UEA

Eco Dragons Den

The main purpose of the event was to provide young people in Norwich and across Norfolk with the opportunity to engage with green issues from a business perspective. A secondary objective was to raise money for and increase the profile of the Norwich Carbon Reduction Trust.

Eco Dragons Den was a secondary schools competition for pupils aged 11 15 to pitch eco-business ideas to local business leaders in a Dragons Den, in front of a live audience with the opportunity to win prizes.

The event was held in the ZICER building at the University of East Anglia during the evening of 15th July 2009.

The Eco Dragons include:

John Popely of Anglia Print and Publisher of Triangle Norwich.

Alder Tye, an Environmental Business Advisor at Norfolk County Council.

Finbarr Carter and Anne Francis, two business coaches from Bizzfizz.

Richard Willson, Environmental Strategy Manager at Norwich City Council.

Sponsors of Eco Dragons Den

- Co-operative Bank
- Sportspark
- CUE East
- Anglia Print
- Eastern Daily Press
- Extreeme Adventure
- Norfolk Solar

Having the opportunity to engage young people with the kind of business solutions we need to take us into tomorrows low carbon economy was incredibly rewarding commented Jim Fielder, MBA student and Eco-Dragons Den Project Manager. The event was a real success and the feedback from everyone involved was very positive.

Organising the event enabled MBA students to reach out and share some of their MBA learning with the wider local community and build stronger links with local schools.

The event raised over £600 for the Norwich Carbon Reduction Trust. The calcualted financial value of the 10 articles in local newspapers and magazines and the online coverage that was generated about Eco Dragons Den had:

- an Advertising Value Equivalent of over £4,300
- a PR value of over £21,000, and
- reached a combined readership of over 300,000 people.