<aside> 📌 On this page, you will find an overview of the format for the New York Summit. Read through carefully and familiarize yourself with this format.

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The Online Summits are split into 3 rounds: Preliminary Round 1, Pitch Round 2 and Final Round. We expect up to 90 startups to present their ideas at your Summit. Picking the winners will now include three rounds of selection. The process will be as follows:

1️⃣ Preliminary Round 1:

The 90 startups will be divided into three breakout rooms. Judges will have two weeks before the Summit to review the submissions of the startups allocated to their pitching rooms. On the event day, each startup will be invited to do a “Live 90-second Elevator Pitch” in English and with no Q&A. The Summit judges will go into deliberation to select 36 startups (12 startups from each breakout room) to advance to round 2.

2️⃣ Pitch Round 2:

36 Startups (12 startups in each breakout room) will do a live 4-minute pitch and 4-minute Q&A in English. The Summit judges will go into deliberation to select 6 Startup Finalists (2 startups from each breakout room) to advance to round 3, which is the Final Round.

3️⃣ Final Round:

6 Startup Finalists will do a live 4-minute pitch followed by 4 minutes of Q&A in English. Two winners will be selected.

🗳️ Peer-Nominations

We will introduce a Peer-Nomination system, where entrepreneurs participating in the event can nominate their favourite pitches in each round. We will share the nomination results with the Summit Judges to factor the crowd favourites into the deliberations and selections in all three rounds. This means that you will also be able to engage amongst your fellow competitors and individually contribute to the selection of the winners!

🏆 The number of winners

At the Summit, we will announce two winners at the end of the competition. This means increasing your chances of winning and having the opportunity to showcase your innovative solutions at the upcoming Digital Accelerator Phase. The two winners will be selected as follows:

• Crowd Favorite: As soon as the final six pitches are completed, participants will be invited to vote for their favourite startup. We will be monitoring this process strictly. The team with the highest number of votes will be crowned “Crowd Favorite,” bypass the judges’ deliberation, and qualify automatically for the Digital Accelerator.
• Judges Favorite: The judges will deliberate and pick their favourite startup out of the other five finalists, which will also qualify for the next phase of the Hult Prize competition.

💪 Here’s what we recommend you do to get ready

1. Start preparing your 90-second elevator pitch and also your 4-minute pitch. Be concise, focus on the most critical aspects of your idea, and implement presentation skills and storytelling techniques. We will be collecting these pitch decks nearing your Summit week via the form. Please keep an eye out for our email.
2. Get to know your fellow competitors. Start connecting with them on our Slack channel. Know more about the businesses they will present in the Meet the Startups catalogue we’ll share soon.