The room was packed to see who would win the bragging rights to the NEF March Pitch Pit. But first, a bit about the companies the judges had to choose from.
Jack Griffin of FoodFinder explained how thousands of families are “food insecure” which means they lack food in either quantity or quality or both. In his research, he discovered that those who need food providers did not know where to go to find food assistance for their families. Jack created a platform with a map to show where local food providers were located. The platform is accessible by computer or cell phone. Over 30,000 people have used his product which is available in a few states thus far and growing.
Robert Vogt IV of IOSiX ELD presented his company which provides intelligent connected-truck hardware to the commercial vehicle industry. Some 90% of truck accidents were caused by sleep deprivation and fatigue. His product is an electronic logging device that obtains more accurate data than the traditional logs and the data cannot be faked by truck drivers. They have made 100,000 devices for sale and have sold 55,000 to date.
Salahadin Mustapha of RAYN Inc. is a philanthropic social media application that allows a donor to follow the progress of the project to see how the cause is being helped. Charities can use the platform to showcase what they are doing and how much more money they need to meet their goal. Their plans are to get major charities on board to attract donors and use the momentum to attract other charities and donors.
Sound the drum roll please. Jack Griffin of FoodFinder won the $220 cash prize along with a winner’s certificate.
Spark Central was packed in anticipation of the presentations of the NEF 2017 awards. Four entrepreneurs received awards and were congratulated for their hard work, dedication, and ingenuity. From left to right - Chris Roebuck of Clicktivated won for Best Technology. Francis Glorie accepted the award for Chris. Clicktivated transforms video into an immersive, interactive, and shoppable brand experience allowing viewers to easily shop and learn more about the products they like with a click or touch. Christina York of SpellBound won Best Presentation. David Nesbitt accepted for Christina. SpellBound is a therapeutic tool that uses augmented reality technology to calm children before medical procedures and increase their cooperation with treatment. Jeff Mason of Groundspeed Analytics won Entrepreneur of the Year. Groundspeed Analytics utilizes machine learning to transform unstructured business documents into streamlined, actionable data to help insurance carriers and brokers meet their goals. They recently closed on a $2 M investment. Kimberly Gamez of Mi Padrino won Best Business Model. Lauren Lively accepted for Kimberly. Mi Padrino is a moderating organization specializing in crowed-gifting events for the Hispanic event market offering both a B2C and a B2B revenue model. Congratulations again to all of them. 
John Gray, Co-Founder and President, informed us all about CoPilot Vision Systems at the February NEF Forum. They have an exciting rear view camera that will drastically reduce accidents involving trucks. Heavy duty trucks are not required to have a rear view vision system. Consequently, 20% of forward moving accidents occur when changing lanes at a cost of about $17,000 per accident. Also, 39% of accidents occur when backing up with an average cost of $2,300 per accident. CoPilot's dual camera vision system gives truck drivers a 180 degree rear view of people and objects. 
