Idea Idol ‘Finale’

The mash-up of two popular tv shows Dragon's Den and Pop Idol that was the 'Finale' of Idea Idol rocked Oxford last night for the third year running.

This event set eight finalists — six commercial enterprises and two charitable organisations — in head-to-head 'elevator pitches' to a panel of four judges for a total prize money of £12,000.

The selected ideas were pretty varied, ranging from designer cast covers and slings (the eventual winner) through a student betting website and feedback-responsive keyboards to grand visions of private initiative overhauls of NHS blood analysis. Refreshingly there was a complete lack of web2.0 ideas (blogging, IM, and podcasting still yet to be moulded into commercial ideas it seems, Yahoo buyouts excluded), the betting website being perhaps the only idea verging on the vacuous, and the word 'synergy' was mentioned only once (yes, by an MBA student).

Sadly, but maybe predictably, the use of Powerpoint slides by practically all of the contestants was shocking: some fell into the trap of having slides and slides of detailed bullets (unforgivable really in a five minute pitch) and others seem to be taking the new web2.0 wave of clear bold colourful designs to new levels (or had they just made their slides in a shorter time than it took to give their presentation). Over all, one presenter had no graphic aids, one team just had a map, and four pitches used one overhead with just title.

Perhaps disappointing too was the number of MBA business development projects in the final. These were obviously team efforts directed towards developing full business plans, and all certainly gave the most polished and best directed talks. But I thought these went against the nature of the Idea Idol competition of giving people with little business background the chance to consider their mettle and pitch. There were apparently 75 entries altogether and it would have been nice to see some more promising undergraduates up there (the blood analysis and casino guys were the only UGs, if I remember correctly). A little nurturing of the contestants, if possible, could have dramatically improved their pitches and everyone's take-home experience of the contest. Even if the organisers had just sent a five minute email to all the entrants — or just finalists — explaining the sort of process that might be successful, then great ideas, such as feedback keyboard, could have been given much better wings to fly on. In these respects the contest was very different to last year, which I'm sure had a number of great pitches from undergraduates, e.g., BOSO, who won that year.

Full round-up

Commercial Enterprise Winner: Medical Style LLC [Jennifer Segal et al.] (£5000 prize)
Commercial Enterprise Runner-up: Carbon-Market.com (£2000)
Social Enterprise Winner: 'HIV & AIDS Prevention' (£3000).
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Update: A news article on the Said Business School website gives more details of other entries:

Submissions included: ‘club-guru.com’ – an internet service to organize your nightlife; ‘The Parking Space and Vehicle Finder’ – to help find the last available parking spot and remind us of where we parked on our return; ‘The Throne’ – a revolutionary portable lavatory; ‘Do-it-yourself Garage’ with tools, mechanics and refreshments on tap; ‘Virtual Boycott’ for those with a great deal to get off their chests; and ‘Oops I drank too much’ – a miracle cure to get you back in the game after over-indulgence.