The McGraw School of Business at Olivet Nazarene University hosted the third annual Createur Conference & Pitch Competition on April 3-4, 2025. The conference and pitch competition were created to inspire and encourage the Olivet community to engage in entrepreneurial ventures; build connections with faith-driven peers and professionals; identify best practices for start-up businesses; and explore untapped potential business opportunities.
During the two-day conference, participants heard inspiring messages from keynote speaker renowned athlete, author and philanthropist, Tim Tebow; as well as Jeff Williamson, founder of Converge Group, Inc. and Remington Ramsey, creator of Real Producers Magazine.
The conference and pitch competition were both free to attend — and members of the community, including high school students, local business owners and entrepreneurs were encouraged to attend. Integrated throughout the conference schedule, breakout Spark Sessions featured more than 20 additional speakers who spoke via video conference or in person on topics including real estate, investment foundations, marketing, franchising and more.
Opportunities to network with the guest speakers and other attendees were in abundance with a book signing event, coffee breaks and a casual food truck lunch.
“The Createur Conference is so beneficial in a number of ways,” reflected Jeff Williamson, who in addition to giving his own Spark Session talk led discussions with Remington Ramsey and Daniel Kwak, and hosted the pitch competition. “With more than a dozen speakers here in person, attendees had exposure to many entrepreneurs, small business owners and Olivet alumni who shared their successes with real-world guidance and feedback. The pitch contestants received real-time feedback, affirmation and advice on their business ideas from very successful owners and investors who served as judges.”
High schools in the Chicagoland area were invited to a high school-level pitch competition on Thursday. Five finalist were awarded prize money, including three students from Kankakee High School (Karen Arenas, Holden Hall and Karol Santana).
Following initial rounds of pitching their business ideas on Friday afternoon, the collegiate finalists were selected to move forward in the competition on Tuesday morning. The final pitches were given in front of a packed audience in Chalfant Hall and the following winners were announced.
First place prize of $5,000 was awarded to Tyler Brechbiel (Grace College)
Second place prize of $4,000 was awarded to Lextin Willis, Braden Gilbert and Wade Frances (Taylor University)
Third place prize of $3,000 was awarded to Hayden Colclasure (Olivet Nazarene University)
Fourth place prize of $2,000 was awarded to Luke Bothun (Wheaton College)
Fifth place prize of $1,000 was awarded to Meg Shaffer (Taylor University)
The remaining five finalists were all surprised to also receive $1,000 each when the judges decided to generously add to the prize pool.
Beyond providing financial support to entrepreneurial projects, the Createur Conference is meant to inspire and engage entrepreneurs of all ages. With an overarching focus on building businesses with integrity and a strong character, the goal of the conference was to encourage everyone to lead through a lens of faith.
Jeff emphasized that the theme was present throughout the event.
“One of the spark sessions I hosted was with Daniel Kwak,” Jeff said. “In his packed session, Daniel shared ideas on the integration of faith and entrepreneurship, his willingness to be a resource to anyone and to make introductions to people in his network (which is vast!). Most of all, everything he and the other speakers highlighted was the context of faith as the foundation for all they have been able to do in business.”
For more information about the McGraw School of Business, visit Olivet.edu/Business. For more information on the Createur Conference, visit Createur.Olivet.edu.
