Idea Accelerator | Week 8

March 10, 2021 | 5:00 PM
ZOOM LINK | JUDGING RUBRIC | 2020 Big Pitch Videos | 2020 State Finals

Week 8 of the Idea Accelerator workshop series is upon us! You did it! Thank you for all of your awesome hard work this year (and for doing it all virtually, too)! Like we say every week, we’re incredibly impressed with each and every team this year!

This week will look exactly like last week - we’ll only break out into 3 different rooms this week, and we’ll swap mentors into each group as “mock judges.” Each team needs to pitch at least once, and your team has to stay long enough to observe at least one other team pitch their ideas, too.

The mentors will give you valuable feedback after your pitch that can help you update and perfect your pitch and your pitch deck, and they’ll use the official 2021 Judging Rubric to score you and give you feedback!

Reminder - your Virtual Pitch videos are due NO LATER THAN 5:00 PM THIS FRIDAY, March 12, so as to provide adequate time this weekend for the judges to view and score all of the pitches. This is a very strict deadline that will be enforced, so if you have any hesitations or questions about how to submit your video or simply want to send it in early, please reach out ASAP. You should have received an email on Friday with info about what’s expected of you for your virtual pitch, but you can see those details below, too.

2021 Virtual Big Pitch Judges

We’re super stoked to introduce the judging panel for the 2021 Virtual Big Pitch!

To submit a Virtual Pitch, student teams must record a meeting between the members of their team, and submit the video by 5:00 PM on Friday, March 12. The video must be 6 minutes or less and feature your pitch deck. Videos can be submitted by sharing them via Google Drive with sam@jagno.org (just like you would for the weekly deliverables from the earlier workshops). Zoom is preferred, but you can use whatever meeting platform you're most comfortable with (Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, etc) as long as you are able to share your screen and pitch deck.

Students must additionally submit their completed pitch decks for the judges to follow along with as they watch the pitch videos. It is critically important that your pitches and pitch decks convey what you need them to in this virtual version of the competition, as the judges will not have a Q&A with you after your pitch.. Be clear, be concise, and get your point across - use the feedback you have received over the last few weeks of Idea Accelerators!

Judging will be completed via a Google Form of the Local Finals rubric. You can view a PDF of that rubric on the Semi-Finalist Info Page (or by clicking here). More details about who this year's 4 judges are for the Local Finals in your email on Tuesday - keep an eye out!

Judges will have until 5:00 PM on Sunday, March 14th to score the videos that we receive via said Google Form. The first place team and 2 runners-up will be notified once final scores are calculated and will be announced on Monday, March 15th.

Each team that submits a video will receive an email with their scores and feedback from the judges on Monday, March 15th.