December Newsletter

2022 has been a big year for DMU Entrepreneurship - DMU’s student and graduate extracurricular student and graduate entrepreneurship team, situated within SAAS.

In this special newsletter, we look back at some of the highlights from our year.

DMU Global trips

We’ve travelled the globe with students, visiting Los Angeles, Lisbon and Dubai!

In LA, we caught up with entrepreneurial alumni including Ian Tomlinson, Management Supervisor at marketing agency Quigley Simpson and Anthony Hope, creative director at Ernst. In Lisbon, our students were given a private tour of Lisbon City Hall, by Entrepreneur and Advisor to the Mayor of Lisbon, David Lopez. We also enjoyed a Q&A session with Bloomberg journalist Henrique and met DMU alumni and business owner Margarita Cunha.

In the Autumn, we visited the DMU Dubai campus and were lucky enough to see the first Graduate Ceremony to take place there. We enjoyed a masterclass at LinkedIn HQ, and, working with Russell Towlson from the Directorate of Engagement, we also met entrepreneurial alumni.

Times Higher Education Awards

Many of our initiatives were included in DMU’s submission to the 2022 Times Higher Education Awards, resulting in the University being shortlisted.

Niche Business Awards

Vikesh from our team was shortlisted for a regional business award recognising fresh talent which contributes to the local business scene.

Leicester’s Future Entrepreneurs

We collaborated with BID Leicester to run a special start-up programme in the City, with practical workshops taking place in venues like BETA X, Brewdog and LCB Depot. Following the programme’s success, we used OfS funding to run a week-long spinoff programme Leicester’s Future BAME Entrepreneurs which included a one day confidence and communication workshop in London with presenters from KISS FM.

International Reach

Our online programmes Startup School and Launchpad were well attended by our students both at home and in overseas countries where DMU has partner universities. Next year, we’ll be taking some of our initiatives to Gambia and DMU Dubai.

Enterprise Placement Year

Enterprise Placement Year is our 12 month long programme. Now in its third year, we have worked with four students to help them to turn their ideas into a reality.

DMU Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Awards

Our Vice-Chancellor opened our first ever physical Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Awards. Winners were recognised across a number of categories and Tarnjeet Kaur was named Entrepreneurial Student of the Year. Michael Auger from chart-topping vocal group Collabro provided the entertainment. Nominations for our 2023 awards are now open!

Winter Wonderland

We cemented a positive new working partnership with the DSU, collaborating on the Winter Wonderland event which saw more than 1,000 students attend. The event followed a successful DMUmade Maker’s Fair in The Gallery.

Connect continued

We continued our partnership with The Sir Thomas White Loan Charity bringing students, graduates and staff together with the local business community for our long-running Connect events. We enjoyed informal talks from many guest speakers in a number of venues across the city.

PopUp Entrepreneurship Zones

We launched a series of pop-up coworking zones across the faculty buildings and Library to encourage students from all faculties to come together to work on their ideas and to put questions to our team.

DMUmade Programme

We concluded our tenancy at LCB Depot with a pilot of our DMUmade programme, which ran again on campus in the Autumn.

The programme has taught students and graduates skills such as how to use Canva, how to podcast, how to create a website, how to plan and cost an event, pitching skills and much more…

Startup Catapult

Our Startup Catapult programme helped a number of recent Graduates learn and apply start-up business skills across three days. The programme is designed to contribute to Graduate Outcomes.

Enterprise Podcast

Our latest podcast series has had over 2,000 listens. Guests in our latest season included Lucy Womack, Chair of The Sir Thomas White Loan Charity and entrepreneurial students Melvin Riley and Ben Hancock.

Have a fantastic Christmas!

Simon & Tammy