Iowa State will hold the Young Entrepreneurs Convention on Saturday, including several speakers and lectures, networking opportunities and a pitch competition. The convention begins at 8 a.m. and will continue through the day until 7:30 p.m., when the post-event social ends.

This event ties closely with Iowa State’s slogan — ‘Innovate at Iowa State’ — demonstrating the university’s commitment to fostering a culture of innovation.

Unlike most curricular objectives, the ability to think innovatively and the drive to practice entrepreneurship are not easily taught to students. In order to get students involved and passionate about their own innovative and entrepreneurial potential, Iowa State holds a lot of events and opportunities for students to learn from and network with established innovators and entrepreneurs.

The convention takes place throughout the Student Innovation Center, with most of the presentations taking place in the lower level auditorium but other social events like the box lunch or the post-event social taking place on the third floor.

The Young Entrepreneurs convention always includes a pitch competition, where participants pitch business ideas. The best pitch is awarded funds and other useful services for a new business. Since the original pitch competition in 2016, over $150,000 in funds have been awarded to competition participants.

During the pitch competition, participants have the opportunity to pitch a business idea to a panel of expert judges. Participants are given 90 seconds for their pitch and another two minutes for questions from the judges. The first rounds of the pitch competition will take place throughout the day in small blocks of four to ten separate pitches. At 4:45 p.m., the pitch competition finals will be held in front of the convention’s audience in the lower-level auditorium.

The convention begins at 8 a.m. with an hour-long check-in and networking period, followed by a series of presentations in the lower-level auditorium. From 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., boxed lunches will be served on the third floor; then, it’s back to the basement for more presentations. Following these presentations are the pitch competition finals, and finally, the post-event social.