A Night For Failure

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ABOUT A Night for FAILURE

A Night for FAILURE is a 1-minute pitch challenge for all HKBU students to share innovative ideas, build and refine pitches, and to provide lively discussions with the audience.

 
IMPORTANT DATES
  1. Registration Deadline: 19 February 2024
  2. Event Date: 6 March 2024
 
PRIZES

Winning participants will receive cash awards ($1,000 x 3 merit prizes)

 
APPLICATION
  1. Take a look at some tips about << HOW to plan your 1-minute pitching >> below.
  2. Submit the << Application Form >> together with the brief description of your idea by 19 February 2024
 
JUDGES

Judges include teaching members of the School of Business, HKBU and/or industry practitioners.

 
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
  1. Personal information collected will only be used for the purpose of application, verification and communication.
  2. The Organiser reserves the right to use all or any parts of the entries in promotional campaigns. In all cases, no specific notification or payment will be given to the entrants.
  3. The Organiser reserves the right to amend the program of the rules and regulations.
  4. Should there be disputes, the Organiser reserves the right to the final decision.

HOW to plan your 1-minute pitching

The idea of the 1-minute pitching is for you to communicate your innovative idea to the judge(s) in an impressive and forceful way. You have exactly 1-minute, which is a short period of time. But if you prepare well for it, you can in fact do a lot of things and convey a strong message regarding your innovative idea. In this pitching, we believe that you should include the following elements, though not necessarily in the exact order:

  1. Who are you?
  2. What’s the problem that you are dealing with?
  3. What’s your solution/idea?
  4. Why you should be given the chance?
Who are you?

While you definitely do not have sufficient time for a lengthy self-introduction, do try to use one sentence to tell who you are, which will leave a deep impression.

What’s the problem?

The judge(s) will be very much interested in knowing the problem you are trying to solve. Not just that. You need to demonstrate that this is a REAL problem, and there is a substantial market as there are a lot of people facing this problem. If you can’t explain your problem clearly in a few sentence, and to show how big the market is, you will not be able to impress the judge(s).

What’s your solution?

Make sure that you have a solution to the problem that you want to deal with, and you are able to explain what your solution is in this 1-minute pitching, clear and concise. For example, if you are participating in a business competition, you need to demonstrate that a business, which can be profitoriented or a social enterprise, can be developed based on your solution. Thus, there should be a substantial market for your solution.

Why you?

Linking back to the first part “Who are you?”, you need some time to explain how and why you can implement your proposed solution. You don’t have to over sell yourself, but you need to show that you can confidence in yourself, and you are committed to your business idea. You also have to demonstrate what benefits you will bring to the society, the sponsors, etc.

You may wish to watch these two Youtube video clips to learn more on how to do a good pitching (they are good examples 1-minute pitching):