学生 和 faculty recently gathered for 满帆大学’s annual 满帆 Means 业务 Pitch Competition, a schoolwide competition that allows students to work with real companies to find real-world solutions in the entertainment industry.

This year’s participating companies were FlipaClip, B和zoogle, 和 Heart of Florida United Way. The companies brought in judges who listened to the pitches, 问一些有吸引力的问题, 和 ultimately decided the top three winners.

Before the competition, each company presented a problem they needed to solve. 学生 then chose which issue to tackle 和 pitch a solution for. FlipaClip was looking for a way to enhance its mobile animation app with artificial intelligence. B和zoogle wanted a new way to help artists earn more revenue while using their platform. 作为慈善机构, Heart of Florida United Way asked finalists how they could use technology to fundraise.

“Coming here hearing these pitches from [the students] 和 different proposals on how we can innovate 和 how musicians can find new ways to bring in a little money here or there is something we’re fascinated by, 和 I’m fascinated by personally,约瑟夫·朗戈说, the 学习ing 和 Development Coordinator at B和zoogle.

“The most specific thing I’m looking for today is the realism of the proposals,” Joseph added.

The nine finalists competed for the opportunity to win a first-place $20,000年奖学金, 第二名是15美元,000年奖学金, 或者第三名的10美元,000年奖学金. Each pitch was eight minutes long, followed by six minutes of questions from the judges.

“It’s a really good opportunity for [students] to be allowed to have a high stakes presentation where they are going to have a live studio audience,” explained Victoria Wasinger, the Program Director for the Entertainment 业务 master’s 和 业务 Intelligence master’s 项目.

“This is a good opportunity to see where innovation is going. 满帆 is always a place of innovation,莱昂·阿什比说, the Director of TECHquity at Heart of Florida United Way. Leon is also a 满帆 Entertainment 业务 master’s graduate.

This year’s 满帆 Means 业务 Pitch Competition winners, 安娜贝拉古斯曼, 杰西卡·布朗d Arianna Jones, 获颁20美元奖金,000, $15,000, 和10美元,000年奖学金, 分别.

After taking about 90 minutes to deliberate, the judges came back to announce the 满帆 Means 业务 Pitch Competition winners of 2023. 音乐商务学士 degree student 安娜贝拉古斯曼, who pitched to B和zoogle, won first place. 杰西卡·布朗 Instructional 设计 和 技术 master’s student, took home second place. And Arianna Jones, an online Computer Animation bachelor’s student who was flown in for the competition, was awarded third place.

“What [choosing the winners] came down to mostly was whether or not the idea was original, 可行的, 和创造性. We were also looking at the business aspect of the proposal 和 whether it would actually generate revenue,” explained Karyle Martorelli, the 业务 Engagement Manager at Heart of Florida United Way.