Gigabit Challenge to culminate in daylong event Wednesday
The finalists are in place. The speakers are set. The judges are, too. Now, about all that remains is a good, old-fashioned business pitch session.
The Gigabit Challenge, a business plan competition hosted by Think Big Partners to mark the arrival of Google's one-gigabit fiber network in Kansas City, culminates Wednesday in a full day of events, including 19 business pitches, at the Kansas City Public Library's Plaza Branch (4801 Main St.).
Standing room only tickets to the event are still available and can be reserved on the Gigabit Challenge Eventbrite page. For those who can't make the event, a live stream will be available all day. Check back here on Wednesday for more on that.
From 113 entrants and 39 semi-finalists, 19 finalists were chosen to participate in Wednesday's finale. Finalists will deliver a 10-minute pitch followed by a five-minute Q&A with the judges. The winner of the pitch competition will receive The Gigabit Challenge Grand Prize, which is valued at $100,000.
Also up for grabs is a $250,000 convertible promissory note (CPN) investment from Gramercy Private Equity that will go to the contestant whose business idea Gramercy believes has the best prospects of being rapidly implemented across the globe.
Below is Wednesday's schedule of events:
- 7:00 - 8:00 a.m. Continental breakfast and coffee
- 8:00 - 8:30 a.m. Welcome and introductions
- 8:40 - 10:00 a.m. Finalist presentations - Group 1
- 10:15 - 11:55 a.m. Finalist presentations - Group 2
- 11:55 - 12:00 p.m. Video address from Vint Cerf of Google, Inc.
- 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. Lunch break
- 1:10 - 2:30 p.m. Finalist presentations - Group 3
- 2:45 - 4:45 p.m. Finalist presentations - Group 4
- 4:45 - 5:00 p.m. Community address
- 5:00 - 5:30 p.m. Awards presentation and closing
And in case you missed them in our previous post, the finalists are:
Group 1
- Jeff Stull, Risk Analytics LLC (Kansas City, Kan.)
- Seak Meng Lay, Photaic (Calif.)
- Scott Hardiek, Virtual/Real World Wallet System (Mich.)
- Bob Wray,CourthouseUSA LLC (Kansas City, Kan.)
Group 2
- Eddie Tapper, Get-Giv-Got System Technologies (Mo.)
- Sonia Lin,Kauzu (Ill.)
- Fortunato Cardenas,Green Earth Aerogel Technologies (Barcelona, Spain)
- Jim West, Somametric (Kan.)
- Andrew Ying, Hong (Kan.)
Group 3
- Marc Canter, Digital City Mechanics (Ohio)
- Michael Shear,Strategic Office Networks LLC(Va.)
- Kristin Kenney, RE:Cite (Kansas City, Mo.)
- Brett Simpson, Record Life (Mo.)
Group 4
- Jason Arnold, Paruzia Technologies (Kansas City, Mo.)
- S. Vaideeswaran,Damascus Fortune (United Arab Emirates)
- David Windhausen,TiBi.tv (Kansas City, Mo.)
- Michael McKinzy Sr.,Voter Integrity Party(V.I.P.) (Mo.)
- Don Peterson, BigIris.com (Mo.)
- Samuel Belu-John, SEIN Analytics & Asset Management (N.Y.)
To learn more about the Gigabit Challenge see our post: "Think Big marking Google Fiber’s arrival with Gigabit Challenge".