In November 2007, a select group of rising stars was born: a community of young, like-minded individuals, brought together to share contacts,
experiences and ideas. This hotbed of collaboration and communication was Courvoisier The Future 500 network. Over the space of 12 months the online and offline group, hand-picked by a distinguished panel of judges, flourished.
Themed networking events and breakfasts helped members put faces to names and build ties across sectors. In addition, the Future Bank scheme offered financial incentives to network members collaborating on new projects.
'Courvoisier The Future 500 is a platform for like-minded people that allows them to interact and develop, and helps us support and celebrate excellence and originality,' says Courvoisier's Claire Richards. 'As a brand that has been promoting and supporting excellence since its conception over 200 years ago, Courvoisier is a natural partner for a network of passionate, driven and focused individuals, and the main aim of the network was to help the UK's rising stars on the road to greatness.
'We always knew that the network would expand annually because its existing members expect change and are hungry to meet a new batch of talent,' Richards explains. 'They're not the kind of people who stand still. Our challenge was deciding how we would select this year's new members and, unlike last year when we had 10 'ones to watch', we decided to look for just one overall winner.'
The judges' first job was to sift through hundreds of applications, deciding who had the talent and inventiveness to join the original 500. Once the 500 new network members had been selected, the hunt was on for a winner.
The new members were whittled down to a top 100, based on the strength of their stories and the merits of their achievements. The judges were then asked to choose five finalists, all of whom were invited to take part in the Power Hour: a Dragon's Den-style session with four of the six Courvoisier The Future 500 judges, and a £5,000 prize fund.
The five finalists were invited to pitch their ideas in early September, presenting business plans, revealing new initiatives and introducing themselves to the four discerning judges.
'Last year's Courvoisier The Future 500 were of a very high calibre,' says Power Hour judge, Ed Bartlett, co-founder of IGA Worldwide. 'But this year, rather than picking the ultimate winner on the basis of a paper application, we wanted to meet the top five in person, and hear their stories before selecting an overall winner.'
