Birkbeck joins innovative London Venture Crawl
A group of Birkbeck students will join nearly 200 others from across London on a 12-hour bus ride around the city, as part of a pioneering entrepreneurial programme.
Birkbeck students will embark on an entrepreneurial journey through London tomorrow, as part of an event that aims to connect them with businesses and industry leaders.
The London Venture Crawl, piloted last year by King’s College London, will transport 200 students from nine universities on Routemaster buses to the city’s top innovation hubs for talks, workshops and behind-the-scenes tours.
The tour stops will include Amazon Fashion, Hello Fresh, Innovation Warehouse, Grant Thornton, Creative Entrepreneurs and more.
Employability Consultant for Business and Enterprise Jenna Davies organised the College’s participation in the 12-hour tour and said the event will connect the students with real-world businesses.
She said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for the students to have direct exposure to some of the world's foremost innovators and help them become the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
“It’s also a great example of the collaborative approach of London's university sector,” she added.
The tours will welcome entrepreneurial passengers on-board throughout the journey to share their business stories and encourage students to learn from each other. Guests include award-winning business journalist Rachel Arthur and BBC programme Dragon’s Den contestant Deepak Tailor, who successfully secured funding from the show.
Birkbeck MSc Data Science student Aneel Marshal said the event is also a great opportunity to network with other students.
He said: “It’s a chance to cram in non-stop exploration of the start-up scene and see some of the huge opportunities available to us in London, all in one day.”
“I am looking forward to speaking to my peers at other universities, and see what progress they are making with their ideas – it could also be a chance to meet fellow students who have complementary skills to potentially build a team.”
The journey will end at Plexal in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park with a keynote from Diane Pearlman, CMO at leading video ad-tech company Unruly.
The programme is a partnership between Birkbeck, King’s College London, UCL, London South Bank University, Brunel University London, the University of Westminster, Loughborough (London campus), University of East London and London College of Fashion.