The University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries are thrilled to share the success of many CCI staff and students, at the NEST Enterprise Showcase 2018. 

On Thursday the 15 th of March Chancellor Karen Blackett OBE in conjunction with Nest, the University of Portsmouth’s enterprise team, led an evening of celebration focused on the amazing entrepreneurial talent of our students, graduates and staff on show at the University of Portsmouth and in the local community.

The evening began with a chance to see the business start ups and successes of students, leading to a packed awards ceremony. The faculty of CCI gathered an impressive haul of awards, with 1st and 2nd place winners for the undergraduate Self-employment Placement Award for Familiar Stranger Films and Pierre Ware Games, graduate Margaret Boyce gaining second place for the Social Startup award and an Alumni recognition award for Leonora Asomanin of Là Mo Designs.

In the public nominated awards, for the student/Graduate Entrepreneurial Spirit of the year two winners from CCI were present, with 2nd place being awarded to Denis Brzozowski of Wolfden Creative and first place going to Alex Harvey.

CCI Enterprise and Employability Coordinator Dr Emma Austin, who won 3rd place for the Enterprise Educators award said “these awards are testament to the support and enthusiasm offered by Nest, the Creative Careers team and the faculty of CCI for our students enterprise and employability skills. The growth of creative industries in this country offers so much space for entrepreneurial spirit and self expression, which is perfect for the typical CCI student who is a mixture of creativity, hard work and curiosity”.

Alex Harvey also won the coveted Startup of the Year Award for his business The Student Food Project, winning a prize worth over £4000 to help support his project which encourages cookery skills and healthy eating for students.

Alex and his team will now be supported by a range of companies to develop their business including Innovation Space, Wolfden Creative, Warner Goodman LLP, Polar Digital,  Uber,Santander as well as design services from 99designs.

“It was awesome to win the awards at the Enterprise Showcase. We’ve been working really hard over the last couple of years and to be recognised is great. We can’t wait to see where winning Startup of the Year will lead!” – Alex Harvey.

Full details of the winners and nominees can be found on the here. You can find out more about the University’s student enterprise activities by emailing nest@port.ac.uk or taking a closer look on the Nest website.

“The range of nominations we receive for the Enterprise Showcase awards is always inspiring. Being able to recognise and celebrate the amazing entrepreneurial spirit and talents we have across the University is really exciting and instils a real sense of pride.” – Carley Hawkins, Enterprise Events Co-ordinator.