Pitch Perfect

Western Mass. Business Expo Highlights Innovative Ideas

Jon Lester and Koji Uehara aren’t the only ones getting their best pitches ready this fall.
Plenty of burgeoning entrepreneurs will wind up at the Western Mass. Business Expo on Nov. 6, which will feature the First Annual Pitch Contest and Demo Day, hosted by Valley Venture Mentors (VVM) and BusinessWest.
VVM alumni and members of the current class have applied for a spot in the competition. Participating startups will make two-minute pitches to a panel of judges, who will give them immediate feedback. At the end of the contest, the judges will award cash prizes of $1,500, $750, and $500 to the top three teams. An additional special prize of $500 will be awarded to an audience favorite.
Each participant is also invited to showcase their venture at a Demo Day reception immediately following the pitch contest.
“It is the startup’s secret sauce that gets all the attention. People focus on what they make and how they make it,” said John Garvey, a board member with VVM and a MassChallenge judge and mentor. “It is the pitch, however, that makes it all real. The sauce won’t sell to anybody without a great pitch. That’s why this pitch contest is so important. For participating startups, it may make the difference between success, and connecting with investors and consumers, or failure, meaning it’s just another idea that no one could understand.”
The pitch contest is just one of a growing roster of impressive programs scheduled for the Expo, which is once again being produced by BusinessWest, managed by Rider Productions, and presented by Comcast Business at the MassMutual Center in Springfield.
For example, Jim Koch, founder of the Boston Beer Co., brewer of Samuel Adams, will be the keynote speaker at the Expo breakfast, hosted by the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield. And Kathrine Switzer, who stood up to Boston Marathon race officials in 1967 to become the first woman to run in that event, will highlight a luncheon hosted by the Professional Women’s Chamber.
The day will also feature dozens of educational seminars and Show Floor Theater presentations. For example, the Expo recently added Hector Bauzá to its schedule of speakers. President and CEO of Bauzá & Associates Hispanic Marketing in Hartford, he will talk about the challenges and opportunities involved in marketing a business to the Hispanic population.
Later in the day, entrepreneurs that participated in the pitch contest will have their ideas on display at the event-capping Expo Social, which is one the region’s premier networking events.
The Expo will also reveal the winner of the Greater Springfield Extreme Website Makeover, a program sponsored by BusinessWest and DIF Design, which invited small businesses and nonprofits to apply for $25,000 worth of services from DIF and four co-sponsors: the Creative Strategy Agency, Christine Parizo Communications, Hadley Printing, and viz-bang!
The goal is to help a deserving enterprise raise its online presence and help usher it to the next level, and the companies involved in the project will provide services ranging from copywriting and printing to videography and social-media strategy — not just web design. This month, a panel of judges will consider about 25 nominations; several finalists will be announced at the Expo, and the winner will be unveiled late in the day.
“A lot of people are just stuck in place,” said Peter Ellis, president of DIF Design, when asked about the benefit of winning the contest. “They know they should have better marketing, better websites, but for whatever reason they’re spending their money hiring an extra person or on operations, and they don’t have the ability to make that jump. Hopefully, the winner selected by the judges will be able to jump-start or continue to promote their business.”
For more information about the Expo, including a full schedule of events, log onto www.wmbexpo.com or call (413) 781-8600.