Ideation Workshop series creation

Surrey has a high concentration of research-intensive institutions. Until 2026 it had no joined-up county offer for startup founders. The Surrey Venture Studio (SVS) changes that. It pools the resources, know-how and networks of the University of Surrey, Royal Holloway University of London, the University for the Creative Arts and Surrey County Council.

The SVS Accelerator opens with a two-day Ideation Workshop, which doubles as the selection route. Selected projects go on to six months of acceleration support and £25,000 of non-dilutive funding for customer discovery. None of it had run before. edio was commissioned to build it.

What we did

We interviewed each partner to establish their goals for SVS, then mapped the learner journey from application to panel presentation against edio’s entrepreneurial competencies maturity framework.

We delivered complete two-day materials: presentations, worksheets, templates and further reading. At the core is a case study of a creative technology venture that began with student enterprise support at a partner university and went on to raise Series A funding in Silicon Valley, taught through the decisions its founders faced. We wrote the assessment criteria for the judging panels and the final presentation format: the idea, a beachhead market, and a plan to investigate it with real customers. An extensive facilitator guide keeps the workshop faithful across venues and cohorts.

'It has been a real pleasure working with Chris. He brings warmth, energy and extensive experience to every workshop, creating an environment where participants feel supported and able to challenge their thinking. The feedback has been consistently excellent across multiple workshops, and it is wonderful to see participants leave his sessions with greater clarity, confidence and enthusiasm for moving their ventures forward.' Odysseas Bassioukas, Manager, SVS

The outcome

More than 80 participants across two cohorts and eight workshops, delivered at all four partner locations. The audience is deliberately mixed: prospective spinout founders, current students, and founders from the local community. The central learning outcome lands in every cohort. Self-evaluated priorities shift from validating features to discovering customers. edio leads delivery, supports the studio’s own staff on assessment, and continues to work with the partnership as it scales. Two accelerator cohorts of 16 in total high-potential ventures have already been formed.