By Hind Aldah
UNIVERSITY CITY, SHARJAH – The American University of Sharjah’s Entrepreneurship Club is holding a competition March 19 and 20, along with a workshop on March 16 for students to pitch business ideas for a chance to win prizes.
The pitching workshop was held Wednesday by Yahya Iqelan, a programs junior manager at the Sheraa Hub, which is an entrepreneurship center located at AUS.
The competition, named “Welcoming Tomorrow” will be held via Zoom. “We are planning to have this as an inter-university competition,” said Jovita Mariam Cherian, treasurer at AUS Entrepreneurship Club and one of the organizers of the competition. “It’s mostly a matter of convenience for the students participating.”
Cherian added that the Entrepreneurship Club will invite students from across the United Arab Emirates to join.
When asked about how to pitch a successful business idea, Cherian said “a pitch should be catchy and short in my opinion.” She added that investors don’t have much time to offer and would ask follow-up questions if they’re interested.
The competition will include two rounds. In the first, all the teams will be given four minutes to pitch their business idea. There would be a follow-up Q&A session by the judges that would last three minutes.
In round two, judges will decide on six teams only that have passed round one and will be given five minutes to present their pitch. Another round of Q&A will follow for five minutes by the panel of judges.
Students must be involved in teams consisting of two to four members. Winners will earn 5000 AED worth of mentorship, along with 600 AED worth of vouchers.
The themes for the competition include sustainability, empowering through data science and catering to people of determination.
