Business Info - issue 137

P2P Magazine | 21 www.p2pmag.co.uk Students impress in National Enterprise Challenge Finals On July 4, the Ryman National Enterprise Challenge Finals saw schoolchildren from across the UK pitch their business ideas to a judging panel, which included Dragons’ Den star Theo Paphitis. It was the sixth annual schools enterprise challenge organised by businessmen Ben and Michael Dyer to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs and employees to gain the business skills needed to succeed. This year, a total of 50,000 eleven to fifteen-year olds took part, with the best 1,400 competing in the final at the Telford International Centre, hosted by Perri Kiely and Jordan Banjo from Britain’s Got Talent winner Diversity. De Ferrers Academy’s idea for a Back to School marketing campaign for a Ryman store won the KS4 challenge.Wimbledon High School was highly commended and invited to meet Theo Paphitis in London for talks on marketing an idea for a new pencil case. www.nationalenterprisechallenge.co.uk Robot writes and draws on walls An intelligent writing robot that can draw and erase images and text on any vertical surface, from whiteboards to glass and plaster, is set to go into production after receiving huge support from online backers. A Kickstarter campaign for Scribit reached its $50,000 goal in just two hours and went on to receive a total of $1.6 million in pledges. Developed by design firm Carlo Ratti Associati, the internet-enabled Scribit plotter uses markers to personalise a wall with digital content sent to it over the internet. A restaurant could use it to display the day’s menu; a business could write a personalised welcome message in its lobby; an art lover could reproduce their favourite artwork on their living room wall. Scribit can safely draw, cancel and re-draw new content an infinite number of times, allowing users to print a different image on their wall every day or even every few minutes. Carlo Ratti, founding partner of Carlo Ratti Associati and director of the MIT Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), said: “We are totally deluged with information and spend too much of our non-sleeping time in front of a digital screen – TV, desktop computer, laptop, tablet or phone. Do we really want to add more screens to our lives? Scribit offers up an alternative: a robotic system that draws on any kind of vertical surface, following a primordial act performed by humanity since our first cave graffiti.” The developers aim to deliver the first Scribit units to backers by the end of 2018. www.scribit.design Positive start for Paperworld 2019 With fewer than six months to go, more than 1,100 exhibitors have already registered for Paperworld 2019, the international trade fair for paper, office supplies and stationery. Exhibitors include leading manufacturers such as Durable, Exacompta-Clairefontaine, HSM, IDEAL, tesa and Trodat. Michael Reichhold, Director of Paperworld, said: “The positive number of registrations and the return of numerous major players from the sector show that Paperworld is the industry highlight for manufacturers and the most important international sales platform.” http://paperworld.messefrankfurt.com/ The PA Show, the new name for Office*, is to take place at Olympia, London on February 26-27 2019, co-located with International Confex and the Event Production Show. The two-day event is dedicated to the education of PAs, EAs and employees in executive support roles. Event director Liz Agostini said: “The PAs of today play an active role in significant company decisions.We feel the time is right for the name of the show to be dedicated to them directly.” www.thepashow.com Office* rebrands as The PA Show A B U S I N E S S I N F O P U B L I C A T I O N P E N T O P A P E R M A G A Z I N E – L A T E S U M M E R 2 0 1 8