Updated regularly with important information and resources for teams
You are officially Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize finalists – congratulations again!
As a finalist you will take part in the Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize Enterprise Academy during which you will; meet your industry mentor, take part in workshops designed to give you the tools needed to write your business case, prepare your team for the final submission in June , and give your team the best possible chance to win £20,000 for your school/group!
To support your experience as finalists this will be your dedicated area on the website, it will be updated regularly with new information and resources. Scroll down for more, including:
As finalists of the Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize you are asked to make a final submission in order to evidence progression from the original application form.
Teams are asked to submit by 17:00 Friday 18 June 2021 via [email protected]:
Further guidance on both parts of the submission is below. An questions regarding the submission please contact the team via [email protected]
Wednesday 28 April
An informational session for Team Champions only. Invites have been sent out. Please get in touch via [email protected] if you have not received this.
Thursday 6 May
Topics that will be covered in this event include:
Thursday 20 May
Friday 11 June
Public voting for the 40 finalist ideas commences.
Friday 18 June
UPDATED DEADLINE
All finalists must submit their business plan workbook and pitch video (further guidance on this will be shared).
Thursday 15 July
Winners announcement and awards event.
Wed, 24 Mar 21
Congratulations! We are delighted to inform you that your team has been chosen as a finalist for the Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize.
As a finalist you and your team are now invited to the Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize Enterprise Academy, during which you will meet your industry mentor, take part in workshops designed to give you the tools needed to write your business case, and prepare your team for the final submission in June – and prepare you for the best possible chance to win £20,000 for your school/group!
Finalist Information Pack
To help provide you with all the relevant information about the next steps we have attached a comprehensive information pack for team champions to this email which includes:
Please note: The required documentation includes consent forms which will need to be signed and returned to [email protected] by 23 April 2021 in order to ensure your team’s ability to participate in the academy.
How we’ll communicate with you moving forward
To keep you informed and up to date over the next couple of months we will send an email each week, Monday-Wednesday, in a similar format to this one (with the exception of school holidays). There will be lots of activities, opportunities and information to share with you and the teams so we want to keep this as streamlined and consistent as possible.
If, however, you have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the team. Andi f for any reason your main point of contact for team changes please let us know as soon as possible, via [email protected].
Once again a huge congratulations, we are really looking forward to kick-starting the programme with you and hearing more about your ideas!
Kind regards,
The Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize Team
Tues, 20 April 2021
Congratulations once again on becoming a finalist of the Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize – we are very excited to have you onboard! We hope that you were able to have a restful break over the Easter holidays.
This email will provide you with all of the information you and your team need to know for what’s coming up on the Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize in the next couple of weeks. A quick reminder that all of our communications regarding the programme will be directly to Team Champions. If your team members have questions for us, we kindly ask that these are communicated to us by you.
For Team Champions
Welcome Event
We will be kicking off the ALEP programme with a Welcome Event on Wednesday 28 April at 12:00! The session will take place via Zoom and will last 50 minutes. Attendance is important because we will be sharing vital information about the programme, but please let us know if you’re unable to attend and we will send you a recording of the session. Please note this is an information session for Team Champions only.
During the session we will cover timeline & deadlines, the final submission, 1:1 support available, the events and time for Q&A.
We will send all Team Champions an invitation to the event by the end of the week which will have dial in details. Please ensure we have the correct Team Champion email addresses.
In the meantime, we would also like to draw your attention to your dedicated finalist space on the website which will be regularly updated, including all FAQs.
Brightside: Online Mentoring Platform
We have a really exciting new offer for teams this year to enhance both theirs, and yours, mentoring experience with a bespoke platform developed in partnership with Brightside. Brightside is a platform through which young people are empowered to further develop their independent learning skills to get advice and support from mentors in a safe online environment. Teams will be able to have a group chat with their mentor (Team Champions will be added to this chat), and will be able to directly message the group, rather than the Team Champion being the go-between as in previous years.
The platform has a number of safeguarding measures in place including: all mentors being DBS-checked, a customised filter system which screens all messages for inappropriate content, and is moderated by NSPCC-trained co-ordinators. You can find the Brightside Child Protection Policy here.
