Virtual Venture Crawl 2021 breaks all records
The biggest and best practical entrepreneurship event in London, Venture Crawl, took place on 10 March 2021.
Hundreds of entrepreneurially curious students took part this year's virtual event. Through digital video conferencing, this year's event connected them to the diversity, passion and purpose that drives entrepreneurs locally.
Students from 17 universities across London connected to over 10 live sessions showcasing entrepreneurs and spaces for entrepreneurs across the City. Loughborough students had virtual tours of Barclay’s Eagle Labs, Plexal, The Trampery on the Gantry and Hackney Bridge. Incredibly, all the visits were to organisations located less than 200 metres walk from the Loughborough University London campus!
Alongside the visits, students had the chance to attend virtual networking sessions and access over 80 entrepreneurial resources. They could do all of this through the event’s mini-site venturecrawl.co.uk
Exploring other ecosystems for entrepreneurs, virtual Venture Crawls also took place in Birmingham, Manchester and Chicago on the same day.
Delivery of the event is a partnership between Loughborough Enterprise Network and Loughborough University London’s Future Space team.
Hayley Jones, Loughborough University London's Student Enterprise Advisor, said:
"With 2021 going virtual we wondered if we could pull off Venture Crawl this year. With a great deal of creative thinking, we were able to deliver a great day of networking and connecting with the entrepreneurial eco-system in London. Our students were able to experience a live crawl across our local eco-system. They got the opportunity to find out about entrepreneurial activity all around us, connect with the community and pitch their ideas. Doing all this in just one day is why Venture Crawl is so special."
Venture Crawl is designed to give students the opportunity to connect to real-world businesses, be inspired by the UK’s vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem, and gain skills in self-confidence, creative-thinking, resilience and leadership.
In the final activity, Venture Crawl's celebrated university pitch competition was hosted from Loughborough University London's Future Space providing a fitting end to the day. Judges included last years Venture Crawl pitch winner Emi Tanimura, Gary Stewart of FounderTribes, Indie Gordon of Foundervine and Folu Fabowale-Makinde of Monzo.
Ben Cole, Head of Future Space said:
"It might have been a slightly different event this year but Venture Crawl 2021 still rocked. We had a blast showing students around the eco-system on our doorstep. The final pitch event was better than ever. Bringing together over 750 entrepreneurially curious students with the entrepreneurial eco-system in London really is my best day at work."
To find out more about the activities, take a look at #VentureCrawl on Twitter.