Student innovation during the Ignition Days 2021, in partnership with Ignited Kingdom

At the beginning of the 2021/2022 academic year, a group of 288 French and international students from PGE2, Tremplin 2 and former students from BiM 3 spent three days working together to construct, develop and pitch a viable start-up business plan.

The event took place from 8-10 September 2021 in partnership with Ignited Kingdom, a Strategic Innovation consulting firm based in Paris, and the students were separated into 46 groups to work on the task. Ignited Kingdom was able to coach and accompany the students during the development of their business plans whilst trained student facilitators helped with the organisation and smooth running of the event.

At the end of the three-day event, eight projects were selected to be evaluated by a jury using the following criteria:

• Does this project tackle a strong problem? Is there a real market opportunity for the team?
• Is the value proposition relevant? Is the offer aligned with customer expectations?
• Do you think the solution and client experience are elegant? Would customers use this and recommend it to their friends?
• Is the acquisition strategy realistic? Does the business model can effectively support growth?

Two projects particularly stood out from the rest, one of which was selected by the jury, and another which was chosen by a vote among the participants.

The public vote went to a project called ‘Kalkeus Shop’, an interactive system which would allow the customer to personalise their own shows, whilst the jury identified ‘Be Safe’ as the most viable project. ‘Be Safe’ was pitched as a social application that enables students to move around the city in complete safety through a system of constant connection with other students from the School. The main aim of the app was to create a protective and supportive ecosystem within a school or university community. The model used the population of Rennes School of Business as an example.

The Ignition Days aim to kick-start the student’s creativity and collaborative, cross-cultural working skills, whilst working to produce a convincing and innovative project according to strict time constraints.

The Innostart business incubator at Rennes SB

Rennes School of Business is dedicated to supporting its students to be innovative, daring and entrepreneurial. The School’s ‘Innostart’ incubator was founded in 2014, with the aim of discovering and developing creative potential and entrepreneurial talent in students using specially adapted educational resources to foster innovation.

Find out more about Innostart