Recap of the CUE Grand Launch0

If you missed the night marking the beginning of a new round of CUE Business Creation Competition, here’s the highlight of the night!

By Michelle Stewart

Last Thursday, 13th October 2011, CUE kicked off the year with its annual Grand Launch event. More than 200 participants showed up to share the experience of ushering in a new year of exciting CUE events and activities for the 2011/2012 academic year.
The event kicked off with a brief introduction to the society and their renowned business creation competition. This was then followed by some very inspiring speeches by 3 extremely enigmatic and influential speakers, all of whom have had significant successes in entrepreneurship.

Dr Shamus Husheer, a former CUE business creation competition winner and Coventry alumni kicked things off by sharing his experiences of taking his product and idea and turning it into a sustainable business venture. 4 years after winning the CUE business creation competition, his business venture, Coventry Temperature Concepts (CTC), with their trademark product, the DuoFertility fertility monitor, have grown leaps and bounds. With the product now being sold in selected Boots stores nationwide and international expansion in sight, CTC is living proof that the initial challenges faced when starting your own company is well worth it as you see it succeed further along the road.

Next, Dr Darrin Disley, a successful parallel entrepreneur involved in the start-up and growth of no less than 10 high-tech business ventures, energised and motivated the audience through sound advice and words of wisdom from someone who has literally “been there and done that”. He stressed on the need to always try and never give up, as well as how sometimes, the simplest of ideas and innovations make the best businesses. But more importantly, he also emphasised the role of entrepreneurs in building and creating markets and the economy; successfully fuelling the crowd’s passion.

Last but not least, we were treated with Lord Karan Bilimoria’s heartfelt account of his journey when founding Cobra Beer. He narrated how his business venture was plagued with problems right from the start, including how he had almost lost it all on 3 separate occasions! But from these anecdotes, he drew some pretty important lessons for the audience, which were to seize every opportunity you get and to always believe in yourself. As our most experienced speaker, Lord Bilimoria really managed to capture the crowd’s attention and respect, instilling a new found conviction that they too can succeed as he had.

The night concluded with the customary networking over nibbles where Coventry’s entrepreneurial minds mingled and shared visions for the future.