New Venture Institute Flinders will honour its 2014 Enterprise Workshop graduates at a gala event at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on October 23.

At the event, the graduates – 22 split into five teams – will compete for prizes by presenting their boundary-pushing business ideas to some of Adelaide’s leading business people.

These will be awarded for the Best Presentation, Best Financial Plan and Most Outstanding Female Entrepreneur, with the main prize going to the best overall team.

The judging panel will include Grant Steinberg from Commercialisation Australia, Paul Preiss from Makrid Preiss and Wendy Davidson from Wendy Davidson Enterprises.

Mr Preiss and Ms Davidson are both past Enterprise Workshop graduates.

The winning team stands to win over $25,000 worth of prizes, including three months’ use of an incubator space at eNVIsion, $1000 of IP/Trademark services from Madderns Patent Attorneys and tickets to events by the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia.

Enterprise Workshop, which was established 33 years ago, is South Australia’s most successful entrepreneur development and business accelerator program, producing such global success stories as Vision Systems and Minelab.

SA Enterprise Workshop Chairman, Dr Nick Begakis AO – yet another Workshop graduate – said it had a “wonderfully rich history of success”.

“The Workshop joins entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs-to-be with extraordinary people who are passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship, whether it is in technology or in services, for a once in a lifetime learning experience,” Dr Begakis said.

“We are thoroughly proud to honour this year’s exceptional graduates and showcase their ground-breaking ideas to the business world.”

The evening’s key note speech will be delivered by Jim Whalley, who is a highly regarded entrepreneur, co-founder of Nova Aerospace and former air force fighter and test pilot.

New business ideas incubated at this year’s workshop include a gesture recognition technology to encourage people to create art and music, and a product to assist people with mobility which keeps dignity and independence at the forefront of their needs.

For more information on the event, or to register, click here.