To roll out the competition in local areas we have partnered with the following Local Authorities.

London - Ealing , Croydon, Bexley , Hillingdon , Hammersmith and Fulham , and Islington and Camden.

Manchester - Oldham , Tameside , Rochdale , and Bury

• Carla Cannon from Wyn Research, will discuss market research matters in London
• Vanessa Augustus from EQR Consulting, will discuss best practice in market research tecniques.
• Heather Wilkinson, Business Coach and Trainer from Striding Out
• Sophie and Lucy from Mazuma Money will lift the veil of mystery on accountancy and financial matters in London.
• Mark Simpson, Partner at Simpson Burgess Nash - is our expert in Commerical Financial Matters with a specialism in Tax and Accountancy in Manchester
• Gabriel Topman, Founder of Gabriel Topman Ltd - Expert in Online Marketing
• Steve Kuncewicz, Solicitor in Business, Intellectual Property & Media Litigation at Ralli - Expert in Commerical Legal Matters
• Seabrook Associates - Seabrook Associates is an Independent Design Consultancy, who specialise in providing a range of Graphic Design, Website Design and Full Colour Print solutions.
• Staniforth - Staniforth offer realistic and ethical PR and communication strategies. Their approach delivers innovative campaigns on-time and within budget for a broad spectrum of national and international clients.
• Andy Nichol, Founder of Sputnik Internet - Experts in IT Solutions and Web Design as a full service design agency.
• The Team at Lime Light PR - Experts in Public Relations
• Simon Davey, Founder of Omega Alpha - Expert in Project Management and IT Solutions for Business
• Nicola Dillon, Director of Kinked - Experts in Brand Communication and Marketing for Small Businesses
• The team at Vizard Tweedie Law

Erica Grigg - a native Chicagoan, has been active in social and environmental responsibility issues since 2004, when she presided over her own social and environmentally-responsible student organisation at DePaul University (BA: International Studies, 2002). Since then, she has conducted extensive independent research into environmentalism, and particularly, climate change and businesses' role in changing the world through reducing their carbon. In 2008, Erica will establish her own company to help change the world for the better through establishing and communicating engagingly and positively about carbon policies with stakeholders, employees, and consumers

Lily Lapenna - Lily is 28 years old and has a background in international development. Most of my work has focused on creating innovation in non formal education and skill development for young people. I have since set up a great social enterprise called MyBnk and i have enjoyed every day since!
MyBnk is a social enterprise whose aim is to increase financial literacy and to develop young people's enterprise skills by giving them a hands-on experience of organizing, running and using financial services.

Amy Winters and Kseniya Zagorodnyuk- Couture Clubbing is the innovative idea brought about by two Central Saint Martins graduates Amy Winters and Kseniya Zagorodnyuk. Professionally they were trained in costume/set/art-direction, and after graduation they formed a fashion-entertainment label.
Couture Clubbing creates clothes for high-end nightclubs and other glamorous red-carpet events. Unique couture pieces are created for special events including fashion galas, concerts and award ceremonies. The idea is not to follow traditional fashion seasons for their collections, as the nightclub and events scene is a season of its own with different demands, which they believe, are yet to be fulfilled. They use fabrics that react to sound, light and atmosphere which are especially suited to entertainment.

Rosie Dobby and Jennifer Graham- Freed Fashion Ltd exists to release people from a life of poverty and is a company focused on improving production standards and people management within all areas of the fashion industry.

The company was co-founded by Rosie Dobby, 21, and Jennifer Graham, 22, in the summer of 2007 after Rosie had returned from a Gap Year in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This summer they intend to return to Phnom Penh and start a training programme alongside an NGO called Daughters who develop skills in the lives of young people who have been caught up in human trafficking.
Daughters aim is to help restore dignity and self-worth, and to help girls find viable alternatives for their lives. Daughters have allowed Rosie and Jen to use part of their premises as a base for a fashion house and they will also be employing two young women who attend Daughters classes where they are supported in their efforts to leave the sex industry. These women will be fully trained in T Shirt production and other aspects of fashion design and afterwards the T Shirts they produce in the months ahead will be sold in the UK through the Freed Fashion website, and on stalls throughout the country. When someone buys a T Shirt they will be directly investing in the lives of the disadvantaged people who produce them.

