Announcement: Finalists of Global Entrepreneurship Week (Social Networking Challenge) [kwiqq]

Posted on | January 9, 2009 | View Comments

Last year during Global Entrepreneurship Week I was assigned the task to judge a niche social network competition: “2008 is the year of the niche online social network. Come up with a new idea for a niche social network that would be fun, popular, and profitable”.

I’m thrilled that the quality of entries for the competition was really high. Given that this competition was one of the most popular ones, it has been a challenge to pick the top 3 finalists for the competition.The finalist in no particular order are:

1). www.africancaribbeansociety.com

The African Caribbean Society is a socio-cultural organisation designed to celebrate the diversity amongst different ethnic background of the African Caribbean community at universities across the United Kingdom.

This is a student run community that provides an avenue for members to promote social integration and inclusiveness. These societies operate for the benefits of all students at their respective universities, regardless of ethnicity.

African Caribbean Society home page

2).Animal Social network

A really cool idea for a new social network is for people with animals! You could have special profiles for you animals where you talk about what they look like, where you got them from, what they’re personality is like, and more! If you were trying to find a playmate/playdate in the area or find a friend for your beloved animal in your local area, you could search for one that way! Many people are always looking for a mate and/or breeding partner for their pet, which you could also look for on the network. From dogs and cats, to bunny rabbits to birds! You could use this as a souce of fun for both you and your pet

3). LAN Party Pro! A Gathering for gamers

LAN Party PRO logo

“LAN Party Pro!” is made up from volunteer staff. Intention is to bring PC gamers together in a venue – with their computers and favourite games – and to enjoy a night of fun, and gaming. The event focuses on a sense of community, with players getting the chance to actually meet and speak with the people their playing against, instead of just playing with people online who you will never speak to again after the match has ended. A lot can come from forming great relationships at “LAN Party Pro!”. Once the event is over, and the doors closed – the friendship groups can continue online – on the website and forums. This is a great way for people to stay in contact until the next LAN Party, and to just chat about gaming stuff. After all, chatting and playing games is the two things a gamer does best!

Example of LAN Party PRO event

Criteria and Next steps

In the above ideas I was looking for motivation / determination to carry out the idea, unusualness (almost quirky) and profitability. Two of the above ideas (LAN Pro Party and African Caribbean Society) have already been implemented and need a small push to make them a profitable business.  Animal social network is a unique idea which can be implemented using a social network and has the potential of becoming a dating or networking site.

Congratulations to all the finalists and for coming so far ! The winner will be announced on Friday 23rd Jan 2009 on the Kwiqq Blog.

Award

2 day internship with Raj Anand, Andrew Burke and the Kwiqq Team

Raj Anand is the winner of Europe’s Young Entrepreneur 2007 by BusinessWeek, Courvoisier/ The Observer Future 500 (2008), Finalist of Sussex Entrepreneur 2008 and was one of the Top 6 Entrepreneurs in the UK at Cranfield University’s Upstart Programme.

Andrew Burke is the Director of the Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurial Performance and Economics at Cranfield School of Management and a non-executive at Kwiqq. He is willing to offer up to half a day (as part of the 2 days) of consulting to the winner of the competition.

Andrew has been my mentor for a couple of years and obviously can add some real insight into entrepreneurship/start-ups

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