Save the date! The Big Connecticut Food Event is returning on Saturday 3/1/25 at Evans Hall in New Haven, home to the Yale School of Management.
💰 $50k+ pitch competition for 5 finalist emerging Connecticut brands
🥫 Sampling and tabling from 30+ emerging Connecticut brands and solutions providers
🤝 One-on-one coaching sessions between brands and industry experts
🎤 Panel discussions with industry leaders
Interested in participating as a Connecticut food & bev brand, industry partner, or sponsor? Click the participate button below and fill out the participation request form.
$50k+ pitch competition
One-on-one coaching
30+ brands sampling & tabling
Industry leader panel discussions
What’s the big idea?
Connecticut has made substantial progress in developing infrastructure for entrepreneurs in the state’s food and beverage industry. Multiple commercial kitchens, incubators and funding programs now span our small state and have generated interest within the regional industry.
Work remains to remove friction in the Connecticut food entrepreneurship pipeline, including stronger links with wholesale buyers and solutions providers, and more effective support for women and BIPOC entrepreneurs and businesses pursuing sustainable or regenerative processes.
The Big Connecticut Food Event is designed to provide opportunities for emerging food and beverage brands to connect with the expertise that they’re going to need on their journeys, and for strategic and industry partners to meet the growing community of promising brands.
Our goal is to support the development of Connecticut’s entrepreneurship pipeline so it produces multiple food and beverage brands every year that each exceed $2 million in annual sales.
Let's get CT brands on the shelf
🛒
Let's get CT brands on the shelf 🛒
Info for food & bev brands
See below for information on the process and requirements for food & bev brands that would like to participate in the pitch competition, tabling & sampling.
Participation process
Submit an application at ctfoodevent.com/participate.
Applications are scored by our pitch competition judges.
Finalists: The top 5 scoring brands will be invited to participate in the pitch competition and set up a table at the event.
Semi-finalists: The next 25 highest-scoring brands after the finalists will also be invited to set up sampling tables at the event.
We will respond to you by 1/15/25 with the results of your application.
Judging criteria for applications
Target market -- Addressable target market is large and/or growing, or is a high-priced niche. Customer is well-defined.
Solution -- Product is differentiated vs. competition: better, faster, cheaper, quality, efficient, convenient, focused.
Team/board/advisors -- Evidence of more than just founder-led and -run. Relevant industry knowledge, skills, leadership experience, key relationships, prior successes and/or failures
Traction -- Stated planned milestones, minimal viable product built, market validation, key success metrics, revenue growth, partners
Impact on the company -- Would this company stand to gain significant advancement and opportunities by being featured at our event? Will an award help them move their stated project along and help take the company further?
Women- or BIPOC-owned -- Business owners represent one or more sytemically disadvantaged identities (race, gender, etc..)
Sustainable or regenerative -- Sustainable/regenerative practices are a significant component of product and business (ingredient sourcing, packaging, energy use..)
Sponsorship
Now accepting sponsorship requests for The Big Connecticut Food Event!
Review our sponsorship levels in the image below, and then head to our participation request page and select Sponsorship within the participation format dropdown menu.
Feel free to reach out at hi@ctfoodevent.com with any questions related to sponsorship.
In the news
From 2/9/24
Thank you to the organizations and individuals that made the 2024 Big Connecticut Food Event a delicious success!
The five pitch competition participants and broader group of brands in attendance made it clear that our state's food entrepreneurship ecosystem is on the up.
Pitch competition results:
1st place ($25k): Secret Salad
2nd place ($10k): East Coast Kombucha
3rd place ($7.5k): Maia Yogurt
Runners-up ($2.5k each): Caribe Soul, Gorilla Lemonade
Audience choice ($2.5k): Gorilla Lemonade
If you are interested in joining our effort to strengthen Connecticut's food entrepreneurship pipeline and help organize next year's event please submit a participation request.
