A Grand Idea to Make Your Mark
A Grand Idea to Make Your Mark was a competition to encourage 16-25 year olds to engage with their ideas and think about making them happen. It was about taking away the barriers and fears that prevent young people from turning their ideas into a reality.
We created a viral video to spread word about A Grand Idea to Make Your Mark - you can watch it on Youtube here
Winners
The 15 competition winners have been announced on the MTV show FYI. Each winner will get £1000 - congrats to them all!
Kevin Corrigan with his grand 'stud saver' idea - an elasticated overshoe and sole protector to prevent football boot studs from being damaged from walking on tarmac.
Mahmood Choudry with sponsormytalent.com a website to connect you with the right people to sponsor your talent and turn your vision into reality.
Anthony Cunningham with the Kinetic Energy iPod - an iPod which charges itself as you walk.
Wesley Jess with a grand device which reads lyric information embedded on a CD and projects it onto a surface of your choice!
Jonathan Taylor with his grand 'shower drier' idea, turning a shower head into a hair drier so you can dry your hair straight away.
Alex Holmes with his idea to beat school bullying.
Charlotte with her idea to crate a download booth for music stores so you can create your own CD with all your favourite songs.
Erin Hays with her grand idea to keep us smelling fresh all day - an air freshener for the body!
Steph Blake with her green grand idea to create a forest for life, planing trees in honour of loved ones to tackle climate change.
Mark Tilbrook with his idea to set up a 24 hour network of mums on hand to help hapless students with their queries like how to boil and egg.
Seb Pietrovito with his idea to make cigarettes birght pink and frilly to make it really uncool to smoke.
Nikki Malpas with her idea to introduce a safety seat belt clamp to prevent toddlers being able to release themselves from the chair.
Kat with her idea for a see through toaster to get optimum coloured toast to suit personal preference!
Jacob Wright with his grand idea for a velcro room so you can walk on the ceiling with special velcro covered shoes.
Marc Hagan-Guirey with his idea for a glow in the dark toilet seat so you don't have to turn on the light.
Looking for more inspiration? Check out these grand ideas from celebrities and successful business people.
Judges
The final 15 winners were decided by the judges:
- Pop sensation Jamelia. Read Jamelia's tips for wannabe winners
- Kanya King, CEO and Founder of MOBO
- Dazed and Confused Co-founder, Jefferson Hack
- Dot.com entrepreneur and star of C4’s Secret Millionaire, Ben Way
- Simon Mansell - a 28 year old entrepreneur and winner of the 2006 Make Your Mark Young Brits competition.
Jamelia's tips for wannabe winners
- Keep it simple – you must keep it to five steps
- If you don’t yet have an idea why not think of a classic problem and try to solve it – I’d like to know how not to get blisters from high heels or how to solve the problem of my daughter not eating her vegetables!
- Or think about a passion – mine would definitely be music or food based
- And lastly, don’t forget it doesn’t need to be serious or feasible. We’ll be looking for some funny ones too!
A good luck message from Kelly Rowland
"This message is going out to anyone who's ever had an idea in their life: your idea could be worth a grand! Yes, that's one thousand pounds, just for having an idea and telling us how you'd make it happen, in MTV's Grand Idea to Make Your Mark competition. Your idea can be about anything: whether it's seriously world-changing or ridiculously absurd. Just have a look www.agrandidea.co.uk to find out how to enter. Get that brain-juice pumping... and good luck!" Kelly Rowland
Giant Minds and ChangeMakers
What would you do if you had £1,000 to solve a problem in your local community? Giant Minds and ChangeMakers have developed a social enterprise workshop and programme called A Grand Idea. Through match funding with The Big Boost, they have already given close to £50,000 in the form of £1,000 grants to groups of 4-6 pupils in the north east to make their social enterprise ideas become a reality. They plan to offer this to schools nationally so for your chance to get involved visit www.giantminds.co.uk to let them know why your school should be involved.