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Birkbeck students explore London’s start-up ecosystem

Entrepreneurial students from Birkbeck and 12 other universities took part in the Venture Crawl, to see what London offers in terms of start-up support and for inspiration in setting up their own businesses.

Students taking part in Venture Crawl, which explores London's start-up ecosystem

Birkbeck joined forces with 12 other London universities to take hundreds of entrepreneurial students on a journey around the capital’s start-up ecosystem.

Eight double decker buses transported over 350 students across London, visiting a range of start-up hubs, innovative spaces, co-working venues, accelerators and more.

The purpose was to inspire students to develop their business ideas, see what London offers in terms of start-up support as well as build their network of like-minded individuals who are ambitious to make their start-up a success. The event hashtag, #VentureCrawl was trending on Twitter by the afternoon.

Birkbeck teamed up with London College of Fashion and University of East London for their journey, exploring various enterprising spaces including Runway East, Makerversity, Rocket Space and finally Plexal for the final event of the day with all buses.

The final venue saw the Venture Crawl Pitch Competition take place, with one student from each university nominated to pitch their business idea to the whole audience.

Micaela Francisco, MSc Business Innovation with Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management student at Birkbeck who was part of the Venture Crawl said, “Thank you for the fantastic day! Plexal was the cherry on top of the cake, the organisation and the content of the whole event was amazing.”

Students heard from successful entrepreneurs throughout the day and on board the Birkbeck, UEL, LCF bus, where successful social entrepreneur Julie Creffield and Business coach and mentor Adrian Brown delivered keynote speeches along with valuable pitching advice to the students.

Jenna Davies, Enterprise Programme Manager at Birkbeck said: “Venture Crawl is an incredible exciting and unique opportunity for students in London who are genuinely interested in what the capital can offer in the early stages of their entrepreneurial career. The students at Birkbeck who attended this year have been buzzing since the event and are motivated to make their ventures a success.”

This is the second year Venture Crawl has taken place, with London universities collaborating to host a day of inspiration and enterprise activity for hundreds of students. The event grew this year with nearly double the number of students taking part and more universities joining the movement.

Venture Crawl will be back in 2020 for Birkbeck students to get involved with alongside their fellow London students.

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