Creative Spark COVID-19 Challenge winners announced

The app, LinkMe, is the brainchild of the student team of Harry Kirby (BSc Construction Management), Remy Beaumont-Griffaton (BSc Agriculture) and Rhett Galvin (BSc Consumer Behaviour and Marketing).

It allows users to share their contact details without the need for either business cards or swapping mobile phones, thus reducing the potential spread of COVID-19. Eradicating the need for business cards is also an environmentally-friendly solution, with two million trees per year used to produce traditional business cards.

The Creative Spark COVID-19 Challenge was set up by Dr Lebene Soga, Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Leadership, for students attending the Entrepreneurship Vibes 2020 online event, led by Henley Centre for Entrepreneurship.

The challenge was for teams of students to work together to create a business idea that solves a problem directly caused by COVID-19 and present their solution in the form of a video. This challenge helped to encourage students' entrepreneurial thinking to identify problems and to find solutions that fill a gap in the market.

The group's winning entry explained their micro influencer-based marketing proposal has the potential of a collaboration with Invades, a student event platform with a breadth of student influencers who would help to promote LinkMe. The group also presented their idea for LinkMePro, a more professional service of their proposal targeting industry professionals who are the largest users of the traditional business card.

The winners were announced on 1 February 2021. Dr Soga praised the "excellent video editing skills" of the winning submission and thanked the team for their entry. As their prize for winning, Harry, Remy and Rhett received a free subscription to the Curious Lounge, an event hub based in Reading that leads several inspiring and informative talks and panels with business leaders.

Watch the LinkMe COVID-19 Creative Spark entry video.