Innovation Hub Uses Improv to Help Students Learn to Sell

And they sent in the clowns. During his turn at Pitch Karaoke, sophomore Sarorn Lin was ready for the next slide, having no idea it would be a series of clowns. Image by Edward Brennen
Sarorn Lin, a sophomore electrical engineering major, headed into Pitch Karaoke prepared to handle whatever clues the game had in store. And then came ... the clowns.

03/16/2020
By David Perry

鈥淚 came here tonight for extra credit,鈥� said Alexandra Conceicao. She broke into a smile. 鈥淎nd I鈥檓 leaving with $75.鈥�

Conceicao, a freshman business major, wowed the crowd and three judges at the first edition of Pitch Karaoke, a competition hosted by UML鈥檚 Innovation Hub and the group Women Accelerators at which contestants had to improvise an unrehearsed pitch for a product or service, receiving information about it on the spot. UML students took two of the top three spots.

Conceicao wove a storyline as slides popped up behind her showing a new cart, a Rubik鈥檚 Cube, a pair of queens 鈥� the rock band Queen and Queen Elizabeth 鈥� and finally, a s鈥檓ores dessert. Somehow, she wove it all into Chris鈥� Cream, a cure-all.

Thanks to TV shows like 鈥淪hark Tank鈥� and UML鈥檚 own DifferenceMaker program, students are well-acquainted with the art of selling a product to a panel of judges. But Pitch Karaoke flipped the script on the familiar format.

For example, contestants were introduced and the slides began, depicting things that ranged from clowns and a medieval catapult to the actor Kevin Bacon. Contestants had three minutes to make sense of the subjects and sell them as a product.

Six contestants worked with a series of often hilarious slides on a screen behind them that was visible to the audience of 50 attendees at the Innovation Hub in downtown Lowell.听

The event, which was part of Lowell Women鈥檚 Week, was the rare karaoke night at which no one sang a single clunky note.

Winner Ann Marie Messier, a creative business growth strategist, said pitching was 鈥渞eally unnerving. It鈥檚 hard enough pitching, but really hard when you don鈥檛 know what you鈥檙e talking about beforehand.鈥�

Her first slide was a split screen of Kanye West and a person jumping rope. She pitched herself as CEO of a company making a get-out-of-bed product.听

The evening was the brainchild of marketing expert Susu Wong, who founded Tomo360, a digital marketing agency in Lowell, and Lisa Armstrong, associate director of the Innovation Hub.听

Last year, Wong attended a business conference that featured Pitch Karaoke. It struck a chord with her. 鈥淚 thought, this is so much fun. We have to do it up here,鈥� she said.

Joey Banh, a 2010 UML business administration alum and the perpetually passionate entrepreneurship enthusiast and Lowell Plan program director, served as the event鈥檚 host.听

Sophomore electrical engineering major Sarorn Lin, who is interested in public speaking, took third place and $50.

鈥淚 came here tonight because I鈥檓 also a member of Toastmasters,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd hey, I like karaoke. I was surprised how competitive it was. I鈥檝e done something like this before in a different form, but these people were good.鈥�

Kim Meninger, president of the Lowell chapter of the Women Accelerators, a group dedicated to promoting the advancement of women, said it was the group鈥檚 third event since launching in September.

鈥淚t was all fun and exciting,鈥� said Banh after the event. 鈥淚 love supporting Women鈥檚 Week, and I love hosting, getting people involved. So this was great.鈥�

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