The Livery Academy Awards, established in 2013, are designed to foster entrepreneurial and presentation skills among sixth-form students as well as build links between Livery Company members and the state schools with whom their Company is associated.
The Livery companies provide each team with mentors from the finance and marketing/advertising/creative sectors, ideally drawn from the Livery company’s membership.
The school teams are given a brief and it is up to each school team to develop and present a pitch to investors to raise up to £500,000 (imaginary) to launch a product or service that they think will be not only commercially successful in the UK, but also generate a material social benefit for target customers and/or society as a whole. This year the theme was given an extra twist to focus on climate and environmental sustainability.
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Earlier events have been held at the Grocers’, Drapers’, Merchant Taylors and Haberdashers’ Halls with three or four schools taking part at each Hall. This year’s event took place at Mansion House on 2nd February 2022.
The four winning schools contesting the final were Haberdashers’ Abraham Darby, Chelsea Academy, Thomas Adams School, and Wallingford School.
The school teams presented their proposed business ideas at the final in Mansion House to The Lord Mayor and a distinguished panel of judges, and an audience of Livery company members.
The standard of ideas reached a new high – the quality of presentations and skills with which all the teams answered questions from the judges and the audience was exceptional. The hardest job of the evening was to decide a winner given the amazing presentations. The judges, after lengthy deliberations which took almost double the normal decision time, selected Thomas Adams School supported by the Drapers’ as the winners for their innovative idea with a company called Scribble with the plan to recycle pens completely from used plastic otherwise destined to be ocean waste. Their close decision was reflected by a similar split amongst the voting tables inside the Egyptian Hall.
Our thanks to the Lord Mayor for hosting the event, Sheriff Nick Lyons for his role as Master of Ceremonies, and the Judges – Tim Campbell MBE, Dipi McKernan, Michael Barrington-Hibbert and Clem Johnson. The team at Mansion House was ably led by Cassie Hilton and Jovita Williams who put in many hours of support to ensure that one of the first live events of the year at Mansion House could take place. Finally we should thank Henry Colthurst a past chairman of the City of London Education Board for establishing and overseeing this tremendous event.
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