Residents to pitch business ideas at special event

Residents hoping to become successful entrepreneurs will pitch business ideas to a panel of experts in High Wycombe next week.

About 15 people will get advice and encouragement from the four panellists and try to convince them that their proposals deserve extra funding and support.

The all-day ‘Dragons Den’ style event, at Buckinghamshire New University on Wednesday (July 15), is the culmination of ‘Strive’, a programme of free training for would-be entrepreneurs, that has been running in High Wycombe this year.

The scheme has been funded jointly by a partnership of Buckinghamshire County Council, Thames Valley Housing, Home Group housing and Marsh & Micklefield Big Local, a lottery-funded community trust. Each organisation is contributing about £3,000 towards the overall project.

The panel of ‘dragons’ on Wednesday will include: Philippa Batting, MD of Buckinghamshire Business First; David Clayton-Smith, Chair of Thames Valley Housing; Susan Coulson, a Director of Home Group; and Ashwinder Sura of Marsh and Micklefield Big Local.

Val Letheren, Chairman of the High Wycombe Local Area Forum, said: “We have been delighted to help support this through our Local Area Forum. The training course, held at Wrights Meadow Centre at Wycombe Marsh, was a great success and we saw lots of fantastic business ideas coming from local residents.”