Innovative ideas win enterprise contest

An online trades’ directory and a study aid to help learners pass their driving theory test have been named the regional winners of the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme at the University’s Manawatu campus.

Year-13 students from Freyberg High School won the Manawatu final with their idea for a virtual shopping mall for trades, called Find You Manawatu, that reveals the location and contact details of companies at the click of a button. The team included students Arron Gray, Samantha Fairbrother, Patrick Coley, Sam Neville, and Kahn Wynyard, Robert Stapleton, Shani Chandra, Kent Edmonds, Sean Paki, Conor Peck and Jamie Hodgkinson.

Minh Cao and Enzo Pearce, year-11 students at Wanganui Collegiate, won the Wanganui final with quick reference study aid DrivePass, which they pitched as a “stress-free” way to pass your learners’ driving test or to refresh your driving knowledge. It condenses information from the 400-page road code into an at-a-glance card, as used by students cramming for NCEA exams.

More than 160 pupils from seven schools were involved in the regional competition, which is administered locally by Vision Manawatu. Members of the winning teams will compete in the national finals in Wellington on November 3 and receive scholarships to study business at the University. Other winners were Wanganui Collegiate which picked up the Movac Award and a $450 prize from the angel investment group to invest in the team’s quad bike seat covers company JJ Seatcovers. It was judged to be the best fast-growth idea with potential to yield $5 million annual revenue within five to seven years.

A team called Caffinate Me from Feilding High School won a national excellence award with an idea for a low-fat organic milk based ready-to-drink coffee product with a hint of white chocolate.