We began at 4:30 and, having had no prior plan, I decided to pitch an idea that I made up on the spot. It was really scary, I can’t lie, and whilst I did really enjoy being up on a stage and telling everyone about an idea that had very little standing, I tried to use what I had to make it count. I was number 18, and based on an idea I had when at the meet the mentors event, I chose to pitch regarding the current communication system that universities had with their students. I used the number of my pitch to make a point regarding 18 year olds terrified of feeling lonely, and provided a solution to a problem I wasn’t much sure on. This was really fun – attempting to pitch, in 60 seconds, an idea that you probably came up with on the spot, and then listening to other pitches (an incredible 47) from people who had done the same.
20 final pitches were eventually chosen by the judges, which were then whittled down to just 10 by the peoples vote, including Mara’s pitch based on medical care abroad, Lila’s pitch based on decorating offices spaces with local art, and pitches regarding back problems, snakes, language barriers and fun times! There were clearly some incredible ideas ready to be designed, so it was hard for me to choose what team to join. Me and Fergus however, had really tried hard to network throughout this event, and whilst stood around deciding which teams we would split off to go onto, our (eventually mentor) Adam asked us if we would join his team, having met us at the Meet the Mentors event. With this, we had the pair of us designing, Adam and Daisy (the creator of the idea) leading the team, Dan, Pawel, and Henry developing the product, and Tanesha and Maggie building a business strategy for us. What we didn’t have was a marketing lead, which is where Fergus’ excellent networking skills came in clutch, being able to source Che, a marketing associate at a local firm within a matter of two minutes.
By the end of the evening, me and Fergus had a really strong team, and with the initial pitch that Daisy made being a product/service regarding a young persons finance, and teaching them financial education that they never received, we also believed that we had a strong idea, belief being a fundamental step of the process as outlined by one of the key speakers – AskStephen.
It took us a few hours to iron out the details, but by 11:00pm that evening, we had a strong idea as to what it was we were going to do and how we were going to achieve it.
