Wednesday, September 4th we watched some of the Valley’s coolest and most respected business leaders make complete fools of themselves onstage, mouthing the words to your favorite songs. Yes, we’re talking about this year’s OFFPITCH: a lip sync battle!
And in case you missed the date, or you are already feeling nostalgic about it, here are some of our favorite spotlight moments from this year’s annual fundraiser:
- We partied, we fundraised, we lip-synced our hearts out with some of our favorite Arizona business leaders. And all this happened on a WEDNESDAY NIGHT, thank you very much!
- With this year’s theme being Wild West, some of the outfits we saw were western, but most of them were just wild. A banana costume, wigs galore, gender-bending booty-shorts, four hippo costumes with targets on their butts, tool belts filled with condoms, and too many cowboy hats to be ironic. We loved them all (even if they didn’t match our carefully, hand-picked theme)!
- We jammed out to 17 of our favorite songs, and even made it through the Cotton Eye Joe twice! However, with a theme like the Wild West, we were slightly disappointed that no one took Miley’s Hoedown Throwdown to the stage (next year, anyone?).
- Everyone who works at Crescent Ballroom was super grateful that we sent them home by 11 p.m. for possibly the first (and last) time ever.
- We had eight incredible teams come out to compete for this year’s coveted OFFPITCH champions title. ASU Entrepreneurship and Innovation Team, Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation, Isos Technology, Keep it Cut, The O.G.’s, RexPay, Tidy Casa, and Unraveled Academy : all of you rocked our world last week!
- Our co-founder-extraordinaire, Jenny Poon, was handcuffed because, even at possibly the silliest fundraiser in Phoenix, we take our work seriously! Only once the ransom was paid in full was she set free (but she was set free).
- Dani Cutler, Maria Luna and Mike Peregrina made the tough call and sent Keep it Cut home with this year’s Best Theme award, the O.G.’s with the fancy “You Tried” trophy, and gave Unraveled Academy the right to brag about being this year’s OFFPITCH champs. BRAVO also provided Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation with the Battle of the Votes award for their all-hippo ensemble (you read that right).
- So you’re wondering about the hippos? That’s right. Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation performed in full hippo attire to “Big and Chunky” from Madagascar and the Weekend’s “You Earned It.” Fifty Shades of Grey and HIPPOS? Who wouldn’t love that.
- We raised over $22,000. With all proceeds supporting our mission, we can empower 200 new Arizona business leaders, expand our programs into 2 new communities, and continue to ensure our #2030promise.
- This year’s OFFPITCH was without a doubt the best lip sync battle Phoenix has ever seen and we could not have made that happen without you!
And before we drop the mic for the year, can we get one more shoutout to all the incredible people who made our OFFPITCH dreams come true?
- Bravo
- Homie
- City of Phoenix
- ASU Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation
- SerpicoDev
- CORE Construction
- Greater Phoenix Leadership
- Lyft
- Ubiquia
- High Rock Accounting
- Takle
- GenNext
- Copper Theory Creative
Thank you for sponsoring the event. Thank you Crescent Ballroom for providing us your space. Thank you to all of you for endlessly supporting equity through entrepreneurship!
Now, we can drop the mic on this year’s OFFPITCH!