Coroplast Global | News | 06 Sep 2023 Apprentice Pitch 2023: Creative ideas for our exhibition appearances

The third edition of the apprentice pitch at the Wuppertal site was once again all about an exciting, practical task that demanded both entrepreneurial thinking and teamwork from our apprentices. Three teams took up the challenge and wowed the jury with their creative trade show exhibits at the final presentation.

All participating apprentices, the jury members and instructors at the Azubi-Pitch 2023 — The apprentice pitch was an experience for everyone involved - whether as an apprentice, jury member or instructor.

The challenge

Every year, the Coroplast Group's HR team takes part in numerous recruitment fairs, career days and apprenticeship events. During these events, it becomes apparent that the visitors to our trade fair stand first and foremost want to find out what the Coroplast Group and our three subsidiary brands are all about and what products they manufacture.

In order to convey this information quickly, concretely and originally, special exhibits were to be developed – the ideal project for our apprentice pitch!

From idea to prototype

The three teams started this year's competition with a budget of 4,500 euros and time to complete it in four months. Each team produced an exhibit for one of our three business units Coroplast Tape, Coroflex and WeWire.

The path to the prototype required teamwork, staying within budget and realistic time planning. Definitely not an easy task for our young talents: That's why several experienced mentors were on hand to help the apprentices with technical, content-related and organizational questions.

For all their creative freedom, the teams had to keep the following questions in mind:

Does the exhibit attract attention and does it provide all the important information about the business unit?
Can the prototype be realized later by an exhibition stand builder?
What does the implementation cost?
Is the exhibit easy to set up and dismantle?
Can it be transported in a larger trunk?

First-place team at the 2023 apprentice pitch — 1st place, Team Coroplast Tape: Through a Plexiglas, four different types of adhesive tape show the variety of products at Coroplast Tape. Using two push buttons, the tapes can be extended and retracted individually or simultaneously on a high-quality frame.

I was really impressed by the palpable enthusiasm of the apprentices and the ability of all the teams to be guided by user interests in their concepts.
Verena Rischmann | Global Head of Marketing & Communications, Jury member

The final pitch

The apprentice pitch consists not only of the successful conception and implementation of the task. That's why this year, too, the teams had a prominent jury in front of which they had to pitch their project, i.e. sell it convincingly.

The following were assessed in each case

the idea
project management
implementation and
creativity

In addition, rhetoric, body language and visualization played an important role. The presentation also included short videos explaining the project and documenting the creation process.

As in previous years, the jury faced a difficult decision, as all three teams had given their best and presented impressive prototypes. Regardless of the placement, the business units, the careers team and the apprentices will continue to work together on refinement and implementation.