Business Pitching Workshop cum Meet-the-Mentors

On Saturday, 27th April, our 2019 competition participants gathered together for a second time for a hands-on Business Pitching Workshop. As deadlines for proposal submissions were around the corner, it was timely for students to work on their delivery methods so as to ensure buy-in from their mentors and the judges alike.

Fronting the training was Mr Eugene Seah, Executive Member of Asia Professional Speakers Singapore, as well as founder and chief coach at Trainium Academy. Using NLP as a frame, he helped students navigate through a series of useful and engaging methods to pitch their proposals. Having worked in the public service then in corporate world for over a decade, Mr Seah was able to convincingly guide them through the different aspects of a sales pitch.

Ever enthusiastic about developing the next generation, Eugene has this to say, ‘I think it’s great for students to learn about entrepreneurship and persuasion while young. This is one of the key ingredients of their future success, not just their academic grades. I wish I had this opportunity when I was their age, but now is not too late either!’

The highlight of this training session would be the live demonstration where the trainers had a group of students present their initial business proposal. This then became a very practical session where students witnessed first-hand how a PowerPoint presentation could be successfully manipulated into a sale pitch.

While the first half of the session aimed at equipping participants with the practical tools of presentation, the latter half zoomed in on each project and person through Meet-the-Mentors session. Excitement buzzing everywhere as students poured out both their roadblocks as well as inspirations, looking to their mentors for advice as well as betterment to their existing ideas. Students who came more prepared, had most to benefit as their very proposal could be constructively criticised and amended on the spot. Nevertheless, this was the portion of the training, participants benefitted from the most.

Now with the final submissions are closed, judges are working double time to provide feedback accordingly. Suspense builds as this first leg of the competition draws to a close, but we believe this is merely the beginning to each participant’s journey of innovation. Here’s wishing every group all the very best!