Competition to find the most enterprising place in NI

The search is on to find the most enterprising place in Northern Ireland, as the regional heat of the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) ‘Enterprising Britain 2007’ was launched today.

Part of a nationwide competition to recognise and reward enterprise activity, DTI in conjunction with Invest Northern Ireland is looking for the town, city, place or area that best demonstrates the entrepreneurial spirit of Northern Ireland.

The winner of the Northern Ireland heat will receive a £5,000 bursary provided by Invest NI to support the development of their project. They will then go forward to compete in the UK finals of Enterprising Britain 2007, where the overall UK winner will be selected.

Last year’s Northern Ireland winner was Ballykeel Business Development Ltd, which went on to win the award for highly commended at the UK finals.

Speaking on its success, Chief Executive Melanie Christie Boyle said: "The Enterprising Britain competition provided us with an excellent opportunity to showcase our work and successes in the field of enterprise over the past number of years. It also helped raise our profile at a national level in terms of Ballykeel's commitment to enterprise support and development. Our success will hopefully inspire other areas in Northern Ireland to be more enterprising."

Graham Davis of Invest NI said: "The Enterprising Britain competition is a great opportunity to celebrate some of the enterprise success stories in Northern Ireland. By highlighting some of our most enterprising places through this competition we will hopefully encourage more people to take up the business challenge and become entrepreneurial."

Enterprising Britain 2007, which is run by the Department of Trade and Industry in partnership with the Regional Development Agencies and Devolved Administrations, aims to identify enterprise champions: places that have created jobs, brought communities together, and made a real difference to local businesses and local people. The competition will be judged by a panel of business experts and the overall national winner will represent the UK at the European Enterprise Awards in December 2007.

Entries for the Northern Ireland competition must be received by Friday May 4 2007.

The judges will be looking for a town, city or place in Northern Ireland that has best improved the economic prospects of the region and encouraged enterprise activities.

(EF/SP)