Tuesday, April 2, an informational meeting for Slippery Rock University’s ‘elevator pitch’ competition, “Rock The Boat”, was held in room 202 of the Eisenberg building. The competition is organized by Sustainable Enterprise Accelerator (SEA), a business consultant firm for business in and around Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. Taking place over the next three weeks, the competition encourages students to “pitch your idea or invention to a panel of judges for the chance to win up to $500!”
“[Rock The Boat] is an elevator pitch competition; it’s basically students that have some kind of idea or invention—they come and they pitch their idea to a panel of judges, and the judges will vote on that,” said Logan Snyder, senior digital media major and SEA ambassador. “You can either do it by yourself, or you can do it in a group of two; if you do it in a group of two, only one person can pitch on [the assigned date], so that would be something people would have to work out.”
The judging takes occurs in two separate rounds, as Logan detailed: one held by professors here at SRU followed by another held by local entrepreneurs. Students compete with one another for prize money, just as the various flyers posted around campus advertise.
“For students, they can win money, so that would be the main benefit—something to encourage students to come,” Snyder continued. “It’s more geared towards students who are maybe looking to be entrepreneurs, it can give them a little experience for coming up with a feasible idea that they could actually pitch to someone and hopefully get the ball rolling on something.”
Snyder explained that she herself would be competing, both due to her involvement with the event as an ambassador at SEA and as a student looking for a way to earn some tuition money.
“I am actually an intern for the SEA, and, basically, the girl who coordinates all the events just needed some help with getting some connections within the communication department for getting rooms set up and talking to professors,” Snyder elaborated. “She just needed some help, so I decided to jump on board.”
For those wishing to join Logan in pursuit of the prize money or perhaps just the joy of invention, you can register for the competition at www.seasru.com, with the fast-approaching deadline of Friday, April 5. Round one of the competition will take place on Tuesday, April 9, with the second and final round being held on Wednesday, April 17, two weeks later.
