On Wednesday the 26th of April, Pollinators hosted this year’s Australia Post Regional Pitchfest information session. The session was led by former Learning Lead of Pollinators, Andrew Outhwaite, who shared his top tips for how to give a short and sharp pitch.

Andrew Outhwaite giving his Australia Regional Pitchfest Info Session
Australia Post Regional Pitchfest acts as a platform for regional innovations and ideas, giving anyone from regional Australia with a big innovative idea the chance to pitch to an expert panel in front of a live audience. All participants also go in the running to win a share of $100,000 in prizes!
The information session hosted by Pollinators allowed participants to practice their pitches and record them for submission into the Regional Pitchfest competition. We heard many interesting and diverse pitches from those who attended. After practicing and perfecting their pitches at the information session, some were then asked if they would like to pitch at Pollinators’ GeroSoup event later that night, to earn instant cash for their ventures!
GeroSoup
GeroSoup is an awesome opportunity for members of the community to invest in new ventures and projects while enjoying a delicious home-made meal. For this event, everyone was asked to bring $20 in which they could allocated to their favourite venture pitches performed on the night.
CityHive had a great turn out for GeroSoup this month and subsequently managed to raise a significant amount of money for the two ventures pitched. We enjoyed delicious, freshly made soup kindly donated from St John of God Hospital Geraldton, which went down a treat.
On the night, Jodi Quadrio on behalf of Julian Canny, from The Comedy Emporium, shared with us how their organisation used the funds raised at the previous GeroSoup event.

Jane Bagshaw and Isabel Ross
“With the money, we were able to create the Expression of Interest for the Original Works Program that delivered three original works for the Festival Funtavia created by local people.” Said Julian Canny, the Ringleader of The Comedy Emporium.
“The Shows; Hungry Games, Smells Like Meme Spirt (which went on for a two-show tour to Perth) and An Incompetent Life (which has gone on to tour around our region) were created out of this program.” He said.
The Venture Pitches
CityHive had two final pitchers for the GeroSoup event; Jade Kremer and Xanthe White, both with very different ventures.
Jade wanted to create a database for troubled youths, particularly those interested in the arts. The idea behind this venture is that organisations can use this database to find specific people for certain jobs.

Emma Jackson, Xanthe White and Brendan Penzer
Xanthe wanted to raise money for a project named “Worm PT”; a social enterprise concept aimed at providing supported employment for the socially disadvantaged.
On the night, Jade raised a total of $190 for her venture and Xanthe raised a total of $280 for hers. They were both very pleased with the kind donations that would help kick start their amazing community ventures. Pollinators Inc is already eager for the next GeroSoup event which will take place later this year.
For more information, please contact Kirsty Kipling via: buzz@pollinators.org.au
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