BUSINESS 2000:THE NEXT generation of Denis O'Briens, Anne Heratys and Jerry Kennellys gathered in Tullamore last week to battle it out in the finals of the 2008 Student Enterprise Awards. In the end, a team from Banagher College, Co Offaly, who were behind an innovative farm safety board game called Farmer on Board, emerged as this year's victors.

Speaking at a launch event for the awards at the end of April in Dublin's Gresham Hotel, the managing director of Farmer on Board, Síle Dolan, explained how the idea for the mini-business came about.

Last September, the team got together for a brainstorming session and examined their strengths, weaknesses and interests.

One team member worked on a farm at weekends and had a keen interest in farming, and the idea arose to promote farm awareness among children. They discovered a gap in the market for promotional material on the issue and considered creating a safety DVD. However, they found that the costs were prohibitively high.

It was then decided that a board game would be the best way to go, so the next step was designing the game and its layout.

Market research was carried out, the feedback was incorporated to improve the design, and it was off to the print factory. The finished product was then sold in primary schools in the team's local area.

The team have not only won €500 and a trophy, but an educational trip to Malta for themselves and their teacher.

Another outstanding business that caught the judges' attention was Base Movie Crew - run by a team from St David's secondary school in Greystones - which won the best display award in the senior category.

Base Movie Crew specialises in converting videos to DVDs, and designs websites as a sideline enterprise. As well as possessing strong technical abilities, the team members displayed exceptional business acumen in spotting a niche and creating a profitable business.

Managing director Eoin O'Connell said they learned that it was necessary to be organised to succeed in business. "You need to be passionate about the product . . . and stand behind it 100 per cent," he added.

The profits generated so far have been ploughed back into the business. Not surprisingly, given their success to date, the team intend to keep working on the business over the summer.

Glen Byrne from Wesley College in Ballinteer was the winner of the innovation award in the intermediate category. Byrne spotted a gap in the market for comics aimed at teenagers and decided to tap into the Ross O'Carroll-Kelly phenomenon.

He created a comic entitled Roysh Here, Roysh Now, which is an illustrated version of the first chapter of The Miseducation Years, the first book in the Ross O'Carroll-Kelly chronicles.

But first Byrne had to meet author Paul Howard, the creator of the character, to get permission to create a comic-book adaptation of his work. Fortunately Howard lent his full support to the project, as did his publisher, O'Brien Press. After the success of his first comic, Byrne hopes to produce a second issue, this time based on his own storyline.

The Zero Tolerance team from Loreto College in Swords (as featured in Business 2000 last month) also scooped an award, winning the "project with good international value" prize in the senior category. Zero Tolerance is a timely campaign that promotes awareness of the "size zero" phenomenon and encourages students to strive for a healthy body size.

As well as operating a business during the 2007/2008 academic year, all students competing in the Student Enterprise Awards had to prepare a detailed business report, set up an exhibition display stand and take part in an interview with the three-member judging panel.

Ger Enright, chairman of the organising committee, said the standard of enterprise and innovation was exceptionally high at this year's finals.

He also explained the motivation behind running the programme: "Through the student enterprise programme, secondary school pupils get real-world experience of researching, running and evaluating their own businesses, with the support of teachers, principals, parents and their local enterprise board," he said.

"We are fostering an enterprise culture within Irish classrooms to ensure that these pupils become the entrepreneurs of the future."