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The Sefton final of the mobiles apps competition took place on Thursday 10th February. Students from all the 20 secondary schools in Sefton had the opportunity to take part in the competition, which was to create a new mobile app, with the winning team’s app being produced by ‘May Contain Nuts Inc.’
Competing in teams of up to four people, the entrants had to complete market research, assess the competition, produce a sales and marketing strategy and create a comprehensive business plan. The best 10 teams were invited to present their application to a panel of experts at Aintree Racecourse’s business suite.
After some excellent presentations by the teams, the winner was announced as Ellie Heatherill / Team Athena from Greenbank High School who designed “Play them at their own game!” where users would compete against computer generated celebrities, such as racing against Lewis Hamilton, or singing competitions against Lady Gaga. She received an iPad and 20% of all the profits her app will make, with her school receiving 5%.
The two runners up were so impressive that there apps will also be produced by ‘May Contain Nuts Inc.’ Both teams were from Deyes High School, team “Epoxi” who designed the app “Splat Attack” and team “App” who designed “Downhill Drop.”
One of the judges, David Pollock, Chief Executive of Chess Telecom and joint owner of May Contain Nuts Inc said: “I was really impressed by the quality of work the students produced, the competition was stiff but the winning team offered a great combination of creative concepts, a good presentation and comprehensive business plan.”
Vicky Appleton, Education Enterprise Co-ordinator from Sefton EBP, said: “All the teams which entered had some really creative ideas and really thought out the business plan behind their apps. In particular I thought the 10 finalists were brilliant. They all presented with confidence and professionalism and the judging panel were really impressed with all the students. I think Sefton has quite a few potential business entrepreneurs in the future.”
David and co-founder Dylan Thwaites are going to be responsible for developing the apps ready for the commercial market and are currently arranging to meet with the students to discuss taking the apps further.
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