Hannah Suarez

The first time that I heard about Pitch Club was sometime last year and watched one of the YouTube videos online as well. Brisbane’s first Pitch Club was part of the Ideas Festival – guest Q&A by Dale Rankine, hosted and MCed by Justin Brow and another guy with the mic was Peter Christo. James Masini from Hippo did some of the video, a couple of guys from RMIT’s Entrepreneurship (wow, they seem to be everywhere…I am thinking about another 2 that I am meeting later tomorrow!) and there was also Manny Vassal as well who I met earlier that day when dropping off a pull-up banner.

There was a nice mix in the crowd – supporters and sponsors of the event (their logos are on the bottom if you want to check them out) as well as owners of various SME’s, sole entrepreneurs, lawyers, VC’s, angel investors …although had a comment from someone that there needs to be more VC’s/AI’s at the event as well as a way to differentiate them from the rest (for example, different coloured background to their nametags). There is AVCAL.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the description and names of all the Pitchers with me at the moment..

The duo which pitched their idea about raising funds in the space of 24 hours and using the funds to donate to the top 10 charities (they won a prize from QUT Creative Enterprise Australia to further develop this) were interesting in the way that one of them stepped up to introduce the idea and the other dealt with the 5 minute Q&A session.  Basically working on each other’s strenghts.

I felt that there was a clear winner on the night (ZEO International) even though I voted on Orange Dot (first heard about them due to their participation in MEGA Sydney and took out the NSW Pitch Panel Prize).  The winner displayed the following:

• Clarity in vision (‘the big picture’) and in process (‘the system’)
• Charismatic and energetic presentation by bringing along physical samples
• Wider interest in related issues (saw him do a Q&A at a panel on Saturday, ‘Tech Fixes for Climate Change’ at IDEAS)
• Communicated well with the audience who has varying levels of knowledge in the material/topic

If anyone could provide some extra points, particularly in how he did when answering to questions from lawyers, VC’s, AI’s (an area that I am not familiar in) please feel free to send it in.

Overall, the night was a learning experience for me because I observed how the Pitchers presented themselves, their ideas.  Which ones were most effective at answering the audience, which ones were charismatic and had a strong presence, etc.  I felt that I was looking at potential ‘mirrors’ of myself – what I could possibly look/sound like if I was unprepared, if I was prepared etc.

Regional Supporters:

Brisbane 2009

Also, wanting to give a shout out to Justin Brow and the rest of the Pitch Club boys..team, I mean, for holding an entertaining event that also supports our local entrepreneurs.

Sidenote: Thanks for the IDEAS Festival crew for linking to this entry about Pitch Club!

Sidenote #2: Winners and finalists are  now online!