If you think you and your team would like to use Brightside please complete the information in the attached excel spreadsheet and you will be matched to your mentor. Team members can use a school email to register, however they can also use a parent/guardian’s email/phone number if this is preferable. Email addresses are only collected for processing purposes and to enable us to match teams with the correct mentor, and will not be visible to the mentor or other members of the team.
Please return a completed spreadsheet to Assistant Programme Manager Hannah Picton: [email protected] by EOD 28 April 2021.
Although this is an optional platform, we would really encourage teams to use it to not only support independent learning but also to help alleviate administrative burden for Team Champions.
Further Communications Guidance & Team Photo
The finalist announcement will take place next Monday 26 April. As mentioned previously, we understand that this is really exciting news and we always encourage teams to share their achievements, however, for now this news is still under embargo.
From 26 April onwards, please share the news as far and wide as you would like. Our PR partner has prepared a communications pack for you – please find it attached to this email.
Your team photo. We would really like to be able to showcase your teams and one of the ways we can do this is through a team photo. We’ve provided some advice on how to take a great team photo in the communications but encourage your teams to have fun!
Required Documents Reminder
In our last email we asked that, in order for your team to participate fully, the following documents be signed and returned to us:
If you have not done so already, please send signed copies of these documents through to us at [email protected] before the Welcome Event on 28 April. You can download the forms from this folder.
For Teams
Hardware & Guidance
To help finalists to develop their ideas further, we are giving each team a £125 digital gift voucher for use on the Pimoroni website. The team will be able to choose to buy the type of hardware or assets that would be most beneficial to develop their specific project.
Attached to this email you will find the Hardware Guidance & Budget document. It contains some ideas for items that teams might like to purchase and also includes a budget spreadsheet for teams to plan how best to use their vouchers. Your unique voucher codes to use upon checkout will be sent to Team Champions separately this week.
As always, if you have any questions please get in touch via [email protected]. We are always more than happy to help!
Tues, 27 April 21
We hope you’ve had a good first week back after the Easter holidays! We are very excited that the Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize programme is now truly getting started. This is when the fun begins!
You may have seen this in the media already but we’re excited to confirm that all finalists have now been officially announced so please do share the news as far and wide as you would like! To support you with this we have attached the draft release which you can update with your details and post to your website, blog or social media channels. You can also share it with local media contacts that your school or youth group may have worked with previously.
Welcome Event Tomorrow The ALEP Welcome Event for Team Champions is taking place tomorrow, Wednesday 28 April at 12:00! All Team Champions will have received a calendar invite with a Zoom link to join the session. A reminder that attendance is important because we will be sharing vital information about the programme, but please let us know if you’re unable to attend and we will send you a recording of the session.
Brightside: Online mentoring platform reminder As a reminder we are working with Brightside this year to enhance your mentoring experience and we would really encourage your teams to make use of this online mentoring platform. You should all have now been connected with your mentors via email and we advise discussing with them about future communications methods and using Brightside.
To get your team signed up please complete the information in the shared excel spreadsheet. Team members can use a school email to register, however they can also use a parent/guardian’s email/phone number if this is preferable. Email addresses are only collected for processing purposes and to enable us to match teams with the correct mentor, and will not be visible to the mentor or other members of the team.
1:1 Tech & Pitching Support This year we are providing teams with 1:1 professional technology and pitching support in addition to the main events! Pitching support is provided by communications coach Matthew Boardman and technology support is provided by tech education leader Fire Tech.
Pitching support To support teams with their 2 minute video pitch (one half of the final submission), Matt Boardman is an Elevator Pitch Coach and has worked with many finalists from our other prizes, including the European Social Innovation Competition. Matt is offering 1:1 30 minute slots for each Longitude Explorer Finalist team to get advice and feedback on their own pitches.
Make sure to book your slot quickly so you have a time convenient for you between the 10 and 28 May 2021! Please note that these slots are not able to be rescheduled once booked.
Technology support Get some support to develop your ideas into reality and book a 60 min private mentoring session with a Fire Tech expert who will help you to move your application to the next stage. Please note that sessions are limited to one per team.
Business Plan Workbook Attached to this email (and available to download via the finalist webpage) you will find your Business Plan Workbook which is to be completed and submitted to [email protected] by 17:30 on 14 June. This is the other half of the submission alongside the video pitch,
The purpose of this workbook is to showcase your idea to the judging panel and demonstrate all of the hard work you have dedicated to developing your project. You should work on the workbook as a team!
