The Center for Integrated Entrepreneurship at Hiram College annually hosts a series of idea competitions that give students the opportunity to pitch their best ideas. Every fall, the College hosts ideablitz!, an idea generation and development event in which contestants develop an enterprise idea through the creation of a written concept statement. During the spring semester, students then have the opportunity to examine the feasibility of their concept through ideabuild!.
At the eleventh annual ideabuild!, ten innovative concepts were pitched by 33 students from across the College to a panel of outside judges consisting of entrepreneurs and business owners. Each student or group had six minutes to present, followed by three minutes of Q&A. Ideas were judged based on concept of product or service, value proposition, industry and market, costs and revenues, and quality of presentation. Ideas ranged from new inventions, solutions to problems, and even profit and non-profit enterprises. As in previous years, the event was made possible through a grant from the Burton D. Morgan Foundation.
Winners of ideabuild! 2019 include:
First Place: TOYS by Meagan McCoy ’19
An educational studies major, Meagan McCoy ’19 generated the idea for TOYS from her personal experience with her nephew and her work at a local day care. With the growing popularity of the sharing economy, TOYS presents a way for parents to economically provide toys for their children and keep up with ever changing interests.
Second Place: Wake Up & Donate by Michael Dietzen ’22
The idea for Wake Up & Donate came to fruition for Michael Dietzen ’22 during his first-year experience course taught by James Thompson, Ph.D., associate professor of political science at Hiram College. Wake Up & Donate is an app that makes the challenge of getting up in the morning fun, all while contributing to the public good.
Third Place: RevTattoo by Aliyah Benson ’21, Ryan Carey ’21, Miranda Miracle ’21, and Macy Morales ’21
RevTattoo is the brainchild of four junior nursing students. Designed as an over-the-counter product RevTattoo promotes healing, reduces inflammation and helps fight infection, all common occurrences when getting a tattoo. Tattoos are fast becoming common, with 25% of Americans having at least one permanent tattoo. However, only approximately 10% of tattoo recipients report a post tattoo infection.
The first and second place winners will represent Hiram College at the Entrepreneurship Education Consortium’s Regional ideaLabs competition on April 4 at Baldwin Wallace University.
by Jenelle Bayus
