A team of budding entrepreneurs have wowed judges from industry and commerce with their idea for a potentially revolutionary twist on satellite navigation.

Big Wide Ears, from St. Aidan’s School, Sunderland, have been announced as overall winners of the Big Ideas ICT Youth Challenge Competition, after almost a year of developing their ideas alongside other young innovators with the guidance of leading business figures.

Paul McEldon, Chief Executive of the North East Business and Innovation Centre, said: “Acting as a judge at the final stage of this competition was extremely difficult as, after such a long and comprehensive development, all of the teams’ pitches were outstanding.

“As the overall winners, Big Wide Ears have demonstrated exceptional business acumen and entrepreneurial flair at such an early age. The nature of the device that they have developed also shows that they have sound understanding of new and developing technologies.”

A prize-giving ceremony on Friday 4th July came at the end of a week-long residential at Otterburn Hall which marked the final stage of the competition. The six attending teams engaged in activities ranging from archery, canoeing and raft-building while developing the final presentation of their ideas with the assistance of a variety of business experts including Colin Hewitt, Partner at Ward Hadaway, Stephen Green, Head of Communications at the Entrepreneurs Forum, and Jason Ollivent, North of England Business Manager for Microsoft UK.

The Big Ideas ICT Youth Challenge began in September 2007, when over 70 initial entries from school and college pupils region-wide were received. Teams then battled through two tough rounds, delivering presentations to a panel of the

North East’s top business brains to demonstrate their unique ideas for an Information Computer Technology (ICT) solution.

Nathan Mersh (15), Big Wide Ears team member, said: “It’s extremely rewarding to be announced as the winners, as we’ve been working with the other teams for so long and we know how strong their ideas were. The judges must have thought that ours is something really special!”

As the overall winners, Big Wide Ears’ team members were presented with brand new laptop computers. They will visit BT’s UK headquarters, and have also been awarded with virtual office facilities from which to base their fledgling business.

A second team, Phone Friends, from Jarrow School, were presented with a special Microsoft prize for their idea for a mobile phone service for children, and will travel to the Software Giant’s UK base to get first-hand experience of cutting edge technologies.

Lisa Smith, Big Ideas manager and competition coordinator, said: “In terms of innovation, this year’s teams have really raised the bar. As we will be supporting all of them on an ongoing basis, it will be extremely interesting to monitor their progress in the business world.”