SIX bright young Hastings minds pitched big ideas without fear. And now they’ve been given the opportunity to make those dreams a reality.
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The exciting new initiative was launched at this year’s Luminosity Youth Summit, giving young entrepreneurs an opportunity to shine.
The Luminosity Pitch Project challenged young people to present unique business ideas to an experienced panel in a shark-tank style forum.
The winning pitchers who are now able to fund their ideas were Chelsea Connors, Jerica David, Zoe Groth, Amelia Marshall, Shannah Schroeder and Bella-Rose Lord.
The initiative was the brainchild of local philanthropists Dr Tim Platt, Dr Andriy Boyko and Will and Danielle Edwards of Seed Catering.
They were supported by Luminosity Youth Inc, Holiday Coast Credit Union and Blueprint Life Coaching.
It was brought to life to pay forward the experience, opportunity and learning each of the individual panel members have gained through their own lives and careers.
The group and Luminosity Youth Inc have jointly contributed a total of $10,000 to support and mentor the young winners on their journey to success.
The panel was made up of local and national business talent including Dr Platt, Dr Boyko, Mr and Mrs Edwards, Andrew Morello from Yellow Brick Road, co-founder of Luminosity Kate Wood-Foye, Andrew Lord of BluePrint Life Coaching and Neville Parsons and Les Bailey of Holiday Coast Credit Union.
Shannah said she was over the moon and extremely appreciative to be given the opportunity to help other young people.
"I will be starting a youth program in Wauchope, because it is an area with geographical disadvantages and issues with youth," she said.
"In the six week holidays I will be hosting come-and-try sports days. We have local artists involved to host art days and we have an idea of hosting a movie night.
"It's all about giving the kids something to do and take them away from the areas where they can fall into risk taking activities that could lead to worse things."
She will also enlist the help of organisations like Headspace, with youth workers helping young people manage mental issues and providing a safe environment to talk.
Each winning Pitch package contained key marketing, partnership, strategy and budgetary advice as well as valuable mentoring partnerships with each of the panel members.
Ms Wood-Foye said the panel looked forward to seeing the progress of their journey when they present a year in the life of their project on stage at Luminosity 2019.
“The quality of pitches were outstanding with encouraging feedback from the panel to each participant,” said Dr Boyko.
"We were blown away with the passion and purpose behind so many of the pitches. We were pleased with the variety and direction of each of the business ideas.”
This sentiment was further supported by Co-Founder Dr Tim Platt.
“The project allows us to give back to the community and share our experience in business,” he said.
"We want to help young people follow their passions and pursue their ideas with a framework of finance and mentoring to help them along in their business journey.
"They just need a great idea and the commitment to start and pursue the process.”