BYOBiz Elevator Pitch 2014 Coming in February

Elevator Pitch Participants

It's almost time for the highly anticipated 7thAnnual Elevator Pitch Competition. The competition will feature a record-number of participants hoping to win the top prize of $500 and bragging rights to having the best "pitch" in Champlain College's annual spring competition. The contest will be held Feb. 26, in Alumni Auditorium. The contest allows participating students to give their 90-second "pitch" to an executive (dubbed "The Suit") as they ride together in a fictional elevator.

There are three categories of competition-entrepreneurs, job/internship seekers, and nonprofit/social advocates. The event is patterned on a national competition which teaches budding entrepreneurs the importance of presenting a "big idea" to an executive as convincingly as possible. E-Pitch is collaboration among Champlain College's BYOBiz Program, Career Services, the Center for Service & Civic Engagement, the Office of Advancement, and LEAD. The deadline to enter is Friday, Feb. 7. Participants must complete an entry form here.

To help students prepare for the competition, there will be opportunities for one-on-one or group sessions with student "coaches" at the Oral Communication Lab. Additional support and coaching is available from Bob Bloch, director of the BYOBiz Program; Kyle Dodson, director of the Center for Service & Civic Engagement; several members of the Career Services team; as well as some faculty and alumni. There will also be three interactive improv-style workshops, facilitated by Eric Ronis, to help students get comfortable with public speaking.

Sophomore and junior students can also earn LEAD credit for participating in the Elevator Pitch. Why should students participate? In addition to developing a valuable life skill, winners in each category can walk away with cash prizes of $500 (first place), $300 (second place) and $100 (third place). Students will also have the opportunity to network with the judges who have respected positions in Burlington, such as,  trustees, community leaders, alumni, and employers, just to name a few.

For further information about the Champlain Elevator Pitch Competition, contact:


Founded in 1878, Champlain College is a small, not-for-profit, private college in Burlington, Vermont, with additional campuses in Montreal, Canada, and Dublin, Ireland. Champlain offers a traditional undergraduate experience from its beautiful campus overlooking Lake Champlain and over 90 residential undergraduate and online undergraduate and graduate degree programs and certificates. Champlain's distinctive career-driven approach to higher education embodies the notion that true learning occurs when information and experience come together to create knowledge. Champlain College is included in the Princeton Review's The Best 384 Colleges: 2019 Edition. For the fourth year in a row, Champlain was named a "Most Innovative School" in the North by U.S. News & World Report's 2019 "America's Best Colleges,” and a “Best Value School” and is ranked in the top 100 “Regional Universities of the North” and in the top 25 for “Best Undergraduate Teaching.” Champlain is also featured in the Fiske Guide to Colleges for 2019 as one of the "best and most interesting schools" in the United States, Canada and Great Britain and is a 2019 College of Distinction. For more information, visit champlain.edu.