Venture Pitch submission

by Erica T

18 comments

1 Mark Reed { 12.01.09 at 8:43 pm }

I like your pitch Erica – you sound very focused and present a very polished graphic presentation. This idea is really great – to have virtual simulations that teach whimis. I am sure that teachers would use this – further analysis to follow. definitely worthy of my top three.

2 Omar Ramroop { 12.02.09 at 9:50 am }

As a former science teacher as well as a manager in a relatively hazardous working environment, the potential is definitely there for simulations to be introduced.

The only difficulty that I have observed with virtual simulations is establishing the direct link and real-world consequences, which would be vital in a situation such as this.

You seem to be well-organized and have all of your affairs in order. It will be interesting to see where this goes in the future. Personally, I would like to see how it is field-tested in the marketplace. I know that my employees would rather work through a simulation than read 300 pages of text!

Excellent work!

Omar

3 Adam Rattray { 12.02.09 at 3:08 pm }

Hi Erica,
I like the concept of your venture. Unfortunately the visuals didn’t appear for me, but I did get the audio.

There is a large demand for simulation training and I believe that if your WHMIS training is successful, this company could expand into other avenues.

4 Erica T { 12.02.09 at 5:36 pm }

Adam when you accessed the http://web.me.com/sbmoot/ETEC522/Venture_Pitch.html, the video did not play, only the audio? The elevator pitch is a very small (1.8 MB) movie, so that is odd. But I know that my parents’ computers could not keep up with the download of the 97 MB full Venture Pitch video. They needed to wait about 15 minutes for the entire video to load. When posted on youtube, the quality of the slides was greatly compromised, and since I spent a great deal of time on the visual presentation, I opted to post on i.web instead to preserve the quality. Please advise how I can best get the presentation to you. Maybe a link to download would work?

5 Greg Lewis { 12.02.09 at 9:12 pm }

Your comments about quality of posting on YouTube certainly ring a bell! 🙁 I found the idea of doing a WHMIS course this way instead of just text pretty interesting. Certainly would have appeal. Very positive message. Offering that type of training to teachers/districts from a person with an education background makes sense too. Enjoyed it.

6 Erica T { 12.02.09 at 10:38 pm }

Greg it was also very inspiring to talk to the VP of Flame-Sim who was genuinely interested in our MET course and was really helpful (called me long distance from Chicago several times) and wanted to offer any pertinent info that he could (including the link to that conference in Orlando in March).

7 Erica T { 12.03.09 at 9:39 am }

Omar,

If you visit
http://www.mhsao.com/
You can see the many examples of simulation training already happening in the real world, under policies that are legislated by government. My question was: Why then, are they still teaching WHMIS training by making you read text about what to do for example, if you spill liquid nitrogen on your leg. Simulation training seemed a logical fit.

8 Erica T { 12.03.09 at 11:06 am }

TROUBLES VIEWING MY POSTING?

If anyone is having trouble viewing my videos at
http://web.me.com/sbmoot/ETEC522/Welcome.html

Please let me know in this comments thread so that I can correct it immediately (somehow).
It would be a shame to know at this late a date that some of the 10 people who are assigned to review my venture are not responding because they can’t see the visual presentation.

My elevator pitch video is quite small (1.8 MB).
The full presentation movie is 11 minutes and 97 MB,
so you may need time to download.

9 Mark Reed { 12.05.09 at 8:36 am }

Erica I chose your pitch to examine closely because it immediately struck me as an educator as a product that I would find very appealing and useful. Students often are required to participate in these WHIMIS orientations and I think they would find them engaging and attractive learning opportunities.

I would be a bit reluctant as an investor to expand into larger global markets as I think one of the attractions for your business venture is the expertise and familiarity you bring in catering to the North American market. As well as knowledge of what infrastructure is typically available in schools and the content for the WHIMIS course based on local laws. So keeping your market focused on a more regional basis would be more attractive for me. I really like that you have included a price for your service and a solid analysis of comparisons with other similar service providers. The risk analysis creates a perception on the part of a potential investor that this venture has been well thought out and the identification of your niche in providing WHIMIS training in the K-12 market.

