Trine innovation 1's Jason Blume and Erin Myers join WLKI's Andy St. John to tell us about The 2024 Innovation Challenge. It's a 'Shark Tank'-like opportunity for students and community members to present an idea in business or technology. It will take place on January 24 and February 21, in Fabiana Theatre on the Trine University campus.

For the past nine years, the Innovation Challenge has created a low-risk entry point for regional residents, high school students, and collegiate participants to have their concepts reviewed by an expert panel of judges. This regional opportunity fosters a competitive platform to nurture raw ideas from a wide range of topics (business-to-business, business-to consumer, and conceptual innovations). The competition is divided into two primary categories of Entrepreneurial Business and Technology Innovation to allow business concepts to be reviewed separately from raw conceptual prototype solutions.

The event that takes place is a concept pitch day that is held for the participants to vet their ideas to experts from industry, banking, and academia. The participants will be expected to prepare a 10 slide PowerPoint presentation for the judges, as well as follow some standard guidelines. Watch the attached video for an idea of what to expect on competition day.

Thanks to our sponsors, Farmers State Bank, the competition then awards prize funds to the top Entrepreneurial Business and top Technology Innovation submissions. These funds can be used for initial investment to start launching their business on the journey from concept to realization.

Challenge Participant Prizes:

High School & Pre-College:
Technology Innovation 1st $1,000.00 - 2nd $500.00
Entrepreneurial Business 1st $1,000.00 - 2nd $500.00

Campus & Community:
Technology Innovation 1st $1,500.00 - 2nd $750.00
Entrepreneurial Business 1st $1,500.00 - 2nd $750.00

We plan to host the high school competition on January 24, 2024, and the campus/community event on February 21, 2024, at Trine's Fabiani Theatre. Our innovation 1 website is updated and ready for registration to begin. You will find the form to register, the competition guidelines, and some examples for the pitch deck PowerPoint and executive summary page. trine.edu/innovation-one/i1-challenge/index.aspx

We at Trine are looking forward to helping your innovative ideas transition into reality.

trine.edu/innovation-one/i1-challenge