ICUBE.CA/STUDENTPITCH

ICUBEM.CA/STUDENTPITCH

Icube UTM Student Pitch Award was held on September 18th 11am in the ground hall of University of Toronto, Missisauga. I accompanied as an intern that day and actually it was my first time joining a pitch competition!

I was wondering whether it was a presentation or something else, however, the concept was a little bit different. You probably already know, but just in case, I’ll explain a little bit about that.The word, pitch, was born in the Silicon Valley in the United States and it means a brief presentation by engineers who are aiming to gain some funding at their startup. They can obtain a fund if they succeed in getting investors hooked.

In the large ground hall at the campus that many students go in and out all at once,
there was a stage in the middle for candidates and seats for listeners.

I thought the event must be a strained mood since it was kind of like a competition, however, it was being proceeding in a friendly manner and candidates were getting know each other at the beginning. I got some Monopoly money to use for the event at the reception desk. The rule at the pitch was: all listeners give those currencies to a candidate who made the most impressive pitch and five people on the top can get $1000 at the end of the session. I could see various types of audiences, such as students at Toronto university, some investors and people who are just curious about listening innovative ideas besides candidates, and everyone looked excited.

It was totally a rare experience for me observing the pitch. I never had an opportunity being in the place such as sharing an idea for solving a wide variety of social problems by using technology, and it was totally like a new world for me!

All the ideas they were talking about are something that doesn’t exist the current world yet. The contents ware various and I got excited by all of them because I could see their ideal world through the pitch and it must be helpful for people.

The most impressive thing for me was candidates who decided to share their business.

They were passionate, confident, and kept attracting audience though some of them had a technical problem with their power point slides, and lots of students who just finished their class suddenly came out during the pitch. went in and out Though people can notice a social problem and have opinions, most of them do nothing. However, they are trying to make a system that addresses the problem. I was very glad that I could observe their first stage and now I hope all the ideas will come true… :)