Entries open for $50,000 I.T. Invention Test pitching competition

Information technology entrepreneurs have the chance to win a share of $50,000 in prizes through ITC Geelong’s investment pitching competition.

The $50,000 I.T. Invention Test competition provides a commercialisation pathway for IT entrepreneurs, ICT Geelong’s chairman Nick Stanley says in a statement.

“We have again focused on improving investment pitching education for entrants,” he says.

“This will start with a half day pitching education workshop to help the top 12 entries to prepare for their pitches to a panel of technology commercialisation experts.”

The winners of the four competition categories – best overall pitch, best sensor-based technology pitch, best Geelong region industry pitch, and best Deakin University pitch – will win a one-week entrepreneurship and venture capital program at the University of California (Berkeley).

The best overall pitch will also win $7500 cash and the best two pitches will win 12 months of mentoring.

Stanley says the University of California program is one of the world’s leading entrepreneurship education programs and past winners have returned to Australia with a renewed focus on their businesses.

The category winners will also present at the fourth annual Technology Entrepreneurship Forum in Geelong on November 28.

Past winners have included Tesla, a sign language animator, WizzyBoard, which enables online games and toys to be augmented on touchscreen devices, and ComWriter, a cloud-based writing platform for academics and university students.

Stanley says that Geelong’s IT sector is growing as its manufacturing sector declines.

“There is certainly a growing appetite for entrepreneurship and innovation in the knowledge economy in Geelong,” Stanley says.

More information on the I.T. Invention Test competition can be found here with entries closing November 10.