The annual Hyve conference took place from Mar. 27-29 at Andrews University as a collaboration between and Andrews University Innovation. The event ran from Thursday morning to Saturday night and provided a range of opportunities for attendees to participate in workshops and mentorship sessions and watch presentations and panel discussions. Attendees could also peruse the exhibits run by several start-ups between programs. Some of the main highlights were the two pitch competitions and the Friday night vespers service led by David Asscherick.
Hyve International is an organization designed to support Seventh-day Adventist entrepreneurs so they can build businesses that forward the mission of the Adventist church: to help others and reach the world with the gospel. Hyve connects like-minded entrepreneurs and professionals to create a network that leads to partnerships and mentorships. Each year, they also host a conference dedicated to this purpose. Students and professionals from all over the world attended this year’s event, which primarily took place in Chan Shun Hall and the Howard Performing Arts Center.
The first day primarily consisted of workshops and registration. The final event of the day was the intercollegiate pitch competition. Students from Southern Adventist University, Walla Walla University, Burman University, Andrews University and Southwestern Adventist University had four minutes to present their business plan in front of three judges. They then had four minutes to answer questions the judges posed. Sebastian Braxton, a Hyve board member, started the night with prayer and introduced Leo Aguilera (senior, business), the emcee for the event. Nine groups presented a range of ideas, including projects like KinderSigns, a program designed by Southwestern students to teach sign language to children from ages 6 months to 5 years, and the Renewal Project, an organization designed to partner with homeless shelters and provide landscaping jobs to homeless individuals.
The third-place winners, who earned a $1,000 prize, were Andrews students Alex Butnaru (sophomore, business) and Evan Keyes (sophomore, marketing). Their pitch was called “Hint of Michigan,” and their plan was to connect local small businesses in Michigan with a national market by constructing subscription boxes that would include items from these businesses.
Burman students David Kapiniak and Samuel Brewster won $2,000 for their project, Fortified Storage, and plan to build reliable, moderately priced storage facilities in Canada.
The first-place prize of $5,000 went to Adventist Movies, organized by Leo Aguilera and Alex Aguilera (Alex was not present at the event). The Aguileras’ vision is to make kid-friendly, Adventist movies. They have already produced a few and hope to improve their production in the future. Leo also earned a spot to pitch the project during the Saturday night start-up pitch competition.
Following the pitch competition, the exhibits were open for people to look through. A number of booths offered consultations for personal growth or business strategies. Others displayed more creative projects, such as a children’s book series, “,” designed to inspire faith while grappling with challenging questions and trauma, and “,” a startup with the goal of producing building sets similar to LEGO that teach Bible lessons.
Day two events primarily consisted of presentations and panel discussions. There was also a one-minute pitch challenge—a scaled-down, modified version of the other pitch presentations.
The highlight of the day was Hyve’s Night of Gratitude, which featured a sermon by David Asscherick, speaker/director for Light Bearers Ministry, titled “To Be Like Boaz: Agents of Redemption.” Asscherick spoke about how Boaz was a man of influence who used his position to help others. He made the lesson practical, explaining that everyone has an orbit of influence, which means that even “secular work” is not really secular because of the positive influence people can exert on those around them.
Sabbath activities also included several panel discussions and Q & A’s. Additionally, there was a Sabbath sermon and another mentorship session.
The conference closed with the start-up pitch competition on Saturday night. Seven teams from six countries competed for the investors’ and audience members’ votes. Each audience member was given three $1 million Hvye Bills they used to vote for their favorite pitches after the presentations.
The investors chose BibleBricks as their winner, due to the well-researched business plan and creative idea. The audience voted for , an organization that builds stronger homes in Mozambique that will be able to resist damage from natural disasters and bullets.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.