You will need to complete all sections of the workbook to develop your action plan for the design and development of your concepts to a prototype or final product. The workbook will ask you key questions to guide your thinking about how you get your idea from concept to reality.
Dive in and take a look to find out more!
Hardware Vouchers Your Team Champions will now have received your gift voucher to spend on hardware found at Pimoroni. Don’t forget to use the guidance document sent across last week to choose the type of hardware or assets that would be most beneficial to develop your specific project! Your Team Champion will be able to help you with your selections and the checkout process.
Tues, 04 May 21
We hope you had a great bank holiday weekend! Thank you for attending the Welcome Event last week, we are very excited to be opening the programme to teams this week with our first half-day event taking place this Thursday as part of the Amazon Longitude Explorer Enterprise Academy!
First Half-Day Event – Information & Timetable
We look forward to welcoming you and your teams to the first of two events as part of the Amazon Longitude Explorer Enterprise Academy on Thursday 6 May 2021. The half-day event has been designed to support your teams to further develop their ideas and work towards their final submission in June.
Please see the afternoon’s timetable below with the relevant resources (if possible please print these ahead of the event, one worksheet per team will be sufficient):
12:30-13:00 – Welcome by Nesta
13:00-14:00 – Co-creation and concept development Workshop delivered by Sort Your Future
Resources for workshop:
14:00-15:00 – Prototype Development Workshop by Erica Neve
Workshop resources
15:00-16:00 – Business Planning Workshop delivered by Sort Your Future
16:00 – End
Please note that all three workshops will be being recorded. This is to allow those teams who might not be able to attend to have access to the sessions and enable you to return to them afterwards as well. They will be made available to watch via the finalist page on the Explorer website post event.
First Half-Day Event – Expenses
Although we are not able to do an in-person event we still want you and your teams to have a fun and event-like experience! We are offering a small expense budget for the teams during the events which we have outlined below.
What expenses will we reimburse?
Below is guidance on the kinds of expenses we consider reasonable and will reimburse:
Reminders!
Don’t forget to sign up for 1:1 support! You can sign up for pitching support with Matt Boardman and technology support from Fire Tech.
You should all have now been connected with your mentors via email and we advise discussing with them about future communications methods and using Brightside.
First Half-Day Event – Resources & Guidance
We have provided links to the resources you’ll need to your Team Champions who can help you download and print these. With all of the workshop activities you can also just use pen and paper!
First Half-Day Event – Code of Conduct
It is important that we treat each other with respect, and create an online space that is comfortable and where everyone feels safe enough to learn and participate.
To help us all do this, we have created a code of conduct for all of us to follow during the Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize online workshops. Please read these before the workshops.
As always, if you have any questions please get in touch via [email protected]!
Tues, 11 May 21
Thank you again for joining last week at the first of two events for the Enterprise Academy. We really hope your teams enjoyed themselves and got something out of the sessions!
Workshop Resources & Recordings All the Enterprise Academy resources and workshop recordings can be accessed via the website: https://longitudeexplorer.challenges.org/finalists/
If you have any follow-up questions for the facilitators please let us know via [email protected] and we can pass these on for you.
Second Half-Day Event Our second event for the teams is next Thursday 20 May between 12:30-16:00 PM. Topics that will be covered in these three workshops include:
We’ll be sharing further information on how to join these and accompanying materials in the next regular communications.
Event Expenses Don’t forget that we are offering a small expense budget for the teams during the events which we have outlined below.
What expenses will we reimburse? Below is guidance on the kinds of expenses we consider reasonable and will reimburse: Subsistence – Reimbursement for a snack, small meal or soft drink for the team members and team champions participating in the live workshops on the 6 and 20 May 2021 of up to £5 per person. Please note we can only cover the costs of the teams involved in the Prize. Please see the full expense guidance for further information. Enjoy!
Reminders! Don’t forget to sign up for 1:1 support!
Your Illustrations As you may know from the first event we had a designer create illustrations of your fantastic ideas which we wanted to share with you. Download your illustrations here.
You can even use them in your workbook or pitch!