George Middleton - Its NOT a small World. However its true more people are travelling further and with increasing regularity. His business idea offers a unique facility to record and share travel experiences. At 26 George Middleton, has grown up as part of a generation that recognises not just the excitement of a destination but also the significance of the journey to get there. He has worked for the last three years with the diverse communities of East London, and I am inspired by people I meet day to day.

Chris Jenkins - Chris is 28 and has been a part of the music and entertainment industry for 10 years. At 19 he founded the National Student Music Awards, the largest student music event in the UK and Ireland showcasing new acts across the student union circuit; new enterprise strengthening the relationship between the hugely important student community and the music industry.
In 2003 he returned to his hometown and joined the Bournemouth International Centre and Pavilion Theatre. Since joining he increased the number of events by 75% and venue rental income by 80% and was responsible for developing a programme worth over £10million in ticket revenue and 650,000+ visitors each year.
In April 2008 he left the BIC/Pavilion to become CEO of Wittdo, a social enterprise supporting the leisure and tourism industry and a regional economic development consultancy for local authorities. Wittdo (which stands for What Is There To Do?), provides residents and visitors with better access to local services and activities, developing stronger community relations with local industry. As a regional economic development consultancy, Wittdo helps businesses throughout leisure and tourism increase occupancy and turnover, whilst assisting local authorities to develop and strengthen their local economy.

Natalie Gillett - Natalie is 24 years old and lives in West London. Growing up with an established entrepreneur as her Father, Natalie caught the entrepreneurial bug from a very young age starting her first business at the age of 16 providing low cost personal development holidays to Iceland for students.

After graduating, and a stint in European litigation at a top city law firm, Natalie decided life was too short to not follow your passions and thus Itsofactor� Personal Development was born. With a passion for her own personal development which started at the age of 17 in a Zen Retreat followed by experiences ranging from Kabbalistic initiation and conservation work in Costa Rica through to post-graduate psychology and qualifications in neurolinguistic programming, Natalie realised the fundamental importance of how access to the right personal development truely empowers people in their lives.
The aim of Itsofactor� is to connect people with elite cutting edge personal development experiences: From performance coaching for companies led by international ballroom dancing champions through to astral courses on the coming of the new age of 2012 by a best selling author on the Mayan Prophecies, Itsofactor� is already at the forefront of personal development technology.

Tom Mursell - Tom is 18, and from Southampton and Managing Director of Not Going To Uni Ltd.

Not Going To Uni is primarily a careers and advice website for students considering their options besides university. There is too much pressure on young people to go on to higher education and a distinct lack of advice for students not wishing to go. I am looking to expand our services by creating an online community through social networking tools, crowd sourcing and marketing our message nationwide, help students further by presenting to them in their schools/colleges, as well as actively takng a part in recruitment. I hope to use Striding Out and it's community to help me achieve my goals.

Karen Thompson - Karen grew up in Wales amongst a family of entrepreneurs all successfully running their own business’ and knew from a very early age she wanted to be my own boss. Determined to start her own fashion label she began a journey of training in the fashion industry. Whilst at John Moores University, she developed a unique style of design which is the blueprint of her clothing label, Koress Clothing.
Koress Clothing style was initially inspired by early old school hip hop style when women wore less feminine, baggy, oversized and layered clothing. Koress Clothing brings back this sporty, baggy, tom boy style while keeping a strong feminine look. Clothing that bares mid drift, shoulders and hugs the contours of the female figure. It is a clothing range for those who want to wear casual wear but with a unique style.

