for their hard work and showing the courage and confidence to stand in front of an audience to present their work. Thanks to the parents, friends and other family members who enthusiastically attended the night and engaged with the boys’ concepts, asking at times some extremely questions which made the boys think hard about how to respond. Ms Johnson would like to thank Mr David Ruggiero and Mr Patrick Kelly for attending on the night, and further thanks to Ms Angela Honner, Mrs Francis Markota, Maintenance staff and Library staff for their assistance with set-up and catering.

Winners were:

1st Prize – Peter Le and Oscar Gray for Essencial

2nd Prize – Gianni Caiazza, Carlo Dichiera, Tomas DiSanto, Joshua Saliba for Just Lug It

3rd Prize – Abdul Al-Turkomany, Daniel Harker, Connor Vervuurt, Baptiste Combes for SES Bands