Innovation and inspiration abound at the 2015 Big Idea Challenge Awards night.
Date: 1 May 2015
A website to help people represent themselves in court has been named the winner of this year’s Big Idea Challenge.
Be My Lawyer provides online lessons to help people self-represent without the need – and expense – of a hiring a lawyer. The website is the brainchild of Macchris Ilo, who studies in the London Guildhall School of Business and Law, and Dennis Wahome, from the School of Life Science and Computing (both pictured, Dennis on left).
Their idea also won the Social Impact category of the competition, run annually by London Met’s business incubator, Accelerator.
“It feels amazing to win the Big Idea Challenge,” said Macchris. “I know people who have been affected by the issues our idea hopes to address, so it means a lot to me to be able to help other people in similar situations. This is just the beginning though, and we’re excited to have this opportunity.”
Over a hundred guests piled into The Trampery on Old Street to attend the Awards evening - the biggest in the Challenge’s history.
Twelve shortlisted finalists made videos about their ideas as part of the competition, which were put to a public vote. Over 3,500 votes were cast across 91 countries, highlighting the Big Idea Challenge’s position as a truly global business competition.
London Met staff member Rehana Haider and her sister Rukhsana won the public vote ‘People’s Prize’ for their iBBy SoundBites concept - a recorder which plays soothing, recognisable sounds to babies.
There were also winners in the Commercial, Tech, Creative and London Met staff member categories.
See the full list of winners at the Acclerator website.
Winners in the Big Idea Challenge receive startup funds, market research and PR support, a branding package, new website and mentoring from Accelerator's experienced experts. All the finalists are also guaranteed places in the 2015 Summer Launchpad programme to help turn their big ideas into a reality.
Professor John Raftery, Vice Chancellor of London Met, said: “It's really inspiring to hear from so many amazing people tonight who are engaged in truly innovative work. It reflects the talent, energy and creativity that we have at London Met, and I wish all the finalists the very best in their endeavours.”