Rob Booth - Rob is 26 and lives in Macclesfield. He has always been a firm believer in recycling since a young age and now it plays a major part in every household in the UK. His business idea U Can whilst tidying his desk and accumulating quite a large tower of cans. Most workplace's have confidential bins for paper so why not bins for aluminium cans, why not a company that offers the chance for every workplace, college, university and whole of Manchester itself to improve their carbon footprint on the environment and for everyone to get involved in helping one of the biggest issue's of our time. U Can will be a company that specialises in aluminium can collection as well as paper and steel recycling.

Sissy Rooney - Sissy runs The Street Style Surgery, to provide a platform for the youth of today, and the socially disadvantaged to express themselves creatively though fashion design and clothing, while promoting individualism, pride and confidence.
The Street Style Surgery's aim and focus is to host exciting and inspiring fashion workshops in schools, playshemes, after school clubs, and organisations who provide services for the young, socially disadvantaged and people with learning and health difficulties and male & female young offenders institutions. TSSS workshop gives the pupils a chance to express their own fashion style. One of the projects consists of taking a blank garment, e.g. t-shirt and fully customizing it by means of fabric applique, heat transfer and decoration. Either to a set theme or to the pupil's own individual design tastes. The t-shirts can be decorated by various means, eg laser iron-on print outs, fabric cut out letters and shapes, fabric paint, pens and sprays.

Jon Wood - Jon is building a one-stop-shop for environmentally-friendly products for the home. It aims to make ‘buying green’ simple, easy and attractive by doing all the hard work for you. It will be easy to buy everything from slick energy efficient appliances to sumptuous organic cotton bed sheets and trendy recycled glass vases. The highly ethical company was founded by Jon Wood, an ambitious and young ethical entrepreneur with a passion for the environment. If you are interested in the business or ‘buying green’, please get in touch, we’d be interested to hear from you.

Cai Jia Eng and Jonny Briggs - Enter The Plant was established in 2007, The Plant presents high quality pop-out, laser cut greeting cards and paper-related products with two characters: intricate florid motifs and simpler standardised statements. Conceived by hand, digitally produced and burnt by laser, our whimsical and quintessentially English cards harking back to Victorian times reflect our interest in emotion and atmosphere.
Being in two classic colours, handmade, burnt, and extremely intricate, our pieces have a strong visual identity, placing them in the luxury greetings card market in which there is currently a gap. Taking elements of interactive books such as pop-outs and inserts, they blur the line between cards and gifts.
Brainstorming and dreaming blended with research into vintage designs led us to where we are today and with a tale to tell behind each card, we hope that in times to come The Plant will become a very personal anthology of our thoughts and ideas.

Richard Purbrick - Richard is a young urban clothing designer who aims to have a collection of individually designed and customised items in major retail outlets in the U.K starting with his home town Manchester. Not just any ordinary clothing his first wave of designs will be aimed to help push the anti-gun and anti-violence campaigns in Manchester. After personal experiences of his friends and people he grew up with being victims of gun crime he wanted to release an urban clothing line that todays young society can relate to. Clothing is very important and influential in todays world so why not make that influence a positive one?

Maxine Lorraine Robinson - Maxine is in the process of creating and selling an entertaining and an inspirational Christian lifestyle magazine aimed at young adults aged 18 to 35 years old. This magazine has to be produced in such away that it will be to appealing to both Christians and non-Christian young adults. It will be called INNOV8 UK and will be sold in Christian and mainstream outlets.

Paul David Beard – was born ambitious and has grown up in Croydon, South London. With an expressed interest in creativity his passions and work efforts lie in art, design, music, film, and then inevitably business. A proficient graphic designer turned savvy entrepreneur, he is enthusiastic and eager to get on with life.With many ventures and ideas prior, his most recent business conception from 2007 has received interest this year from both the national Enterprise Island scheme and Croydon Business. With a strong focus on fun, innovative new learning Paul and a solid team of highly talented, like-minded individuals have begun work on their brainchild www.useglimpse.com. The team consists of Paul, Nick Taheri, Max Saunders and Ashley Taylor. This website proposes to inspire young people and generate a healthy and competitive community of exciting creative users; thus eventually compelling people everywhere to enhance their own knowledge of language.