City College Norwich has launched its pioneering new StartUp Lounge in the heart of its city centre campus.
The College is embracing the UK government’s drive to support business development and develop young entrepreneurs who are looking to start their own business. With this in mind, the StartUp Lounge at City College Norwich has been created to provide a hub for enterprise education for the college’s 14,000 students, offering an innovative 21st century learning space at the college’s city centre site.
Working with Snelling Business Systems, the college has used cutting edge technology to create a multifunctional open plan space for students, taking them through each of the key stages in a business start-up journey, as well as creating a ‘Wow!’ factor for visitors.
The StartUp Lounge includes a showcase 103″ plasma display in the Interaction presentation area, and a curved presentation space, in The Studio, complete with geometrically corrected HD projection system designed to create a ‘Dragons Den’ type of environment which will give budding entrepreneurs the opportunity to ‘pitch’ to business mentors or prospective clients.
In addition, the space features interactive booths in the Collaboratorium to promote knowledge sharing, where students can use electronic sticky notes to post their questions on screen which other users may then be able to answer, and there are interactive display screens throughout.
Budding entrepreneurs ‘pitching’ can be live streamed to the 103″ plasma display to allow other others to view technique and method employed, in addition the pitches can be recorded complete with content via Sonic Foundry Mediasite for later review and appraisal.
In addition, the StartUp Lounge features two 70″ wall-mounted Smart interactive screens running Meeting Pro software, providing a brainstorming space for students, with a collaborative learning space where work can be shared between screens and saved and e-mailed out to individuals. Digital signage, in the form of a dedicated wall mounted 60″ LED full HD signage screen welcomes students, lecturers and visitors alike.
The entire system is touch screen controlled and fully equipped for both digital and analogue connections.
