A biological terror attack defense system, a supersensitive cancer-detecting device and a rotary demolition hammer delivering 1,600 blows per minute are among the products and services proposed by University of Colorado at Boulder students in a business plan competition that will award more than $10,000 to winning teams Dec. 10 and 11.
The finals of the 2003 Business Plan Competition, hosted by the Robert H. and Beverly A. Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business, will take place Dec. 10 for undergraduate teams and Dec. 11 for graduate teams.
On both days, the competition will be held in room 224 of the Leeds School of Business, located off Regent Drive on the Boulder campus. A reception in the front lobby will begin at 5 p.m., the competition will begin at 5:30 p.m. and awards will be presented after the competition. Guests are invited to park in lot 436, east of the Leeds School.
As the culmination of the "Business Plan Preparation" course, the competition challenges students to generate an innovative concept for a product or service and to design a comprehensive business plan around it. Marketing, manufacturing and operations are all part of required project research.
"Every year the quality of the business plans improve," said Frank Moyes, instructor of the business plan courses. "Finalists must present their plan in a convincing and compelling way, as if the judges were actual investors. The competition is as close to a real-world environment as you can get."
"Some teams have gone on to become successful businesses in the community," said Patty Graff, assistant director of the Robert H. and Beverly A. Deming Center for Entrepreneurship. Roving Planet, a computer networking company that recently was selected to oversee new networks at New York's LaGuardia Airport, and Big Clean Trucks, an alternative fuel systems company, are examples of competition proposals that became reality.
In this year's competition, four cash prizes will be awarded in both the graduate and undergraduate divisions: $2,000 first place, $1,250 second place, $1,000 third place and $750 fourth place. One or more of the graduate teams will also receive in-kind awards, including $10,000 from Seagate Technology and CTEK Incubator Services, and a $5,000 legal services award from Faegre and Benson.
The competition will be judged by preliminary and final round panels comprised of CU-Boulder professors and community business professionals. The panels will include: Doug Bonnett of Crestone Capital Advisors, Joyce Colson of Colson-Quinn attorneys, Donatella Scanniello of Bank One Colorado, business consultant Terry Tierney, Jim Williams of Faegre and Benson attorneys, Enid Ablowitz of the Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities, Marc Graboyes of Cooley Godward attorneys, Ed Roberto of Newmerix, Tom Daniel of CadWest Partners, Lou Faust of Colorado Technology Partners, Chris Wand of Mobius Venture Capital and Mike Murphy of CTEK.
The Deming Center for Entrepreneurship is a joint program of the colleges of business and engineering at CU-Boulder. The center supports entrepreneurship studies at the graduate and undergraduate levels as part of a living laboratory in the business environment of Colorado's Front Range.
For more information call Graff at (303) 735-4970.