Congratulations to the winners and runners-up in this year's flare awards!
Winners
Best Growth Business
Ibrahim Fagge - Fittfind Joint Honours
The Best Growth Business prize was awarded to Ibrahim Fagge for his Fittfind app which is designed to pair those looking for fitness services, with a personal trainer to suit their specific training needs.
Clients make payment directly through the app, with payment only being received by the trainer once a client has posted a review of the service received.
As a secondary business, Ibrahim has been working closely with a team of designers and will soon be launching his own line of sportswear under the Fittfind brand.
Best Business
Muna Aziz - Mel Janac Hertfordshire Business School
The prize for Best Business was awarded to Muna Aziz for her eCommerce retail business, Mel Janac which offers a collection of stylish clothing and accessories to fit a variety of body shapes and sizes.
Products range from elegant gowns and show-stopping prom pieces, to day-wear dresses and skirts.
At no extra cost, customers can choose to have their clothing tailor-made to fit their specific measurements.
Best Idea
Alessio Regalbuto and Devansh Sharma - Xultour School of Engineering/School of Creative Arts
Alessio and Devansh won the Best Idea prize for their Virtual Reality app, Xultour, which is designed to enhance e-learning, advertising and tourism.
Taking advantage of the latest 360-degree video technology, Xultour offers users the opportunity to benefit from virtual tours, educational experiences and everyday event footage, all in one convenient mobile phone application.
flare Ignite
Sam Marchant and Ollie Vagg - Suzero School of Life and Medical Sciences
The flare Ignite prize was awarded to sports science students Sam and Oliver who have developed a low sugar, dairy and gluten free cake bar with 100% natural ingredients.
Selling over 500 bars in their first month of trading they have now moved into a commercial kitchen where they produce and package the bars in-house.
The team are currently in talks with multiple retailers with the hope of promoting their healthy snack bars to a wider audience.
People's Choice Award
Andrew Massingham - Create A Story Hertfordshire Business School
Andrew received the People's Choice Award for his business idea, Create A Story which offers a fun, learning experience for 6 - 11 year olds who want to write their own creative and imaginative stories.
The aim of the book is to enhance the importance of creative writing, as a skill that can be taught and developed over an individual’s entire childhood.
Established in 2016, Andrew plans to start trading by early 2018.
flare finalists
Indrit Kotaj
Car Con (Joint Honours)
Car Con is a portable air conditioning unit for your car which can be controlled remotely via a Bluetooth mobile phone application. Indrit is currently working on a prototype, with plans to launch an official product into the car accessories market in early 2018.
Daniel Gladwin and Charlotte Katugampola
Charfire (Hertfordshire Business School)
Designed by co-founder Charlotte Katugampola, Charfire is a high-quality leather handbag brand, featuring a unique marble style print pattern. Daniel and Charlotte have spent the last year refining the design and development of their handbags and have recently produced a prototype of their secondary product, the Charfire backpack.
Beverley Agyemen and Naomi Hall-Fantie
Lunaire Events (School of Humanities/ Hertfordshire Business School)
Lunaire Events is an online events platform where users can both hire an events planner as well as plan their own event, therefore providing a marketing platform for individuals trading in the events industry. Beverley and Naomi plan to revolutionise the events industry by being able to support customers and clients twofold.
Joy Wagbara
Dinma Designs (School of Creative Arts)
Dinma Designs gives clients the opportunity to choose from a number of different graphic design services, at a cost that suits their business needs. Having embarked upon a self-employed placement year in 2016, Joy has used this time to fully establish her business, build her list of clients and work on a number of exciting graphic design projects.
Xue Lee Foo and Mei Rei Qua
Project Prodigy (School of Humanities, INTI Penang)
Project Prodigy is an online marketplace, connecting students looking to develop their creative skills, with industry professionals who wish to provide tutoring services. Focusing on an initial target market of 18-35 year olds in Penang and Kuala Lumpur, once established, founders Foo Xue Lee and Qua Mei Rei plan to grow the service across Malaysia and further afield.
Rebeka Ludinovska and James Caithness
Tanuki Training (Hertfordshire Business School)
Tanuki Training, conceived in early 2017, plan to deliver residential strength and conditioning camps for 15-18 year olds. The camps allow young athletes to receive a personalised training programme, theory-based lectures and the chance to take part in practical activities. Founders James and Rebeka have recognised the growing number of young athletes participating in strength and conditioning training as part of the preparation for their sport, and hope to capitalise on this growth potential with their business.
John Nwachukwu
Zap Intelligent Solutions (Hertfordshire Business School)
Zap Intelligent Solutions is an information technology business, delivering software development solutions and eCommerce platforms to clients in the UK and Nigeria. The business currently focuses on three specific industries: transport, fashion and high-end healthy food products. With a flexible pricing strategy and a focus on good customer relationships, John is confident that the business will continue to grow exponentially over the next few years.
flare Ignite nominees
This year eight student groups were chosen to represent their respective schools, to be nominated for a flare Ignite award. Nominees were:
Hertfordshire Business School
Zeeshan Khan - Enactus
Enactus is an international non-profit organisation which encourages students to work on various social enterprises, with the aim of empowering marginalised communities around the world. As President of the University’s Enactus team, Zeeshan has proposed and delivered a number of projects including Modushelter - a portable shelter made with plastic bottles for refugees in Calais. He also supported Helping Hands – a project which assists domestic abuse victims in Kenya to become more financially independent through creating and selling traditional African jewellery in the UK.
School of Computer Science
Nick Hough, Bradley Kimmance, Greg Meadows and Oliver Potter - Virtual Rehabilitation Environment
Nick, Bradley, Greg, and Oliver have developed a Virtual Rehabilitation Environment (VRE) for patients at the Danesbury Neurological Centre in Welwyn. The VRE is designed to aid in the rehabilitation process by providing patients with a personalised platform specifically relating to their current condition. This platform will allow clinicians to set exercises for patients to practise in between scheduled physio sessions, with the long term aim of reducing the time they need to be in rehabilitation.
School of Creative Arts
Nafees Akhtar, Stephanie Brennan, Joshua Spinks, Lana Stockton and Ty Taylor - Prada Student Workshop
Creative Art students Nafees, Stephanie, Joshua, Lana and Ty participated in an international entrepreneurial project, proposing a series of technologically-led concept designs for the future of luxury retail experiences for Prada. The aim of this highly prestigious project was to create a shopping environment that challenged traditional associations of Prada and other luxury brands.
School of Education
Yasmin Dawney, Poppie Ephgrave and Sophie Roach - Reflection within Research Programme
Yasmin, Poppie and Sophie engaged in an extra-curricular research project in year one of their BA (Hons) Early Childhood Education programme, to develop their personal learning as Early Years practitioners. Together the team continued working on the project into their second year of study, co-writing an article on their own reflective learning experiences, which was presented to a team of academics and has since been submitted to the School of Education Journal.
School of Humanities
Krystle Loh - Pocketeer App
Krystle has designed and developed a mass communications mobile app as part of her final year project. The app was created to enable students to receive information and communicate with their lecturers at anytime and anywhere. Current features include a news feed, module selection, timetable and contact details.
Hertfordshire Law School
Olivia Coffey - Cash Track App
Olivia has created a user-friendly app to help start-up businesses track their cash flow and prevent unexpected debt, with a view to revolutionising the way businesses predict and manage their cash flow. Olivia has also been responsible for launching the University of Hertfordshire Law Society in order to enhance the student experience and encourage them to engage further with the outside legal community.
