Inaugural Sheffield event unites city’s business community with ‘Inspiring Futures’ entrepreneurial showcase

Budding young entrepreneurs have pitched their ideas to the city’s business community at Sheffield’s inaugural Inspiring Futures event.

Inspiring Futures is a campaign to be delivered annually by the Adam Bradford Agency (ABA). The event in Sheffield is part of a global campaign which is run in association with Dan Bolton Creative Management, Pearson Business School and the British Business Group.

ABA consults with entrepreneurs to help them grow their businesses and devises specialist projects which provide education and a platform to budding young social entrepreneurs of which this event is a part.

While Inspiring Futures aims to celebrate the business community and its young entrepreneurs, the event also celebrates ABA’s ongoing relationship with Pearson Business School, where the company is helping to embed social enterprise into the curriculum.

As part of this, four entrepreneurs from Pearson College and University of Sheffield competed for a cash prize and a national package of support for their business ventures, including access to investors, six-month corporate mentorship, and PR support for their business.

Following deliberation, the judges announced Zeezy Qureshi and Motion CIC as the winner of the competition. Motion CIC is all about improving the physical and mental wellbeing of older people, particularly focused on those living in care homes.

Zeezy said: “It’s really nice to hear the generous and thoughtful comments from the judges. Being so early stage and still being a small social enterprise based in Sheffield having that feedback from esteemed judges and businesspeople is so helpful and exactly what we need right now.

“The support is great and I’m really appreciative of the prizes, but that mentorship and quality feedback is what is really going to help us drive forward our mission and support more older adults to be physically and socially active.”

Adam Bradford announced that everyone who pitched would have access to their corporate mentorship programme so that no one had to go home empty-handed.

He said: “It was inspiring to see the array of ideas which young people are leading with from across our city and beyond. We genuinely believe that young people’s passion for social change mixed with business acumen can make a lasting change in the world, and with that in mind, it is our pleasure to have crowned Zeezy and the team at Motion CIC as the winners.”