#StartedinOxford Demo Day – The Winners!

What a day we had!  Wednesday 18 November was the #StartedinOxford Demo Day 2020, a celebration and showcase of the Oxford-linked entrepreneurship community. We brought together over 50 hand-picked exciting companies and ventures linked to the University of Oxford or Oxford Brookes University (students, staff or alumni) from across the globe, as well as those from across Oxfordshire for attendees to meet and engage with in a fresher’s fair style virtual setup.  The event was open for almost 24 hours, with sector-specific sessions, panel discussions, and opportunities to hear selected companies pitch live throughout the UK work day.  Attendees were able to find out more about each company, request more information, chat with the company representatives, and vote for their favourites to win prizes, including cash, introductions to networks and VIP’s, and connections to the wider Oxford-linked ecosystem.

With over 800 attendees from 40 different countries, 50 ventures and 20 sponsors, and 3 amazing panel discussions, Demo Day brought together people interested in the Oxford ecosystem, with those active in it.  There were numerous connections made, information exchanged, and meetings set up – we had a proper networking event!  Even now, the momentum continues – discussions started on the day are going on as we speak!  You all really came out and did what was asked – engage with the ventures and sponsors, and help to grow and enrich the Oxfordshire entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The sponsors were generous this year (as ever!) – each offered a prize to the ventures, which included co-working space, introductions, expert advice, and specialist development days.  Here’s the list of major winners:

The Oxford Trust Prize – Curacode
Barclays Eagle Labs – Sendit.Money
Oxogen – neumind
Oxford Product Design – Loop Cushion
Aspect – TAYO

The People’s Choice Award was a cash prize for the venture(s) with the most votes from attendees.  This year we had 2 prizes, with the awards going to each OxVent and Nutriendo el Futuro.

You can find out more about all the ventures here – please do connect with them if you haven’t already.

Thank you to all the ventures – your responsiveness, time and effort put into this event have been very much appreciated.  Thank you to all our sponsors – you truly are the backbone of our community. Your support is so appreciated and I am very impressed by the genereousity of spirt, time and advice.To our wonderful panellists and presenters – thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with us all. It’s been a pleasure to work with you all and your professionalism and enthusiasm really helped brings some great discussions to this event.  To all of our attendees, thank you for taking the time to join us, connecting with our ventures and sponsors, and each other. It was a smooth and exhiliarating day, in part you your actions today in coming along and being so willing to engage. . And lastly, to the team at the University of Oxford, who have worked tirelessly over the past few months to make this happen. We are so grateful to be part of the Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, and Research Services, who again have supported, encouraged and promoted the work we do here. Thank you to our team of volunteers on the day, and in particular to Andrea and Iulia running around behind the scenes to make sure this all worked, putting in hard work, long hours and dedication.

Without you there would be no Demo Day!

See you at the next one!
The Enterprising Oxford Team