A Night of Exceptional Achievement for Pipers at the Young Enterprise Area Finals

Held at Buckinghamshire New University on Thursday 24 April 2025, the Young Enterprise Area Finals brought together seven outstanding student companies from across the High Wycombe Area in a celebration of innovation, entrepreneurship and teamwork.

In the lead-up to the event, each team submitted a detailed company report for initial judging. On the day, teams set up trade stands to showcase their products and branding, participated in a formal team interview and delivered professional presentations to a wide audience. This included fellow students, staff, representatives from schools across the area, Young Enterprise board members, judges and members of the public.

For the past few years, the Young Enterprise Area Finals have only been putting through one team from this area. This year, they decided to go for two representatives. Representing Pipers, teams Hive It Your Way and Grounded did outstandingly well across all areas and ended up being the chosen two Overall Winners of the High Wycombe Area.

This was on top of other awards presented to both teams. Grounded received awards for:

• Best Teamwork
• Best Company Report
• Overall Winner

Hive It Your Way was recognised for:

• Best Sustainability
• Best Presentation
• Best Interview
• Overall Winner

In addition, the evening included the results of the Eden Centre Excellence Awards, a separate competition the teams had entered earlier in the year. Grounded was awarded:

• Best Financial Management
• Best Marketing (shared with Hive It Your Way)
• Thame Inner Wheel Club Award for teamwork
• Runners-Up for both Digital Presence and the Environmental Award

Throughout the year, both teams have taken part in several online competitions and were formally presented with their trophies during the Finals event. These included:

• Grounded: Awards for their Business Plan and Website
• Hive It Your Way: Awards for their Business Plan and Pitch to the Panel

Both teams will now represent the area at the Regional Finals on Thursday 15 May 2025 (hosted here at the School) where they will compete against eight other teams from Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

Both teams demonstrated incredible passion, creativity and professionalism throughout the competition and have made the entire Pipers community extremely proud. We wish them the very best at the upcoming Regional Finals.