Virgin Media Business brings Voom Tour to Belfast

• Anyone with a great business idea invited to pitch to an expert panel for the chance to win £5,000 and brunch with Sir Richard Branson

• Free and exclusive mentoring, seminars and business advice from Virgin Media Business and partners including JCDecaux and Crowdfunder will be on offer

Virgin Media Business today announces that it will bring the Voom Tour 2017 to Belfast on Tuesday, 6 and Wednesday, 7 June.


Whether starting a new business, or wanting to jolt a current venture into a burst of new growth, the Voom Tour is bringing a wealth of free advice and activity to budding entrepreneurs, including:

• Free one-to-one business advice from experts including JCDecaux, Crowdfunder and London Media PR
• A workshop with previous Voom winner Toby McCartney from MacRebur
• For any Belfast entrepreneurs who are brave enough to pitch their business idea, there is a chance to win £5000 and attend a brunch hosted by Richard Branson (pre-registration required to pitch)

The Voom Tour is the first time that Voom Pitch, the UK and Ireland’s biggest business pitching competition, has hit the road in search of the best new business ideas. The Voom Bus will be in St George’s Market, open from 8am - 5pm on Tuesday, 6th and Wednesday, 7 June with a live pitching competition to take place on Wednesday, 7.


The Voom Bus arrives in Belfast as new research from Virgin Media Business shows that almost two in five people (38%) think they’ve had a great idea for a new business. However, more than 7 in 10 of this group – the equivalent of over 13.8 million people across the UK - suffer from ‘business diffidence’ and haven’t done anything with their idea due to a fear of failure. The Voom Tour gives Belfast’s budding entrepreneurs the chance to get the advice they need to take their ideas to the next level.


Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group Founder, said: “The Voom Tour is coming to seek out the brilliant entrepreneurs and ideas from Belfast, and help break down the barriers to business success. The aim is to help them put aside their fears and take the next steps on what could be the most significant journey of their business life.”


Conor Harrison, Regional Director, Virgin Media Business, said: “Whether you’ve already started a business and want some help, or need advice to help get a brand new venture off the ground, the Voom Tour is the perfect platform to prepare your business for the big time. We hope to see as many of Belfast’s business community as possible join us in St George’s Market on the 6 and 7 June.”


For more information on the Voom Tour, and details on how to register to pitch a great business idea, please visit virginmediabusiness.co.uk/voom.


ENDS


For all Virgin Media press enquiries please contact:

Nathan Hatch | press@virginmedia.co.uk | 0333 000 2900 | @VirginMediaCorp

Location/timings

The Voom Bus will be open from 8am - 5pm on Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 June 2017. It will be located at St George’s Market, 12-20 East Bridge Street, Belfast, BT1 3NQ


About the research

Research was conducted online by Opinium between 14 and 18 April 2017, among 2,004 nationally representative UK adults.


When asked if they had what they thought was a great idea for a new business, 38% of respondents said yes. There are 51,339,000 adults in the UK (source: ONS), therefore 19,508,820 adults have had a great new business idea. Of this group, 71% didn’t turn their idea into a business. Therefore 13,851,262 people have had a great business idea but didn’t turn it into a reality.


Voom Tour 2017

The Voom Tour 2017 will visit regional centres across the UK and will include ten Voom Pitch competition stops, introduction to Voom Fibre and business networking opportunities. Virgin Media Business would like to thank its Voom Tour partners JCDecaux, ICAEW, Crowdfunder and Virgin StartUp.


Voom Tour 2017 Partners

Crowdfunder

The UK's #1 crowdfunding platform, Crowdfunder is all about putting the #VOOM into fundraising and awareness for great ideas. And they give Voom Pitch entrants the chance to raise money while they canvas votes. The team are hitting the road to share their know-how, spreading the word about creating brilliant crowdfunding campaigns, gaining validation to take ideas from a light-bulb moment and making it happen through the power of the crowd.


JCDecaux

The UK's number one out-of-home advertising company is also part of the world's leading outdoor advertising company.


ICAEW

ICAEW is committed to helping companies like #VOOM by providing entrepreneurs with free professional support and guidance through our Business Advice Service. Our ICAEW Chartered Accountants advise over 1.5 million businesses across the UK and will be available at stops on the tour to support entrepreneurial businesses aiming to grow and develop. As leading financial experts, a qualified chartered accountant can help you with all your business issues, from managing your cash flow to accessing the right funding solution for your business, to ensure that your business succeeds.


Virgin StartUp

Virgin StartUp is a not-for-profit arm of the Virgin Group spearheading the group’s entrepreneurial philosophy; providing government-backed start-up Loans, one-to-one mentoring and business advice to thousands of businesses across England and Scotland.


Virgin StartUp is joining the Voom Tour 2017 to provide valuable expertise, help and advice on how to launch and scale a start-up. They will be providing expert judges for the pitching competitions as well as first class business advisors to support the one to one sessions with budding entrepreneurs.


Voom Pitch (previously VOOM 2016)

Voom Pitch is the new name for the national pitching competition and the new regional competitions.  Both the national and regional competition gives entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized businesses the opportunity to pitch their ideas to expert judges and win prize money and business promotion opportunities.  The national competition will be judged by Richard Branson and there will be opportunity to win a slice of a prize fund worth over £1 million and will take place in March 2018.  Voom Pitch, the regional competition, will be part of The Voom Tour and there will be chance to win a slice of a prize fund worth £50,000 and takes place in communities across the UK between May and Nov 2017.


Voom Fibre product information

For more information about Voom Fibre, businesses can visit www.virginmediabusiness.co.uk/voom


About Virgin Media Business

We provide internet, data and telephone services to UK businesses and the public sector. We have more than 50,000 customers, most of which are small and medium enterprises. We also partner with the public sector: with local councils and thousands of schools to improve connectivity in communities and support learning, and with the emergency services to enable them to efficiently perform their life-saving skills.


We’re part of the Virgin Media group, the UK’s first provider of all four broadband, TV, mobile phone and home phone services. Virgin Media is a part of Liberty Global, the world’s largest international cable company. Together Virgin Media and Liberty Global serve more than 59 million subscribers in more than 30 countries - connecting people to the digital world and enabling them to discover and experience its endless possibilities.


The company’s dedicated, ultrafast network delivers the fastest widely available broadband speeds to homes and businesses. We’re expanding this through our £3 billion Project Lightning programme, which will result in a total of 17 million premises connected to our network.