Future Anything National Grand Final 2023 Showcase Winners Revealed

WICS was crowned Future Anything Grand Final Showcase 2023 winner, taking out the top prize worth over close to $10,000. The prize pack included $1000 cash, a ‘Discovery & Development Day’ with Circonomy,  a package and support to feature at the By Chloe North Harbour Youngpreneur Market in late 2023, and, excitingly, inclusion in the 2024 cohort of YouthX, Australia’s only accelerator program for school-age entrepreneurs. So impressed by the calibre of the winner on the night, judge Murray Galbraith added an incredible brand development support package to the prize pool.

The winning enterprise, created by Emerson, a Year 6 student from Matthew Flinders Anglican College on the Sunshine Coast has created an innovative new product that relieves discomfort and provides ease to children with a central line. The top prize will support Emerson to develop and scale his business in the real world.

On announcing WICS as the winner, Chloe Alley said “Founders always have resilience, passion and purpose, what stood out for us as judges is that WICS took their personal experience and planted a seed to create a product that solves a problem with global ambition.”

Chloe added “We discussed the fact that when your ‘why’ is big enough, you’ll work out the ‘how’ and tonight, Emerson demonstrated this beyond words.”

The honours for WICS didn’t stop there. The team also took of the hotly-contest People’s Choice 2023, voted for by the live audience at The Triffid on the night, adding additional cash support and opportunities for Emerson to further scale WICS.

Incredible Insects took out the Runner Up spot, making it the Showcase a clean sweep for Matthew Flinders Anglican College.

Year 6 students Emma and Isla have created insect-shaped chocolates that support the environment and discourage the use of neonicotinoids, which have a harmful impact on the environment.

Incredible Insects took home $500 in funding and a package and support to feature at the By Chloe North Harbour Youngpreneur Market in late 2023.

Judge Kia Pulo said “It was close to impossible to choose and the brilliant showcase teams made our decision incredible difficult. I really want to say to every single team a huge ‘well done’. What made our Runner Up, Incredible Insects, a standout was their deep consideration of a very complex problem and incredible attention to detail.”

The showcase wasn’t the only feature of the Future Anything National Grand Final 2023. The event also saw the eight top teams from the National Semi Finals pitch live on stage to a high-profile judging panel.

The Future Anything National Grand Final Winner 2023 was awarded to Unified First Aid (Ferny Grove State High School), Grand Final Runner up to Ashan Industries (Canterbury College) with two teams, Paw Print Books (MacGregor State High School) and Chipz (Brisbane South State Secondary College) the judges’ choice as Highly Commended. Read more about the  Future Anything National Grand Final 2023 winners here.

The Grand Finalists’ enterprises were developed as part of Future Anything’s Activate in-school entrepreneurship program, which tasks school-age students to create innovative, sustainable and scalable businesses that solve the problems that matter to them. Finalist teams were selected from over 250 applications from schools across Australia in a series of competitive live National Semi Finals held in October.

In addition to showcasing the best student-led social enterprises, the Future Anything National Grand Final celebrated the teachers who have led  entrepreneurial thinking in their classrooms with the second Future Anything Educator Awards. Read more about the winners here.

Reflecting on the event, Nicole Dyson, CEO & Founder of Future Anything, said “The foundation of all the work we do at Future Anything is the belief that youth-led ideas have the power to bend the future. This stuff that our students showed  us today has the potential to change the fabric of the future moving forward.”

Nic added “I invite everyone watching today to find even a small gesture of support for a young person you know that might unlock their ability to bend the future.”