Welcome to the first issue of nova, a monthly newsletter updating you on all the latest activities in the Torbay Innovation Centre – the local business incubation unit based in South Devon College. Adrian Sheen

Business Mentoring takes off
After the recent successful launch of the South Devon Business Mentors, the first induction programme took place on 8 June for the prospective Mentors. This new initiative has been created to give support and valuable advice to local entrepreneurs in their early stages of development.

The event was chaired by Andy Copp, who was instrumental in the launch of DorMen – the Dorset Mentoring programme that has been running successfully for the past 2 years. Keith Richardson, from the Richardson Hotels, spoke about his personal experiences of Business Mentoring and his strong desire for the success of the Group.

Adrian comments, "Business Advisers typically see businesses only once or twice, whereas South Devon Business Mentors will provide ongoing assistance and ‘hand-holding’ for early stage businesses. If anyone is interested in finding out more, please call me on 01803 540 500."

Atlas Language Centre
Elena Cooper has recently moved into the Innovation Centre after setting up Atlas Language Centre. Elena has a passion for bridging the gap between cultures and has identified two distinct areas for her language centre – Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Atlas currently offers tuition in English, French, Spanish, German, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese.

Elena commented “Languages are a lifelong skill – to be used in business and for pleasure, to open up avenues of communication and exploration. We understand the difficulties people may come across when learning a language, which is why we use mostly native speakers in the classes and keep the number of students to 6/7 per course."

Atlas can develop classes for companies, individuals and for nurseries and schools. The courses can be held at the clients premises or at the Innovation Centre.

“Moving to Torbay Innovation Centre has been fantastic for me”, said Elena. “Having all the support and advice in the early stages is so valuable. I also love talking to the other tenants as we all learn and grow together.”

Training Workshops
It has been a busy few weeks with 12 training workshops taking place.

Over 70 people attended courses covering Pre-Start Awareness, Sales & Marketing, Finance and Planning & Regs. Pictured here are the delegates on the Sales & Marketing seminar – which included a range of businesses from a tiling specialist, life coach, slimming club organiser, board games inventor, letting agents.

Eight more workshops are available in June. We also offer 1:1 meetings with a SFEDI accredited Business Advisor so if you are interested, please contact us.

In addition, over 230 students from South Devon College attended Setting up Your Own Business seminars. The students were from the Visual Arts, Hair and Beauty, Construction, Outdoor Education and PC Engineering departments. Thanks to all the excellent guest speakers who shared their experiences.

Come to the next First Friday Breakfast meeting on 6th July at the Innovation Centre:

    8.30: Buffet breakfast
    9.00: Welcome - Adrian Sheen
    9.05: Global Action - Ben Bryant
    9.20: Networking
    10.00: Close

Please reply if you wish to attend so we can arrange a bacon bap, or vegetarian alternative, for you.

June Meeting
Last month Angela George from IMS Ltd gave a brief talk entitled The Power of Communication. She highlighted the 4 A's of succesful communication:

News in brief

Well done to new tenant Paul Bearne from Total Embedded Solutions, who has just clinched another big order. Paul has also recently returned from a successful trip to China to discuss plans for developing his new business.


Congratulations to Millshill, IT recruitment company, who have recently sponsored one of their clients in the Microsoft Challenge. helping to raise a significant amount of money for the NSPCC.

Millshill have also revamped their website, so if anyone out there needs IT recruitment, please go to www.millshill.co.uk.