About 80 people packed the banquet room at 28 Springs Restaurant in downtown Siloam Springs for the IdeaFame Live pitch contest on Tuesday, March 13.
Twenty-two contestants signed up in advance to pitch their ideas in front of the crowd and a panel of three judges with the hopes of winning two $1,000 prizes that were contributed by the Siloam Springs Chamber of Commerce. There also were three "wild card" presentations at the end for those who did not sign up in advance. Each were given 60 seconds to pitch their ideas without the help of using slides or notes.
Larry Kenemore Jr., who was one of five presenters from Siloam Springs, was the judges' winner and took home $1,000 for his Stat-Medicament-Disposal Corporation, which features a product that removes opioids from drinking water.
These competitions often attract many of the same entrepreneurs from around Northwest Arkansas, and Kenemore Jr. was happy to not see the same person that had dominated in the past.
"I've never won," Kenemore Jr. said. "The first two I went to a 12-year-old girl beat me out. She developed these tight clothing that people work out in with a place to put in your cell phone. She was so smooth with her delivery.
"When she talked, I knew nobody else had a chance with her in the competition."
Chamber director of economic development Nathan Reed judged the contest along with Julie Coonrad of Bank of the Ozarks and Jerry Laster of Simmons Foods. Reed said it was "very difficult" to choose a winner from so many solid pitches and added that they had "a lot of fun" taking part in the process.
"We loved your product," Reed said while presenting Kenemore Jr. an oversized check. "The opioid addiction problem is one of the worst things going on in our corner of Arkansas. So, the fact that your product will help us to overcome that, we thought your product was great and you had a really good pitch."
Kenemore Jr. was meeting with the city of Danville last week and had recently wrapped up meeting with the mayor and chief of police in Gentry to implement his product there. He said he has several other municipalities he's working with in the future, including Bella Vista and Gravette, and the $1,000 will help with those efforts.
"We're going to use it to keep expanding the business," Kenemore Jr. said. "In all, so far, we have 12 cities lined up for the next year that we will be implementing in."
Jonathan Belew of Bentonville earned $1,000 as the People's Choice winner after grabbing the most votes on ballots that were passed around when all of the presentations were completed. After suffering through depression and anxiety himself, Belew came up with a plan for a recovery program.
"It's a lifestyle program that we are teaching to people so they can get over depression and get over anxiety," Belew said. "It's not a drug. You can go the drug route, but the effectiveness of the program is twice as high as the other programs. We deal with lifestyle changes. It's a mental, educational program."
Belew, who's a pastor at Bentonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, said he has already tested the idea with a pilot program in Bentonville and has programs firing up in other states. He said he'll use the $1,000 for advertising to raise awareness about his non-profit program.
"We train people we call facilitators," Belew said. "Facilitators help people implement these life-style changes that will help them out of their depression and anxiety and it also helps them with cognitive behavior therapy.
"We teach people how to master their own processing of information correctly. How to process their negative thoughts and feelings, and make them correct. That's just one of the aspects of the whole program."
The event was presented by the Siloam Springs Chamber of Commerce and the Startup Junkie Foundation of Fayetteville. Startup Junkie's Michael Iseman hosts IdeaFame Live pitch contests around the region and served as emcee for the evening.
"This is a great turnout," Iseman said. "Nearly every one of the 100 seats are filled. We love Siloam Springs and just want to say keep showing up, and we'll keep having events like this here."
General News on 03/21/2018