Let us know what you thought of the event! We really want to know if you found the event helpful. Let us know what you thought of Part 1 of the Enterprise Academy by filling in this short survey!
Tues, 18 May 21
We are excited to welcome teams back this week with our second half-day event taking place this Thursday as part of the Amazon Longitude Explorer Enterprise Academy! We are also pleased to introduce a new member to the ALEP team, Franklina, who you will get to meet at the event.
Final Submission Update The final submission deadline for the competition has been extended from Monday 14 June 2021 to Friday 18 June 2021, therefore all submissions must be emailed to [email protected] by 5pm on Friday 18th June. All other information and requirements remain the same.
Second Half-Day Event We look forward to welcoming you and your teams to the second and final event as part of the Amazon Longitude Explorer Enterprise Academy on Thursday 20 May 2021. The half-day event has been designed to support your teams to further develop their ideas and work towards their final submission in June.
Please see the afternoon’s timetable below with the relevant resources (if possible please print these ahead of the event, one worksheet per team will be sufficient unless stated otherwise):
12:30-12:45 – Welcome by Nesta 12:45-14:00 – Creating a Winning Pitch Workshop Delivered by Matt Boardman 14:00-15:00 – Marketing and Communications Delivered by Agent Academy 15:00-16:00 – Security and Ethics Delivered by Sort you Future
Please note that the entire event will be recorded live. This is to allow those teams who might not be able to attend to have access to the sessions and enable you to return to them afterwards as well. They will be made available to watch via the finalist page on the Explorer website post event
Please follow your school/groups safeguarding policy and image consent for your team regarding having cameras on or off. Zoom chat will be enabled to allow interactivity during the workshop however private chat between participants will be disabled. Team Champions must join all sessions with their teams. To support engagement during the workshops we advise having the Team Champion join the session as the lead and if possible having another device for the teams to share.
Don’t miss out on 1:1 support for your teams! There are now limited sessions left for booking your pitching support with Matt Boardman here and technology support from Fire Tech here so make sure to get your team booked in.
If you have opted to use the Brightside mentoring platform everyone should now have received their email invitations – please remind teams to check for these (including spam folders) and to let us know if they are having any issues. We cannot add them to the group until the invitation is accepted.
We hope that those who are now fully set up on the platform are finding it useful! Please let us know if you’d like to get your team set up – it’s not too late.
Second Half-Day Event – Resources & Guidance We have provided links to the resources you’ll need to your Team Champions who can help you download and print these. With all of the workshop activities you can also just use pen and paper!
We’d recommend having a read of the Nesta video pitch guidance (final submission) to start to familiarise yourselves.
Second Half-Day Event – Code of Conduct It is important that we treat each other with respect, and create an online space that is comfortable and where everyone feels safe enough to learn and participate.
Tues, 25 May 21
Deadline Update: Last week, we shared an update that the final submission deadline for the competition has been extended from Monday 14 June 2021 to Friday 18 June 2021. Therefore all submissions must be emailed to [email protected] by 5PM on Friday 18th June. All other information and requirements remain as previously described.
Enterprise Academy Part 2 follow-up
Thank you to all the teams and team champions who joined in last week and helped make it a successful event. We hope you found it useful in supporting your teams to further develop their ideas and work towards their final submission in June.
Workshop recordings & resources All the workshop recordings have now been uploaded to the website so you can access them here alongside the accompanying resources: https://longitudeexplorer.challenges.org/finalists/
Survey All our sessions are planned with the Explorers in mind, therefore your feedback is important to us. You can share your feedback relating to the session below and it should only take a few minutes!
https://www.riddle.com/showcase/317832/survey
Thank you!
Expenses – Enterprise Academy Events
Please be reminded that both Enterprise Academy events are covered by a small expense budget for all teams which has been outlined below. Be sure to send scanned copies/originals of all relevant receipts.
All expenses are to be dated until Friday 18 June 2021 and we will not be able to accept a receipt dated after Friday 18 June 2021.
What expenses will we reimburse? Below is guidance on the kinds of expenses we consider reasonable and will reimburse: Subsistence – Reimbursement for a snack, small meal or soft drink for the team members and team champions participating in the live workshops on the 6 and 20 May 2021 of up to £5 per person. Please note we can only cover the costs of the teams involved in the Prize.
