A Maori board game created to encourage the use of te reo in communities was the winning pitch at this year's Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) Dragons' Den.
Twenty teams brought their innovative ideas and business pitches to Tuesday's Dragons' Den - with the title going to Western Heights High School.
More than 85 students from six Central North Island high schools gathered at Toi Ohomai's Mokoia campus to pitch their innovative business ideas to five "dragons" and compete for $1000 in seed funding.
The Dragons' Den is the second event for YES teams as they put their best business foot forward and pitched their products to five industry experts.
Western Heights High School team Kemu were judged winners. (From left) Hawaiki Allerby, 16, Elizabeth Wara, 16, Alyssa Ngatai, 16, Leesa Ngawhika, 16. Photo/Ben Fraser
Western Heights High School team Kemu presented their idea for a Maori board game which not only encouraged the use of te reo but could also be used by teachers as a grammar tool for students.
Te Irihei Reweti designed the artwork for the team's business.
The school's head of business management Kevin Addinall said the team was quite surprised by their win.
"The competition was much harder this year, the ideas coming through from the teams were all good.
"The students are going into primary schools to test the prototype and we are hoping the printing and production stage will begin after the school holidays."
Mr Addinall said he was there to push the students and get them to overcome barriers, but he was always impressed with the ownership the students took of their projects.
"It's theirs, they are always fully involved and committed. There's always barriers and they get knocked down but they just keep on going. I am always in awe of their resilience and ownership."
The national head of the scheme, Dr Colin Kennedy, was delighted to be able to attend the pitches.
"We have almost 4000 YES students participating nationally and the teams today were certainly up there with the best of them. I loved the innovation, confidence and cultural celebration in these companies. There were definitely some of the next generation of New Zealand entrepreneurs in that room."
Each team had five minutes to pitch with two minutes of Q&A from the dragons. Teams were judged on finance, marketing, innovation, operations and overall presentation. First, second and third place winners received $500, $300 and $200 respectively.
eNZidea, also from Western Heights' High, came second and The Bath Bomb Factory from John Paul College took third place.
eNZidea from WHHS. Photo/Supplied
Students from John Paul College, who finished third in the competition. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
Teams will go on and fight for the regional YES awards and the winner will go to nationals.
YES Central North Island regional co-ordinator Nikolasa Biasiny-Tule was excited to see the team's business ideas evolve to the production stage, with many providing prototypes.
"It's a huge step, to take an idea to move towards production, being able to pitch that idea is a fundamental skill and the quality of the pitches has been amazing."
The judges were Ana Morrison, independent director, Steve Pinder, area commercial manager, Westpac, Rick Keegan from Enterprise Great Lake Taupo, Regan Fraser, community manager for Digital Basecamp and Matt Dawson, national manager of TechCafe.
Schools that took part were John Paul College, Western Heights High School, Rotorua Boys' High, Tauhara College, Taupo-nui-a-Tia and Tokoroa College.
