AN EXCITING opportunity has been developed for Edinburgh University students in an imitation of the popular BBC TV show, Dragons Den. Student groups now have the chance to propose their ideas for a charitable event to a panel of Dragons. 

Funded by the Edinburgh Students’ Charities Appeal (ESCA), students will present a short presentation about how they would use the funds to raise money for a charity of their choice. The dragons will then select the best schemes to distribute funding - up to £1,000 each.ESCA is a Scottish charity whose main goal is to “support students across Edinburgh to fundraise money for local, national and international charities.”

This innovative contest is the latest concept from the foundation that hosted the Race2Paris and the Meadows Marathon events, intended to encourage students in their charitable endeavours. The deadline for the application (which was emailed to every Edinburgh University student) is 15 October 2011.

The event co-ordinators will then select the best to enter the next round.

The shortlisted finalists will be invited to present their pitches to the Dragons on 4 November. Gemma Cowen, the “Dragon Master”, explained what would distinguish the competing finalists in their presentations.

She told The Student, “We would be looking for a well-structured, professional and concise delivery of the key elements of their event. How they plan to achieve mass appeal and success and where the granted money would be allocated.

“Because we can allocate a large amount of money, we will need to be impressed with their pitch, whether it be the format they use - think of Levi Roots from Dragons Den a few years ago - or just the event itself and the passion to raise lots of money for charity.

”The judging panel will consist of Gemma Cowen, Stephen Shirres (Appeal Coordinator and Company Secretary for ESCA) and three other, as yet unconfirmed dragons. Responding to worries that students will not have a good enough chance of claiming the top prize, Cowen encouraged everyone to compete.

She said, “Depending on the quality of the presentations, we will then choose to allocate the money between (hopefully) a few different student groups who all want to raise money for different charities.”

She added, “The event is hopefully going to allow an integration of all Edinburgh colleges and universities and allow equal opportunities for their students to potentially receive funding to run their event. “In terms of the actual event, we would be looking for something new and exciting and in doing so raise a lot of money for the charity of their choice.”