Find attached the full expense guidance (attached) for further information. Enjoy!
Unfortunately we will not be able to reimburse any expenses for which a receipt is not submitted.
Don’t miss out on 1:1 support for your teams!
This is the last week of Matt’s 1:1 Pitching sessions so please book now so you don’t miss out
And while you’re there don’t forget to book your team’s technology support from Fire Tech.
We hope that those who are now fully set up on the platform are finding it useful! Please let us know if you’d like to get your team set up – it’s not too late!
Well done!
Thank you to all the teams for joining the second Enterprise Academy event and for all your hard work and contributions during the sessions! We hope you enjoyed the event and found it useful in preparing for your final submissions.
All relevant resources and worksheets have been shared with your Teachers for you to refer back to and to support your submission. They are also all freely available here: https://longitudeexplorer.challenges.org/finalists/
Tues, 1 June 21
The final submission deadline for the competition has been extended from Monday 14 June 2021 to Friday 18 June 2021. All submissions must be emailed to [email protected] by 5PM on that day. All other information and requirements remain as previously described.
Awards Event & Peoples Choice Awards
We are so excited to let you know that the final Awards event has been scheduled for Thursday 15 July 2021. In preparation for this, we wanted to find out from you which times would best suit your teams on that day. Please fill out the short poll linked below, selecting either or both options. Heads up – this poll will be closed on Wednesday 9 June 2021.
A number of teams have also asked about the People’s Choice Awards – don’t worry! – we are preparing all the details to share with you shortly.
If you haven’t shared them already, we are looking forward to receiving your team photos (this only applies to those with their parental forms signed). These are really helpful for opportunities to promote teams. Kindly forward these to [email protected] by Wednesday 9 June 2021.
Resources
We hope that you are all enjoying the break and gearing up for your teams’ final submissions. Below, you can access all of the recordings and resources to support your teams to further develop their ideas and work towards their final submission on Friday 18 June 2021.
Workshop recordings & resources All the workshop recordings have now been uploaded to the website. You can access them here alongside the accompanying resources: https://longitudeexplorer.challenges.org/finalists/
Survey All our sessions are planned with the Explorers in mind, therefore your feedback is important to us. If you haven’t already, you can share your thoughts relating to the session here.
1:1 support for your teams
Last week was the final chance to participate in Matt’s 1:1 pitching sessions. We hope it was a useful resource to the team champions and the teams, but in the event your team was unable to attend one of these sessions, you can refer to the Second Enterprise Academy Event where Matt led the first session. This is linked above in the ‘Workshop Recordings & Resources’.
If you haven’t already, there are still slots available for you to book your team’s technology support from Fire Tech here.
Enjoy your half term and we want to congratulate you for all your hard work and contributions during all the sessions!
We hope you have enjoyed the events and resources so far and are looking forward to submitting your final submissions.
Tues, 8 June 21
Final submission
The final submission deadline for the competition is Friday 18 June 2021. All submissions must be emailed to [email protected] by 5PM on that day.
As a reminder the final submission consists of two parts, and both must be submitted by email at [email protected]: A complete business plan workbook as a word document and pdf. A 2 minute video pitch (2.5 minutes at maximum) as an MP4, MOV., MPEG
Videos We would appreciate your support in helping the students put together two short video clips (up to 60 seconds), giving a shout out to you (their Team Champion) and the other one giving a shout out to their mentor, to be sent to us by Friday 18 June 2021! Below is an example structure for reference:
What is your team name and the name of your idea? Who is your Team Champion and how have they helped your team? Who is your mentor and how have they supported your team?
Awards Event
Save the Date We are so excited to let you know that the final Awards event has been scheduled for Thursday 15 July 2021!
In preparation for this, we wanted to find out from you which times would best suit your teams on that day. Please fill out the short poll linked below, selecting either or both options. Heads up – this poll will be closed on Friday 11 June 2021.
Videos We’d like to receive two short video clips from each team, up to 30 seconds, one with teams giving a shout out to their Team Champion and the other one giving a shout out to their mentor, to be sent to us by Friday 18 June 2021!
