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Durham's Blueprints all planned out

Earlier this month 12 teams competed in the final of Durham University’s student business planning competition to see who would continue on to the inter-university Blueprint ’09 competition.

Overall victory on the night went to Howard Kingston’s Irish Ancestral Holidays business. After spending many summers in Ireland and seeing the amount of American tourists eager to find out about their heritage, Howard set up a specialised tour package company targeting people with Irish family roots.

Howard was the winner of the Business Award category, sponsored by County Durham Development Company (CDDC), receiving a trophy, certificates and cheques to the value of £1,500. Howard will progress to the Regional Grand Final in late October, where he will complete against entries from the other four universities in the North East (Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside).

The Overall Runner-Up was Michael Rainsford and Matthew Heap with their StuRents student accommodation website. Michael and Matthew were also awarded the prize for the business thought to be of ‘Most Benefit to the University Community’ and will also go forward to represent Durham at the Regional Grand Final.

Other winners on the night included Sarah Newell’s chocolatier venture Savarin’s, Pip Newby’s Friends Vs Records record label, and Christina Maiden’s theatre education company ‘Off the Page’.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .