London school pupils pitch exciting business ideas with help of QMUL law students

Ten teams from St Paul’s Way Trust, St Gabriel’s College and St Martin-in-the-Field High School for Girls all proposed their ideas during the ‘Pitch it’ competition to a panel of lawyers and academics.

The event was part of the Teach Tech Law programme, hosted by QMUL’s Centre for Commercial Law Studies, in which 18 postgraduate law students taught classes on law and entrepreneurship in the schools to help develop the business ideas.

The QMUL students started teaching in the schools in January and taught in teams of three every two weeks to help pupils develop and present their ideas.

There were three winning teams in total, one from each school, and their business ideas focused on e-health, technology and business. Each of the winning teams will visit the Robots exhibition at the Science Museum this summer.

Patrick Cahill, from QMUL’s Centre for Commercial Law Studies, said: “The competition was a great success. The pupils pitched ideas for projects including video-recording contact lenses, a virtual reality-based relaxation application targeted toward high-stress professionals, and an audio-recording pen with data storage and other features. The panel of judges was impressed by the preparation and dedication shown by all the pupils.”

He added: “The ‘Pitch It’ challenge introduces law students to legal issues in the technology space, while improving their public speaking and team work skills. The challenge also helps school pupils develop their presenting skills and the opportunity to discover different study and career options.”

The event took place on 17 March at the Digital Catapult Centre on Euston Road. It was funded by the Life Sciences Institute and Access Agreement Funding.

For more information visit: http://www.ccls.qmul.ac.uk/contact/

More information:

Judging panel:
Dr Gaetano Dimita (QMUL)
John Clark (Cooley LLP)
Philip Sanderson (Ropes and Grey LLP)
Alison Thomson (QMUL)
Allesandro Maiano (Wilbe Ventures)

Further involvement:
Clemence Tanzi (photographer)
Michael Dunford (Teach Tech Law Assistant)