At the Huntingdonshire Young Enterprise Area Finals there was a record 10 teams who will compete for a place at the County Finals in June.

Two teams go through; these are Prizm from Kimbolton School who won overall Best Company, sponsored by the Federation of Small Businesses and Ad Lib from Longsands College who were the runners up; the award was sponsored by GPS.

Innovative ideas

Prizm delighted the judges with their BeeBoxes, designed to encourage bees to lay their eggs in a safe dry place over the winter.  With all the recent press about the decline of the bee population, this idea proved very successful and the team also won the Innovation Award, (sponsored by Huntingdonshire District Council) Best Presentation, (sponsored by Wayout Associates), and Best Trade Stand (sponsored by Blue Tree Specific Skills).

Ad Lib won the Marketing Award (sponsored by England Marketing) and their MD and David Ho will be entered for Businessman of the Year.

Limitless won Anglian Water's Sustainability Award with their coasters made from recycled corks.  Gauri of Limitless from Kimbolton School won the Businesswoman of the Year and Ryan of Enfuze was named the Entrepreneur of the Year; they will accompany the two winning teams to Cambridge for the County Finals.  Their awards were sponsored by the Compliance Bureau and Cambridgeshire Crimestoppers respectively.

The other team to be going to Cambridge is Little Stripes who won the Triumph over Adversity Award sponsored by FSB.

Inspiring others

The evening was all the more memorable because the guest speaker was Mike Greene, Peterborough's Secret Millionaire, who inspired the young entrepreneurs with an entertaining speech which explained that you never fail until you actually give up - wise words for the budding future business men and women.

A further treat was to hear young Natalie Davies, of Abbey College, a tremendous young opera singer, who is already achieving great accolades.