ATLANTA/MACON – Mercer Innovation Center is seeking undergraduate and graduate students with innovative business ideas to participate in its virtual Elevator Pitch Competition, culminating with a final round April 1, 6-8 p.m., to be held virtually via Zoom.
Currently enrolled Mercer students from all campuses, majors and class years are eligible to compete. Winners will earn up to $500 in prizes for their ideas.
“The goal for the Elevator Pitch Competition is for our students to have a forum to practice clearly describing their ideas and to get feedback,” said Dr. Briana Stenard, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship in the Stetson-Hatcher School of Business. “The concept behind an elevator pitch is that you could get in the elevator with someone and have explained your idea so effectively and concisely that, by the time you got up to their floor, they would be interested enough to want to learn more.”
Students may enter the competition until March 11 by submitting registration materials, including a two-minute video pitch, to nextbigidea@mercer.edu. Details on these materials are available in the full contest rules.
Finalists will be notified on March 18 and will have two weeks to prepare to present their idea synchronously via Zoom to a panel of judges on April 1. Judges will have the opportunity to ask questions of each presenter before selecting a winner from each of several tracks, ranging from technology to social business.
General inquiries may be directed to nextbigidea@mercer.edu, and specific inquires to Dr. Stenard on the Atlanta campus or Dr. Marko Horn or Stephanie Howard on the Macon campus.
About the Mercer Innovation Center
The Mercer Innovation Center is an effort by Mercer University, along with community partners such as the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority, Birch Communications, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Dr. Hugh F. Smisson III, to advance a culture of innovation and develop a thriving community of entrepreneurs, with a focus on utilizing technology to foster economic growth, create 21st century jobs and attract and retain talent. The Center is an institutional effort – led by the Stetson School of Business and Economics – that crosses academic disciplines and geographic boundaries to draw from all of the University’s colleges, schools, departments and operating units. Community memberships are available, as the Center’s activities and resources are intended to be available to Mercer students and non-students alike. For more information, visit mic.mercer.edu.
