Merrimack Valley Sandbox All Ideas Pitch Contest Recap

Lawrence City Hall

Lawrence's Christ United Methodist Church hosted the Merrimack Valley Sandbox All Ideas Pitch Contest on March 27. I love having these events in Lawrence, not just because it's easy for me to get to but also because it brings positive attention to an under-appreciated city.

Bhlue

I enjoyed chatting with Michele from Bhlue about resources for students who aren't planning on attending a 4-year college, but are aiming for a skilled professional career. This group is under-served by career guidance resources in the schools these days, yet there are important jobs to be had and money to be made in the skilled trades. Also, I liked her innovative spelling of "blue", playing on "blue collar".

Crowd

The event drew a pretty good crowd.  I'm told there were around 70 people there. It seemed like slightly more than that. Oh, and  there's nothing like a camera to camera duel with Emil to liven up my crowd shots :-)

Belinda Orta of My Creative Learning  Center

The My Creative Learning Center early education program takes a hands on approach to learning.  Preparing children for kindergarten with creative experiences and individualized learning sounds like a great approach to early learning. Their pitch won 3rd place, so the judges must agree with me.

Donna of Seacoast Gift of Literacy

Donna Forcier came down from Hampton, NH to pitch her plan to provide free literacy tutoring for illiterate adults on an individual or small-group basis. Seacoast Gift of Literacy grew out of Donna's own experience with dyslexia and her strong belief in literacy as the key to employment. A recent issue of Seacoast Online has a great article about what Donna learned from her experience at the pitch contest.

Connecting with Gem Decorations

I remembered Gloria and Gem Decorations from a previous Sandbox event and was pleased to see lots of people connecting with her at her artfully decorated table. You can find Gloria on Twitter.

These Guys Are All Business

Had a great chat with Rob Busch from Moody, Familigietti & Andronico and Arturo Sedo from Experilance about how new grads can get the experience they need to get hired these days.
Rob was one of the judges.

David and Lianna Instructing the Judges

Leaf Canoe

Being in the travel app business, I enjoyed talking with Daijie Huang about Leaf Canoe, her idea for a social travel platform. I'm interested to see how her Beta goes.

Pesto Entrepreneur

Swiss Chard Pesto - Yum!

Evan Cotreau of Pure Pestos let us sample his innovative pesto recipes.  Swiss chard pesto is an idea whose time has come!

My Recovers - Official Cast Cover of BobbieC!

My Recovers had a table with cool walking boot and cast covers - also cookies. I like cookies. I remembered Kelly from Mass Innovation Nights and joked with her about how My Recovers provided the official cast cover of Bobbie Carlton.

Playing with Increment's ORings

It was great to see the team from Increment again and to get to see the ORings in action! The kids were instantly attracted to them and played freely and happily. I first met them a few weeks ago at the Sandbox Consumer Ideas Pitch Contest.

Mai of Savione

My personal favorite of the evening was Savione, a way to make shopping local easy. It wasn't only my favorite either. Savione won both Fan Favorite and 2nd prize.

UCB

UCB

Union Capital Boston (UCB) is onto something with their mobile-based loyalty program for low-income families. Basically, it provides social and financial service rewards in exchange for community involvement in schools, businesses, health centers, and civic programs.

Virtual Run

Virtual Run is a great new way to run or walk for charity. Can't make a specific real world event? Participate in a virtual event. Run anytime and anywhere as long as you run the set distance within the event timeline.

Yoga by Numbers

Of course I remembered Yoga by Numbers from #MIN60. They are making it easier for anybody to learn yoga and getting noticed for it. Elizabeth Morrow nailed the pitch and won the well-deserved 1st prize.

Great products, great people, great event. Can't wait for the next one.