In an April 27, 2020 article posted by Technical.ly Baltimore titled “How 5 Baltimore startup pitch nights pivoted to virtual,” the University of Baltimore was mentioned among other universities, on how they are changing the delivery method of their semester’s pitch competitions to going fully online.Here’s the excerpt from the article about UB.

Going live

At the University of Baltimore, the thought of canceling the Rise to the Challenge Pitch Competition didn’t even cross the minds of organizers, said UB Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Director Henry Mortimer. But given that the mid-semester shift brought a new mode for completing classes and that many of the university’s students also maintain jobs alongside their studies, they decided that the competition could come after classes this year. It will now be held on June 10 at 5:30 p.m., which falls after the conclusion of the semester.

UB already had tech-enabled tools to help founders, such as the Baltimore-built platform PitchCreator. And they’re maintaining tech community mentors. For the event, Mortimer is planning for ways to keep the live crowd favorite voting in place, and allow attendees to follow up with students. He said that plenty of connections have happened over the years for founders, even if they didn’t win funding.

“We want to recreate the live event as close to what it normally is as possible, he said.

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