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February 23, 2021 | Tom Ballard

KEC accepting applications for revamped “What’s the Big Idea?” competition

By Kailyn Lamb, Marketing Content Writer and Editor, PYA

The Knoxville Entrepreneur Center (KEC) announced yesterday that applications are open for the annual “What’s the Big Idea?” (WTBI) Pitch Competition.

This is the 13th year for the competition, where five teams will compete for a $10,000 grand prize. Unlike previous years, however, the 2021 competition will be held virtually due to COVID-19. The event typically lasted 48 hours, but since KEC has gone virtual with its services, WTBI will incorporate  an expanded time frame for the mentoring and accelerator portion of the competition.

The finale will be live-streamed on April 11.

Applications close on March 15 for the competition. Public voting will be held March 24-28, and the number of public votes a company receives will have an impact on the final five teams selected for the official competition.

For more information on the 2021 competition, click here.

Last year’s competition, won by Mike Benn of Songboarding.com, was the last pitch competition held locally before COVID-19 shutdown most in-person events for what has now been almost a year.

For more about other KEC plans for 2021, you can read another article in today’s edition highlighting those activities.


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