Team photos If you haven’t shared them already, we are looking forward to receiving your team photos (this only applies to those with their parental forms signed). These are really helpful for opportunities to promote teams. Kindly forward these to [email protected] by Friday 11 June 2021.
People’s Choice Awards
The People’s Choice Awards will be launching at the end of this week! The People’s Choice Award is an opportunity for teams to engage friends, family, schools, youth groups and as many other people as possible, about their idea – with the aim of persuading them to vote for their project!
Voting will take place via the prize website between the 11 June to the 2 July 2021. The solution which received the most votes will receive an award of up to £5,000 for their school/youth group.
Nesta Challenges and Seven Consultancy will be doing general promotion of the public vote, including via social media and national press. To support teams to engage as many people as possible about their ideas and promote why people should vote for them, we have also developed a number of assets which can be accessed here.
For further information, please see the attached information sheet.
Drop-in session & other resources
We hope that you have enjoyed the break and the warm weather! There are only 10 more days until the final submission on 5 PM Friday 18 June 2021! We are aware that you may have some final questions or may want to just check in. As such, we have set up the below Calendly link with 15 minute slots over the next 2 weeks for you to drop in and speak to us at a time that suits you. Once confirmed, we will email you directly with a personal Zoom link.
Below, you can access all of the recordings and resources to support your teams to further develop their ideas and work towards their final submission on Friday 18 June 2021.
Updates
We hope you are excited and gearing up for your final submission! Well done for all your hard work and contributions so far.
Videos Along with your peers, we’d like to receive two short video clips from your team (up to 60 seconds), with one giving a shout out to your Team Champion and the other one giving a shout out to your mentor, to be sent to us by Friday 18 June 2021! Let them know how much you appreciate their help and support.
Have a great week ahead!
Tues, 15 June 21
Final submission: Deadline approaching!
Only 4 days left! The final submission deadline for the competition is Friday 18 June 2021. All submissions must be emailed to [email protected] by 5PM this Friday.
As a reminder the final submission consists of two parts, and both must be submitted by email at [email protected]:
NB: The names of all team members must be included in the final submission, so they are rightly credited!
Thank you to all the teams who have shared their final submissions so far – we are looking forward to receiving them all!
Photos & Videos – please share with your submission In preparation for the final event, we would love for all teams to share their winning faces (surprised, happy & shocked) and any other fun photographs they have during their time working on this challenge! This would be useful for us in putting together a more complete profile of the teams to share at the Awards Event!
We would also appreciate your support in helping the students put together two short video clips (up to 60 seconds), giving a shout out to you (their Team Champion) and the other one giving a shout out to their mentor. Below is an example structure for reference:
Please share this with us by Friday 18 June 2021!
Awards Information The Team Champions have voted and the polls have now closed.
The final Awards event will be held from 12:30-14:00 on Thursday 15 July 2021!
In the following weeks, we will be sharing more information about viewing, and participating in the event.
The People’s Choice Awards have now launched and voting has now begun!
The People’s Choice Award is an opportunity for teams to engage friends, family, schools, youth groups and as many other people as possible, about their idea – with the aim of persuading them to vote for their project!
Voting will take place via the prize website, linked below between the 11 June to the 2 July 2021. The solution which received the most votes will receive an award of up to £5,000 for their school/youth group. Please note that as per the Terms and Conditions, it is restricted to one (1) vote per Internet Protocol (“IP”) address).
Almost there! There are only 4 more days until the final submission on 5 PM Friday 18 June 2021! We are aware that you may have some final questions or may want to just check in. As such, we have set up the below Calendly link with 15 minute slots this week (Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday), for you to drop in and speak to us at a time that suits you. Once confirmed, we will email you directly with a personal Zoom link.
Only 4 days left, we hope you are as excited as we are to receive your final submission. Well done for overcoming all the challenges and for sticking it through until the end!
Photos & Videos In preparation for the final event, we would love for all teams to share their winning faces (surprised, happy & shocked) and any other fun photographs they have during their time working on this challenge! This would be useful for us in putting together a more complete profile of the teams to share at the Awards Event!
Along with your peers, we’d like to receive two short video clips from your team (up to 60 seconds), with one giving a shout out to your Team Champion and the other one giving a shout out to your mentor, to be sent to us by Friday 18 June 2021! Let them know how much you appreciate their help and support.
