Aspiring entrepreneurs! Don’t miss the Converge Autumn Workshops, running this October – November 2023!
With the new academic year, the Converge Enterprise Team is here to support students, staff and graduates with your entrepreneurial aspirations and ambitions. In addition to their online open-to-all workshops, they are also offering workshops introducing a variety of entrepreneurial skills and research translation concepts.
Key dates and workshops:
These one-hour entrepreneurial workshops are free to attend and open to anyone curious about how to start and run a business.
17 October, Understanding Intellectual Property
Intellectual property is an essential part of innovative new businesses and can be one of their main assets.But what do we mean by innovation and intellectual property, and how can a young business best exploit the intellectual property at its disposal?
This 1-hour interactive workshop will cover:
- Why is innovation important?
- What is Intellectual Property?
- How do you stop others from copying your ideas?
- Beyond traditional IP: differentiating yourself from your competitors
24 October, Understanding your market and customers
You may have heard that 90% of new businesses fail,but what’s the story behind this scary statistic? Most of these failures are linked to a poor understanding of customer needs and target markets. This 1-hour interactive workshop will teach you the first steps of interacting with your potential customers and using their feedback to shape your proposition.
Key topics include:
- Identifying your target market and its size and value
- Customer engagement tips
- A customer-centred approach to propositiondevelopment
31 October, From idea to market: getting your business ready
Starting a business is about more than money. You will require a variety of resources at different stages of development. This 1-hour interactive workshop will cover the skills, people, infrastructure and funding needs that you need to consider as your project moves from idea to market. Using a real-life case study, you will follow a Converge alumnus company through stages of resource planning and management, from concept to launch.
7 October, Business models and route to market
How will your business make money? How will your product or service reach your customers? In a post-COVID world, sustainable business models and routes to market are more important than ever. In this 1-hour interactive workshop, we will introduce you to various business models and help you decide the most appropriate route to market for your business.
14 November, Start-up Funding
This workshop will provide emerging entrepreneurs with an overview of the various funding options available to start-up/spin-out companies in Scotland. This session will analyse different funding routes and will advise on which ones should be considered depending on the business development stage. The session will also demystify some of the industry myths and jargon. Participants will learn pros and cons of several funding options such as grants, business competitions, investment, and crowdfunding.
Additional workshops available by request:
Converge also offer some valuable workshops available upon request on:
- Communicating your research
- The why and how of research commercialisation
- Research commercialisation as impact
- Idea generation
- Stakeholder management
- Lean Canvas
- Pitching
- Start-up funding
- Building a team
- Founder Finance