Meet the FlashLab Pitch Contest Finalists and Judges
Posted on November 21, 2019
Kent State Student Media was thrilled to receive 19 entries in this year's 2nd Annual FlashLab Innovation Pitch Contest. With innovative ideas ranging from virtual reality storytelling to an online film fest, choosing finalists was not an easy task for our judges.
On Tuesday, seven individuals with unique ideas were selected as finalists and invited to the in-person second round to be held Tuesday, Dec. 3 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in 213 Franklin Hall on the Kent State University campus in Kent, Ohio. The event is free and open to the public.
Meet this year's finalists:
- Aidan Taylor (Black Film Initiative), a junior digital media production major.
- Rachel Hale (May 4th Virtual Reality), a senior public relations major.
- Jakob Bell (Online Film Fest), a senior digital media production major.
- Sarah Riedlinger (Point Verity), a senior visual communication design major.
- Kylah Carter, Tyshaia Earnest (SM Focus Group) & (SM Short Course), a junior fashion merchandising major and a senior fashion merchandising major.
- Emelia Sherin (SM Squirrel Fund), a senior public relations major.
Meet this year's judges for the second round:
- Zach Mikrut is the Assistant Director at LaunchNET Kent State, a program that helps students, faculty/staff, and alumni transform their ideas into thriving businesses, successful projects, or innovative collaborations. Zach is responsible for managing and coordinating the operational activities of the program including consulting, entrepreneurial tools, staffing, and collaborating with other university stakeholders. He has collaborated to create entrepreneurial events including throwing students in elevators for a pitch competition, having visual designers create podcasts, and staying up for 36 hours at hackathons.
- Heather Roszczyk was appointed by Mayor Horrigan in 2017 as the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Advocate for the City of Akron. She is the voice of entrepreneurs and business owners inside city hall, supporting existing and emerging efforts to bolster Akron’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and promoting a culture of entrepreneurship throughout Akron. Her vision is for Akron’s streets to be alive with people and art, its storefronts full of thriving small businesses, and its tech as locally sourced as its food.
- Ile-Ife Okantah is a Kent State graduate student studying journalism. While completing her undergraduate degree at Kent, Ife was active in the school of journalism and mass communication. She has served as the fashion beat reporter for the Kent Stater, editor in chief of Uhuru Magazine and president of Kent's chapter of National Association of Black Journalists. One of the highlights of her undergraduate experience was delivering her own Tedx Talk.
- Micah Tindor has made a career for himself building businesses and product lines: Founded, built and sold two companies; included iRecon, a Car Dealership SaaS company to Cox Automotive, built two new lines of Connected Fleet business for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, and led the sales deployment of Home Advisor into Canada. He has an MBA in strategy from the Ohio State University and currently works as Business Operations Director at Cox Automotive's vAuto.
Special thank you to one of last year's winners, Natalie Meek, Associate Public Relations Specialist at Diebold Nixdorf, for helping judge the first round.
Finalists will have the chance to pitch their idea in person to the judges and answer questions. Judges will select first, second and third place winners from among the finalists. The top three winners will share $1,000 in prize money and their ideas may receive up to $10,000 in funding to help launch them in Student Media in spring 2019.
The innovation pitch contest is part of Student Media FlashLab, an innovation initiative within Kent State Student Media to foster and support innovation in the areas of content creation, revenue generation and audience engagement. The contest and other FlashLab events are open to all Kent State students and collaboration is encouraged.
For more information about Kent State Student Media and Student Media FlashLab, contact Director of Student Media, Kevin Dilley at 330-67-0887 or [email protected]