BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Students from 40 California schools came together on Thursday, January 26 at the Mechanics Bank Arena for the Virtual Enterprise Conference and Exhibition. The event allowed the students to pitch business plans, complete with marketing details, logo designs, and more, to help with their future career plans.
Ridgeview High School student Sith Gingras was feeling the energy.
“Aw, it’s hectic. It’s incredibly electric. There’s tons of schools, tons of people. Everybody put so much work into it,” said Gingras.
Mechanics Bank Arena was buzzing as high school students from around California fit in the last minutes of rehearsals before their teams pitched their business plans to a panel of judges.
After two days of elimination rounds, the top 8 teams will go on to compete at the national competition in New York.
Ridgeview student Chloe Rogers explains the concept.
“The class all works together to come up with a company, as well as to continuously work through it. The business plan really fine edits the information down to the ten minute presentation,” said Rodgers.
“Our kids are doing 10 minute presentations, 1 minute elevator pitches in front of business professionals,” said Miguel Garcia, Virtual Enterprise Coordinator for Ridgeview High School. “We have people from Wall Street who judge these competitions. We have business professionals from Bakersfield.”
Garcia continues, explaining how the teams are structured in a way that reflects a real-world business enterprise.
“In Virtual Enterprise, you are put into a classroom where it becomes a business. Each classroom has a hierarchy. You have a CEO, you have a Chief Financial Officer, and you have departments: marketing, human resources,” said Garcia.
“Nerves are probably the biggest thing that comes with competition day,” added Rogers. “So it is important that we try – our whole team meditates, so we try to keep the nerves down through that.”
In addition to the presentations, students were also setting up booths to advertise their company, complete with brochures, prototypes and demonstrations.