Overall your presentation is a total thumbs up and I would definitely invest in this venture. I would be a bit hesitant on the development aspects of the product (simulation) by students (?) if I got that right but I like the potential for return (profits) without the high cost of industry professionals and feel that the quality would be at a good standard.

10 Brian Powell { 12.05.09 at 9:26 am }

Hi Erica,

Your pitch and venture played for me. The venture was a little slow to load.
Well done on the presentation. The elevator pitch was well packaged with just enough information to hook. I haven’t seen all the venture video yet or done an indepth analysis of it. I did like the way you covered each aspect of the cube and described your team expertise with a wink. I don’t know much about whimis but I remember seeing a primitive limited kiosk like simulation on CD about 9 years ago. I imagine it would be a lot easier to do something much better now.

11 Erica T { 12.05.09 at 12:51 pm }

Hi Mark.

Thank you for your comments.

In response to the simulation development by students: that is ONLY for the development of the school safety lesson plans that Science, Auto tech, Woodworking and Art teachers typically give on the first day of school.

As far as the government legislated WHMIS program that would be used by industry, that would be developed by my team of highly trained software developers. 🙂

And in response to the global market…I mentioned that because a big change happening right now is global harmonization of hazardous labelling. Much the same way that if I go to another country, I can identify “kilometres” as an international unit of measure, I should also be able to identify “biohazard” and not have to learn a new system of labelling in every country that I am in.

Because these are happening in real time right now, I thought I would pounce on this e-Venture opportunity, even if it is just an imaginative business proposal.

12 Erica T { 12.05.09 at 12:54 pm }

Hi Brian.
Thanks for responding. I guess in future projects I will have to figure out how to compress without losing text quality in my slides.

The WHMIS training is a fascinatingly untouched market (as far as simulation training). I know people who work in the safety training industry (as mentioned in the URL link I posted in my reply to Omar) and the training being implemented today is still text based.

13 Len Pelletier { 12.05.09 at 4:04 pm }

Hi Erica,

I had the same troubles as Adam, although I suspect it may have to do with my version of quicktime being out-of-date. However, the idea is great – I can’t imagine any training in the world in more need of becoming more engaging than WHIMIS training!

14 Ernest Pao { 12.05.09 at 4:08 pm }

Hi Erica…great job on keeping your video to 30 seconds. Definitely not an easy feat! I liked how you mentioned what this company is about and how it offers a better solution than the competitors. I also like how you suggested programs costs would be covered and what your target audience is.

My only minor concern was that I couldn’t read the text on some of the slides as there was a fair amount of text and/or some of them were a little small when put onto the video. Certainly didn’t take away from the ideas that you talked about though.

Well done!

Ernie

15 Erica T { 12.05.09 at 5:58 pm }

Thanks for your feedback Len and Ernie.
This is my first term in MET so all this production stuff is new to me and I have lots to learn about how to overcome the issues of video compression while maintaining text quality, etc. I agree completely with your comment Ernie, which was why I was reluctant to post on you tube and lose the readability altogether.
Thanks for your comments.
Erica

16 Barbara Mair { 12.05.09 at 8:37 pm }

Erica,

I had a hard time downloading your elevator pitch. I couldn’t download it in Firefox so i went to IE and the first tiem i had audio and no visuals and the second i got both. It sounds like a good venture, particularly if your competition is all text. I think your slides are a little busy and hard to read although you did a great job with the audio in 30s.

17 dawinder mann { 12.05.09 at 9:03 pm }

Hi Erica,

I really enjoyed your 30 sec elevator pitch. It was well put together. Within a short period of time you where able effectively provide a lot of information. Having gone through WHMIS training in the past, I feel your venture has some good chances for success. Written format I went through many years back was very static and one dimensional. Your sim version offers great advantages.

18 Erica T { 12.06.09 at 3:49 pm }

Thank you for your feedback Barbara.
I do see that in viewing the final presentation in video format, a lot of the detail in the text is lost and simpler would be better.

To Barbara and Dawinder:
Thank you for appreciating the 30 second pitch. I worked hard to pack it all in with a punch.

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