The countdown is on to one of the biggest events in the DMU calendar; The Freelancing and Entrepreneurship Awards, and here’s how you could be there.
On Tuesday 10 February, between 5 and 8pm, students, graduates, staff and the local business community will come together to celebrate the wealth of freelancing and entrepreneurial talents surrounding us.
The DMU Freelancing and Entrepreneurship Awards 2025/26, supported by the Sir Thomas White Loan Charity, will recognise DMU brilliance with a high-profile, star-studded awards ceremony right here on DMU Campus.
The DMU Made Team would love you to join them for this unforgettable evening by booking your FREE ticket today. Spaces are strictly limited and this event is expected to book up very quickly.
Special celebrity guests will provide entertainment and insight on the night, with outstanding students, graduates and staff being honoured in a range of award categories, including:
- Creative Industries Award
- Health and Wellbeing Award
- Global Entrepreneurship Champion
- Sustainability Award
- Tech Award
- Fashion Award
Awards will also be given out to our Entrepreneurial Student, Graduate and Alumni of the Year.
Among last year’s winners was Simon Samsome, creator of Snowball, a disability app helping users rate and review venues worldwide. After graduating, Simon went on to join Crucible, a graduate incubator ran by the University’s commercial team, and he has since filmed an episode of the BBC’s Dragon’s Den.
Other winners in 2024 include Joe Shade, developer of an innovative beehive that monitors and provides research data on bees, and Sam Thacker, a rising freelancer contributing significantly to Leicester’s creative culture and featured in the Graduate Fashion Foundation’s Talent of Tomorrow campaign.
Simon Baines, Enterprise Project Manager said: "Our awards event has become an annual highlight amidst our many projects, events and competitions. We are so excited to celebrate, not only a number of monumental milestones in our work, but of course also our incredible community of students and recent graduates who, among them, never cease to amaze us with their brilliant side-hustles, freelancing projects and portfolios. It doesn’t matter how big or small somebody’s venture is, how much money it makes or what kind of project it is, we encourage nominations from everybody.
“There are many exceptional graduates we have worked with out there like Jane Hearst, Tarnjeet Kaur, and Melvin Riley who are outstanding exemplars for this. Our mission is to create graduates with entrepreneurial skills, not graduates who are entrepreneurs."
A chance to win big money
The awards will feature the final of this year's Pitch2Win competition. Four finalists will pitch their ideas to the audience for the chance to win £1,000, determined by an expert panel, and a separate £1,000 prize voted for by the audience on the night.
Previous Pitch2Win participants have included successful graduate startups Leicester Gazette, Hands In and Lead Balloon Studios.
Posted on Friday 9 January 2026