Premier Burt Welcomes Rocket Pitch Winners
Premier David Burt welcomed winners of the 11th Annual Rocket Pitch competition put on by the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation [BEDC], to the Cabinet Office yesterday [Dec 18].
A spokesperson said, “The Rocket Pitch competition was launched in 2008 as part of the inaugural Global Entrepreneurship Week [GEW]. The business plan competition is a chance for emerging entrepreneurs to submit a plan to launch a business to help serve both local and global challenges.
“The framework of the Rocket Pitch presentation is simple: the presenter has five minutes to tell a story on their business idea to a panel of judges and then respond to questions. Over the past 11 years, the competition, which this year was sponsored by BEDC, the BTA and the Department of ICT Policy & Innovation, has helped to launch or expand over 20 businesses.”
From left to right: Adrian Lodge, Jamillah Lodge, Information, Education and Communications Officer at the BEDC, Michael Paynter, Jayde Gibbons, Premier Burt, Alicia Trott, Natalie Calderon, Madison Thompson and Erica Smith, Executive Director, BEDC.
Youth Pitch
Winner: Bermuda High School students Madison Thompson and Natalie Calderon’s “Meal Deal” – an app that will help people identify and track items in their fridge and let them know when they are running low and what nearby stores carry the items, as well as note the lifecycle of foods and when they go bad. The goal is to reduce our local and global food wastage.
PitchTech
Winner: Adrian Lodge, with his business “Bermuda Island Games”, a series of educational games about Bermuda and Bermuda’s history that will allow students and visitors to learn history in a more interactive way.
PitchPink
Winner: Michael Paynter – “e-Tour Adventures”, which offers electric bike tours on the eastern end of the island, packaged as a sustainable form of alternative transportation which offers an immersive experience on the gems found in the east.
PitchGreen
Winner: Alicia Trott with her business “Seeds of Indigo”, an agro holistic wellness centre providing holistic treatments and plant-based nutrition. The business will also consist of its own farm to grow and produce the products on offer at the wellness centre.
PitchTown
Winner: Jayde Gibbons with her business “Queendom Heights”, a photography business that sells local prints, greeting cards, books and apparel with images of Bermuda taken from a unique perspective. Her focus is on producing images that show what makes us truly Bermudian from a real, unfiltered lens.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THESE WINNERS, & TO THE BEDC FOR ORGANIZING THIS POPULAR EVENT.