In 2007 the Innovation Community worked with 12 students. These talented designers are a mixture of post graduates employed by Unitec as research assistants and under graduates who have built Hothouse design into their School of Design degree programmes. In 2008 even more students will be enrolled in the project.
The way the Hothouse works is by running a series of workshops involving the students and the Innovation Community to come up with new design ideas which are commercially viable.
The students, known at the 'Hothouse' as Young Talent work with creative professionals to come up with ideas, these ideas are then developed in the lab.
Once in the lab the technical experts and market experts look at whether they are viable and will work and if so the entrepreneurs and investors look at whether the product will succeed commercially.
