Sandbox Summit

The Sandbox Summit, hosted by the Merrimack Valley Sandbox at the Inn and Conference Center at UMass Lowell was a two day event full keynote speakers, workshops, and networking.  Most notably,  Governor Deval Patrick discussed how Massachusetts is promoting entrepreneurship in the area followed by a Q&A session. Poonam Ahluwalia, the executive director of Youth Trade showed explained her wonderful program and product samples.  MassChallenge and the Deshpande Foundation shared their  programs and wisdom with the group as well.

The workshops were broken up into three areas and Nonspec attended the Entrepreneur track.  This included panelists and discussions on pitches, social enterprises, finances, and networking. We had a great time exchanging experiences and key take-aways.

The last element of the event was the pitch competition.  There were three opportunities for pitches and the winner of each competed in the final contest to wrap-up the event.  Nonspec was surprised to be selected from the Wild Card hat to pitch during the second pitch competition and we won during the text vote!  We pitched again during the final contest and were excited to be selected by the judge panel as first place, a $3,000 prize!

Overall, it was a great experience and we can’t wait till next year’s event!