19 June 2020
On the afternoon of 11 June, the final round of the Shanghai Theatre Academy Online Entrepreneurship Competition 2020 was successfully concluded in the New Space Theater of the Huashan Road Campus of Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA). This entrepreneurship competition attracted many current students and alumni within five years of graduation to participate, with a total of 48 teams which doubled the number of last year. After the earlier review of written submissions and the online preliminary competition in April, a total of 16 teams stood out from the 48 entries across the university, and successfully entered the finals. The competition also received an entrepreneurship allowance fund of RMB150,000 from the Jingan District Human resources and Social Security Bureau under its "Entrepreneurship Support Program".
In response to the requirements of the COVID-19 prevention and control on campus, the final round of the competition was presented by way of "online & offline" cloud-based roadshow. Senior representatives of the Shanghai Municipal Student Affairs Center, the National Steering Committee for Entrepreneurship Training for Graduates under the Ministry of Education, the Shanghai Angel Capital Club, the Angel Partners Special-Purpose Fund under the Shanghai Technology Entrepreneurship Foundation for Graduates (“EFG”), the Shanghai Expert Group for Entrepreneurship Guidance and the Cultural Finance Committee of Shanghai Chamber of Commerce for Cultural Industry, as well as the gold award winner for Shanghai at the 3rd Internet plus Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, were invited to serve as the expert judges at this competition.
Through online PPT presentation about the project or company operation via “Tencent Meeting”, the key members of each participating team made an all-directional demonstration of their own entrepreneurial project from multiple aspects including project content, market analysis, financial situation, team composition and long-term planning etc. The competing projects covered many fields, including film and television production, content e-commerce, cultural and creative brands, event planning, art training and stage art etc, which fully demonstrated the creativity of professional talents from an art university. Among them, many projects focused precisely on the current social problems caused by the impact of COVID-19 and the content publicity of government policies. On the spot, the seven expert judges, by way of live video connection, conducted “cloud-based Q&A” with the participating teams, raising further questions about the core competitive advantages, project positioning and survival rules etc, and they also put forward pertinent opinions and recommendations on the further improvement and development of the projects.
After review, the project of "Building the World Theater - Children's Stage Art Studio" stood out from all teams, and won the first prize (RMB20,000 entrepreneurship allowance), "MT Space Timeshare Agent Operation Service Provider”, “Smart Valley Technology Content E-commerce Total Solution” and “Yige Drama Studio” won the second prize (RMB15,000 entrepreneurship allowance per project), and five other projects were selected for the third prize (RMB10,000 entrepreneurship allowance per project) and seven other projects were selected for the excellence project prize (RMB5,000 entrepreneurship allowance per project).
Among these 16 teams, some are still in the incubation stage of entrepreneurial projects, some have been operating smoothly for a period of time and have formed a relatively complete business model, but all of them demonstrated their entrepreneurial enthusiasm in this final roadshow. Starting from preliminary rounds of the competition, all the judges made their best efforts to provide the contestants with guidance on roadshow, and provided valuable constructive suggestions for each team according to their own practical experience. Through the comments and sharing from the judges, the contestants can not only receive suggestions, but also further understand the hardship and challenges in the journey of entrepreneurship. These big shots and seniors in the field of entrepreneurship highly recognized the overall level of STA’s entrepreneurial projects this year and the adoption of online roadshow as the form of competition, and they were in the opinion that STA’s entrepreneurial teams are stronger, and the perspective and contents of the entrepreneurship projects participating in the competition are more diverse.
Shanghai Theatre Academy will continue to cultivate "entrepreneurship and innovation" talents, and make use of the professional advantages of an art university to connect platforms and integrate resources for STA students with practical needs. According to the specific development stages of entrepreneurship projects, STA will regularly organize a rich and colorful program of entrepreneurship guidance lectures, and carry out diversified employment and entrepreneurship activities. In addition, the policy support of government and the funding support of angel investors and financing platform will become the solid backing of young entrepreneurs, and provide a broader development platform for students and alumni with entrepreneurial dreams.
