Innovation - Day 3: Pitch Day

My group and I arrived a half an hour early to coordinate and start the day off on the right foot. There was an anxiety in the air as everyone knew that today was the big day to present our ideas. It was to be an interesting day indeed.

Back together again and with the day underway we shared what we all came up with our group. We were asked to describe what happened when everyone's answers came together. This aided to create cohesion among the group by bringing the group into harmony if their answers differed from one another.  

Finally we were to form our pitch. We talked about the elevator pitch and the use of storytelling nowadays as a important marketing tool used to connect the public with a product. We were told that a pitch should have:

• An attention grabbing beginning
• Context in the story
• Definition of the characters in the story
• Identification of a conflict
• Unexpected twists and turns
• An end where everything that happens converges and everything makes sense, must be impactful

This is where they presented The Golden Circle. The explained that The Golden Circle and storytelling can be the perfect combination in any pitch.

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Here is a link to the TEDtalks video they showed us on The Golden Circle. It is a fascinating video and I recommend that you watch it.

Finally we were to formulate our Pitch and our pitches were graded by two judges who used the following criteria to grade each group:

• Level of comprehension of the problem and appropriation
• Grade of innovation
• Potential for applicability
• Performance and motivation of the group

To shake it up a bit my group put on a skit with a narrated story, in order to really display what it was our product and would do, how the service worked, and for whom it would serve. We got a few laughs and we had a lot of fun. We were asked a few questions from the judges about our idea and we were applauded and the next group took the stage. After everyone had presented the judges reconvened and the top three groups were announced...

Unfortunately my group did not win the competition but we did win by what we took away from the weekend: invaluable knowledge and a set of tools for problem solving and solution creation.

With everything I took away from that weekend I hope to create a positive change in the lives of the students of Colón and as a result in their respective communities. By empowering the youth of these communities we can give them the tools and knowledge to create a better future not only for themselves but for their friends and neighbors as well.