On April 28th, the Open Ventures community got together to celebrate and to hear the announcement of the shortlisted ventures. Photos are up at flickr and our Facebook group.

Clare Cotton explains the OVC

Towards the end of the evening, David Simoes-Brown from NESTA announced, to an excited crowd, which ventures had been selected by Cancer Research UK to enter the final phase of the OVC:

• CRUK “Quit Smoking” Patches
• Kids of Steel
• Open Gym - a network of outdoor fitness groups across the UK
• Sail for Life
• What Money Can’t Buy - The Time of Your Life!

In the days before the event, we also ran a community vote where we asked you to choose your favourite ventures. After announcing the judges’ choices, we revealed which venture had won the community vote and would be joining the above ventures in the next phase: Project Rose.

David Simoes-Brown with Project Rose

How can I get involved?

The shortlisted ventures are working closely with Cancer Research UK to develop their businesses. However, they need your help! The ventures need to do research, build websites, spread the word, network, and more. Do you have a skill you could lend to a venture? Could you donate some time? Let the community know by posting in the Help Out section of the site.

Today, we’ve made ventures more collaborative.

Resources

Previously, venture resources could only be created by and shared with the venture team. Now, resources can be created by and shared with everyone in the Open Ventures community. (All existing resources will still be visible only to the venture team.) As a venture team member, you can now share your plans with the community. As a community member, you can now share interesting media or relevant websites.

Discussions

Previously, you could not comment on ventures like you could on ideas. Now, each venture has their own discussion forum to which everyone can contribute. As a venture team member, you can use these forums to ask for opinions or advice. As a community member, you can leave comments and interact with the venture team.