Resource:How to Bring University of Michigan's 1000 ptiches to your campus
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Categories:Guides
Introduction
1,000 pitches is an annual entrepreneurial competition based at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. The competiton requires students of the university to submit their ideas or pitches in a video format of 30 second - 3 Minute length. The pitches are filed under 1 of 9 available categories. The topics range from mobile apps to univesity improvements. The organization was started by students at the University of Michigan to create more awareness on campus about innovationa and entrepreneurship. The goal is to allow students of all areas of study to come together and speak their mind about different topics and release any ideas they may have. The competiton looks to award student organizations and inviduals involved with funding through a judgment of each individual pitch. The competiton is now also being held at Pennsylvania State University.
Problem 1000 Pitches Looks to Solve
The competiton looks to increase entrepreneurial participation of students at all levels of education within the campus ecosystem. For campuses that have a difficult time recrutiing students to grass roots organizations the competiton serves as a small initial does of the entrepreneurial mindset that any student can experience. The bar for this competiton is so low that many students could trip over it. It is precisely the informal and compact nature of the pitches that allows the competiton to garner so much participation on campus, their is a low a cost to commitment for each of the participants. When entrepreneurship is taught to many individuals it is constantly stated that many ideas indeed fail on their initial try. The environment 1000 pitches creates is fail safe and looks to remove barriers that many other opprutunities to innovate may establish. There is no quality or depth requirement for the pitches in the competiton one's pitch must simply fit effectively within the time limit.
Starting the Process
Contacting the University of Michigan
To bring 1000 pitches to your campus you need to reach out to the initial organization that launched the event, MPowered, at the University of Michigan. The organization will set up a contract to work with you and your school to make the event a success and continue to live up to the original event, much like what has been done at Penn State University. The organization will supply you with much of the marketing resources such as building a website. Once the contract and details have been worked out with the organization you can move on to the next step.
Build a Solid Organization
Buidling a solid organization is the key to starting a successful event on your campus. You need to construct a base that is rich in many different types of organizations on campus to be able to access a larger part of the student and administrative bodies. Talk to other Innovation minded groups on campus as well as groups that are known for having alot of student participants. Create a circle or a few key individuals who would like to truly donate their time and effort to making the event a reality. Also contact faculty who have access to a wide array of resources on campus related to the establishment of an event or organization with the school's ecosystem or infrastructure.
Attaining Funding
When working with empowered to set up the even at your school you will find that the contract will require you to raise atleast $ 9,000 to hold the competiton, And the suggested amount of fundraising in order to have a successful competiton is around $20,000. In order to have a successful fundraising campaign you will need to establish a template and clear vision, that you can easily pitch to prospective donors and administrators your are looking to gain support from within you university. You should also look to ask deans or other administrators for templates to use in order to gain support from alumni and other established university partners. You should also look to leverage particpation from other groups and organization by presenting awards, such as the right to attend a post competiton banquet. You can also promise cash prizes for different levels of participation by campus groups. You can find corporate sponsors by leveraging advertising oppurtunities such as logos on t-shirts and posters for publicity of the event.
Understand Your Univeristy Environment
Every university has a different entrepreneurial climate. University of Michigan had a relatively active innovation base already within its ecosystem prior to the organization of 1000 pitches. In this instance it was not as difficult for the unviersity and MPowered to get large amounts of partcipation as it could be at your school. For instance fellow University Innovation Fellow Nate Smialek is currently in the process of bringing the competition to the University of Pittsburgh. At his institution he found that raising awareness and participation took alot more work than what he had expected based on his observation of the university of michigan implementation. Some of the remedies Nate has come up with to enhance participation is looking to send his team out with a goal of attaining atleast 50 pitches each week from around campus. He also looks to faculty such as his professors to assigne the pitches as extra-credit assignments. it is ultimately the implementing party's task to understand the environment in which they are working in and what it will require of them to still form a successful competiton on campus. Remember the goal of this competiton is to cast as wide a net on campus as possible to build momentum for any all possible future innovation.
