2022 Great Prairies Pitch Marathon / Nuts & Bolts

200 companies. 9 hours. 2 Zoom streams. An all-day prairie innovation showcase for the ages!

Summary

A 9-hour startup ‘Show and Tell’ that showcases Prairie startups from all sectors and stages in a friendly competition with a supportive audience.

Goals

• Entrepreneur-led community building with peer-to-peer support for startups across all stages and sectors
• Friendly, competitive spirit to incite startups to raise their game in a globally competitive world
• Hands-on education in pitching to a supportive audience
• Showcase Prairie startups to various stakeholders provincially, nationally and globally
• Providing a platform for them to pitch for capital, clients, employees and more
• Learn about the diverse companies growing here in the Prairies

Event Logistics

• Date August 18^th, 2022 from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm MT on zoom/YouTube
• 200 companies.
• 9 hours (~ 3 minutes per company), 2 streams, 18 blocks of pitches
• TNT after-parties in Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg. Maybe other locations? Host one for us!

Roles and Objectives of Participants

• Company stage: Ideation/Validation stage to beyond Series A
• Junior companies (pre-Series A) – Tell us your plans, hone your pitch, and include specific asks like raising capital, finding customers or hiring new employees, room for feedback and recommendations; maybe meet co-founders, mentors, or enablers
• Senior companies (Series-A and beyond) – School us on the art of an awesome pitch. update us on your business and tell us how you’re going to take on the world. Ask for assistance (job postings, advisors, partners, etc).
• Co-hosts & Audience – reach out and support presenters with recommended programs, grants, investors, mentors, advisors, partners, accelerators, potential clients and employees, etc

Why You Should Participate

Help our startups and the entire Prairie Startup community gain exposure and reach new audiences with their pitches.Create a sense of pride within the Prairie ecosystem. We all can name 4 or 5 companies scaling rapidly – but can you name 200?

• Assist companies in your network with honing their pitch. We provide training, a massive audience, and an energetic atmosphere to help them up their game.
• Gain access to a comprehensive database of the startups in Western Canada
• Build relationships with sister organizations supporting startups across Western Canada
• Garner attention for your organization and its programs from a national and international audience

Demonstrated success to date:

2021 Great Alberta Pitch Marathon Stats

• Co-Hosting organizations: 22
• Startup Pitch Format: 3 minutes
• Total Pitches: 102
• # of Sector Blocks: 9
• Unique attendees: 442
• Youtube views: 1100
• Afterparty guests: 200

2021 Great Saskatchewan Pitch Marathon Stats

• Co-Hosting organizations: 22
• Startup Pitch Format: 3 minutes
• Total Pitches: 51
• # of Sector Blocks: 9
• Unique attendees: 171
• Youtube views: 307
• Afterparty guests: 110

Opportunity for New Impact

• • Last year’s Great Alberta and Great Saskatchewan Pitch Marathon were rallying cries from the prairies. This year we plan to focus on expanding global participation and awareness of the event happening across both provinces
  • We are working with regional, provincial and federal economic development organizations and trade commissions to attract national and international attention to the event. Our goal is to help companies find new employees, clients and capital funding as well as anything else they might need.
  • We also are developing a strategy to garner local and national media attention.

Marketing and Branding Outside of Prairies

• Coordinated sharing of applicant information among partner organizations to facilitate program and resource recommendations
• Capturing crowd-sourced recommendations for presenting companies