Engen Pitch & Polish competition back for 10th season with countrywide workshop series

The Engen Pitch & Polish competition is back for its 10th season with a series of free entrepreneurship training workshops which will take place around the country and kick off tomorrow in Johannesburg.

In a statement today (4 July) Engen Petroleum said the entrepreneurial pitching competition has so far helped over 10 000 entrepreneurs improve the way they pitch to investors.

Engen is hosting this year’s competition in partnership with Nedbank, business incubator Raizcorp and the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA).

All but one of the Engen Pitch & Polish workshops will be facilitated by best-selling author and TV talk-show host Justin Cohen

As part of the initiative, Engen will hold a series of free workshops in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Bloemfontein, Rustenburg and Burgersfort.

Details of the workshops are as follows:

Johannesburg: 6 July, 9am to 5pm (CedarWoods, 120 Western Service Road, Woodmead, Sandton)
Port Elizabeth: 13 July, 9am to 5pm (Feather Market Centre, 86 Baakens Street, Port Elizabeth)
Durban: 20 July, 9am to 5pm (Olive Convention Centre, 81 Somtseu Road, North Beach)
Bloemfontein: 27 July, 9am to 5pm (President Hotel, 1 Union Avenue, Bloemfontein Central)
Cape Town: 3 August, 9am to 5pm (CAB Conference Centre, 19 Jeanette Street, Brackenfell)
Johannesburg UN Women event: 10 August, 9am to 5pm (President Hotel, 1 Union Avenue, Bloemfontein Central)
Rustenberg: 17 August, 9am to 5pm (Civic Centre, Kloof Road, Rustenburg)
Burgersfort: 24 August, 9am to 5pm (Sehlaku Technical High School, Driekop)

Entrepreneurs looking to attend the workshops can register here or SMS “Pitch” to 43719 (SMSs charged at 50c).

Engen said during the workshops, participants undergo comprehensive and interactive entrepreneurial training on how to pitch like a pro.

All the sessions — except the Johannesburg women-only event — will be facilitated by best-selling author, international speaker and TV talk-show host Justin Cohen.

Following the training sessions, contestants will pitch their ideas or businesses to the audience. Both Cohen and the audience will then provide feedback on how pitches can be improved.

The regional winners of each leg will have the opportunity to be crowned the ultimate pitch champion at the final round of the competition which will be held in Johannesburg later this year.

Engen said many funders and investors will be invited to the final. Over the years, the petroleum company said, finalists (not necessarily the winners) have received millions of rands in investments and hundreds of thousands of rands in grants.