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Are you an arts organisation or social enterprise with a really good idea, but lacking in tech expertise?
Arts-Tech Pitch Day matches local arts organisations and social enterprises with tech developers who have the skills and experience to help them bootstrap ideas into reality.
How does it work?
We’re inviting arts and social organisations pitch their ideas to an audience of local tech specialists and CTOs. Afterwards, there’ll be opportunity to informally chat and discuss how you might collaborate.
I’m a developer with decent coding / UX / product development chops – what’s in it for me?
This is an opportunity to make a massive difference, and have some fun. A tiny slither of your expertise could really help a non-profit turn a great idea into reality.
This can be as much or as little as you like: your advice on the day, or an offer of on-going, arms-length feedback as they develop their idea. Some pro-bono coding hours (if your company does this), or some help with building a prototype or MVP in your spare time. If you think they have a viable business, there may be opportunities to come to an equity deal in return for your work. It’s totally up to you.
What kind of ideas will be pitched?
We’ll select arts and social projects / businesses that require a tech solution, and that are likely to be fun and rewarding for the tech specialist to be involved in. This might be an app, website, service or hardware that will take art to new audiences, or help solve a social problem, big or small.
Will this be like an SEIS investment pitch session?
No, it’ll be really nice and relaxed for everyone involved. These are organisation and social enterprises at the start of their journey, not pitching a fully-formed business proposition. So please be kind to them!
I’m an arts organisation / social enterprise. Do I need to have a product that’s already in development?
No! This opportunity is perfect for arts and social enterprise organisations who have a good idea, and want to build and test it from scratch, from prototyping to launching an MVP (minimal viable product). Once you have an MVP, and you can prove it works and that people are using it, that puts you in a far stronger position to pitch for investment, secure a loan, or apply for funding to help take it to market.
What format should my pitch take?
Pitches should be no longer than 5 minutes (seriously, we’re strict about this and will gong you off if you overrun!). There’ll be a further 5 minutes afterwards to answer questions. Please put together a PowerPoint or PDF pitch deck, with no more than 10 slides. We recommend you use the following format, or similar:
- Title slide
- What problem will your project solve?
- What’s your solution?
- Description of the product / service.
- Evidence for need (or of demand from an audience / user group).
- Evidence that your solution meets that need.
- Addressable market (if this is a business idea). How much are customers spending on other solutions to this problem?
- Competitor analysis (what other similar solutions are out there, and how is yours better?).
- Revenue model, and forecast over 3 years (if applicable to your pitch).
- Next steps – e.g. what you want to achieve in the next 3-6 months to get your idea up and running, and the kind of expertise you’re looking for.
Above all, make sure you convey what it is about your idea that you’re really passionate about!
Why so much emphasis on problems and solutions?
Because the biggest mistake people make when they come up with tech ideas is inventing solutions to problems that don’t exist.
Will it be scary, like Dragon’s Den or something?
No, it’ll be really nice and relaxed. Everyone understands that you’re at the start of the journey, not pitching a fully-formed business proposition.
To pitch, please email becca.parkinson@commapress.co.uk with a one-paragraph ‘elevator pitch’ of your idea, and 50 words of biog about your organisation (or about you, if you’re a single artist or sole trader). If we’re over subscribed, we’ll allocate places according to the elevator pitches that seem to be strongest (but fear not! We may well host more pitch days in future!).
You can register to attend for free on Eventbrite.
Free
9 November 2016
18:30 - 21:30
MadFabLab (MadLab's new makerspace) MadLab 36-40 Edge Street Manchester M4 1HN
