29th June, 2023
4th July, 2019
Creative Entrepreneurs, Guildhall School’s year-long business incubator for entrepreneurs in the performing arts sector, held its annual Big Pitch event featuring the pioneering new projects incubated through the programme on Tuesday 25 June.
The Big Pitch event gives the Scheme’s entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch their businesses to a distinguished panel of arts and cultural leaders.
This year’s event was hosted by businesswoman and entrepreneur Dr Maggie Semple OBE in the Milton Court Theatre, with a judging panel made up of industry experts Lars Bendik Anderson (entrepreneur and Founder Freeman of the Guild of Entrepreneurs), Simon Gamlin (Commercial Partner, Eversheds Sutherland), Alexandra Leader (Business Engagement Manager, City of London Corporation) and Mark Llewelyn Evans (singer and entrepreneur, founder of ABC of Opera).
Four businesses from this year’s Creative Entrepreneurs cohort pitched on the evening for monetary awards totalling £6000: Sigrún Saevarsdóttir Griffiths for MetamorPhonics, Lara Deffense for Walthamstow Garden Party, Ya-Heng (Judy) Chen for mushRoom, and Adam Clifford for son.
Huge congratulations go to all the entrepreneurs who pitched on the night, and to the winners: socially engaged music practitioners MetamorPhonics, who secured £4000 in funding, and the AirBnB for music rehearsal spaces mushRoom, who secured £2000 in funding.
Guildhall Creative Entreprenuers also collaborated with Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning to offer participants of their Young Enterprise Lab programme an opportunity to pitch for £2000 of funding. The judges saw pitches from poet Celestina Rowaiye, visual artist Cosima Cobley Carr, illustrator and comic-creator Joe Fear and writer and producer Kerry Bruce, with Joe Fear winning the £2000 prize.
The evening also saw four business leaders discuss entrepreneurship and the arts, with host Dr Maggie Semple OBE joined on the panel by Stephen Bediako (Executive Chair, Social Innovation Partnership), Anthony Impey MBE (Founder, Optimity), and Michelle Wright (Chief Executive Director, Cause4).
To find out more about Guildhall Creative Entrepreneurs, our creative businesses and other Scheme events and activities, visit the Creative Entrepreneurs website.
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