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Festival Fun

WCCHN Presents

BoostUp
A Cardiac Pitch Competition

Fueling Innovation | Accelerating Change

Do you have an idea about how to help cardiac kids or their families?

Is your pediatric heart project ready to take the next step?

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Stop waiting for the pieces to fall into place.

Get the support you need to launch and succeed. 

FEB 8

Virtual Online Event

It's a Game Changer

WCCHN presents BoostUp, a pediatric cardiac pitch competition designed to give good ideas a leg up. Innovators and change-makers across Western Canada are invited to ideate and pitch for funding. Give your project a boost by building, testing, and validating your plan. Let WCCHN fund the mission. 

Eligibility

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Pitch applications are open to small teams, any role, any discipline, any department, any pediatric cardiac site across western Canada (family support groups included).

 

If your idea is to the benefit of pediatric cardiac patients or their families in any way, or to the benefit of the services provided by a pediatric cardiology program, you are eligible to apply. 

 

Examples of successful pitches might include things like educational resources, teambuilding activities, multicenter research initiatives, quality improvement and data analytics projects, equipment requests, peer support opportunities, etc.

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Pitch for whatever amount you think you will need. Award values range from $1,000 to $10,000. 

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Important Dates:

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Applications Open - November 9

Applications Close - December 31

Finalists Notified - January 7

Slide Decks Due - February 1

Pitch Live - February 8

How it Works

ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?

01

Build

Ideate and Innovate

Try us! Tell us what you have in mind, why you want it or need it, and what your plan is to bring the idea to life. Bonus points for teams or projects that span more than one province or site, and for those that hold demonstrated potential for wider expansion. Need help making connections in other provinces or at other sites? Email us and we'll introduce you. 

Build

Pitch

Converse and Convince

Present your easy, functional, proof-of-concept plan in front of a live audience. Our panel of esteemed judges will provide you with on-the-spot feedback in front of a live audience. Feedback is designed to promote feasibility and sustainability so you can stay in action for the long run. The Judges will rate pitches against a pre-established set of criteria. View the judging rubric here

02

Pitch

03

Win

Succeed and Celebrate

A number of prizes ranging in value from $1,000 to $10,000 will be awarded. Three of them will be announced in real time on the night of the event:

Judge's Pick | Audience Choice Award | Wild Card 

Not interested in applying, but want to watch people try? Register to attend as a member of our live audience here. All audience members get to vote for their favourite, and the first 100 registered to watch will also be entered into our $500 "Pay it Forward" Audience Raffle so we can give their good ideas a shot, too. 

Win

Launch

Evaluate and Iterate

Winners will use their award to test run their idea within twelve months of winning. All winners will join our BoostUp Alumni and are given an opportunity to feedback their successes and learnings to a wider community. When having a platform to lead by example, we can grow opportunity to team up, iterate, expand, and accelerate change. 

04

Launch

Why this is different

NOT YOUR TYPICAL GRANT APPLICATION

Think of this as the opposite of a grant application. Instead of creating huge documents and scientific proposals, you will create four minute pitch presentations for your proof-of-concept product or service proposal. Plan just enough features to be usable by early consumers who can provide feedback for future project development. This validated learning will help teams to iterate by starting with something small and allowing good things to grow progressively.

Getting started isn't for the faint of heart

Making the best decisions and having the right resources is the difference between thriving and going back to the drawing board. BoostUp will help you to: 

Plan and define your idea

Earn the trust and interest of potential stakeholders

Gain clarity for yourself and your team

Validate your idea so you know it's a winner

Solicit feedback from leaders in subspecialty areas

Build community and grow together

LET'S DO THIS!

Take the Leap

THIS CHALLENGE IS PERFECT FOR

Local projects having trouble securing startup funding

Projects ready to launch but needing some quick cash flow to get past the first steps

Projects looking to collaborate across western Canada

Smaller projects looking to expand and go big

Teams needing some extra support, resources, connections, or guidance to launch successfully and sustainably

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Pitch
Watch

Watch

FEB 8, 2022 (MST)

7:00

Opening Remarks

7:10

Teams 1 - 4 Pitch

7:35

Pay it Forward Audience Raffle

7:40

Teams 5 - 8 Pitch

8:05

Judge Deliberation + Audience Vote

8:15

Winner's Circle + Closing Remarks

1.5

08

100+

HOURS
PITCHES
PARTICIPANTS

A year from now, will you still be at the drawing board, or will you be championing your change?

"A good start with a focus on positive, continuous change will outperform the perfectionist in the long run."

Let us help you get started
Contact Us

About WCCHN

The Western Canadian Children’s Heart Network (WCCHN) is a collection of hospitals providing highly specialized cardiac care for children across western Canada. We work together to link expertise, expand the peer group, collaborate on complex cases, streamline referrals, monitor referral patterns and surgical waitlists, and benchmark outcomes internationally so that all children in western Canada can have access to the highest standard of care available.

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To learn more, visit wcchn.ca

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