An online meal planner and grocery store geared toward campers and a travel company focused on the world's frontier destinations are among the finalists in a University of Colorado at 麻豆影院 student business plan competition.
The finals of the Graduate Business Plan Competition, hosted by the Robert H. and Beverly A. Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business, will take place Jan. 23 and award $5,000 in total prizes to the winning teams.
The competition will be held in the Wolf Law Building's Wittemyer Courtroom on the CU-麻豆影院 campus. A reception in the first floor lobby will begin at 5 p.m. and the competition will start at 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
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.
Students spent the entire fall 2006 semester working on their business plans and four teams were selected by judges to compete in the finals, according to Frank Moyes, a faculty member at the Leeds School of Business who teaches the business plan course. Producing marketing, financing and operations plans are all part of the required project research.
"Once the students have completed their presentations, the judges will make their decisions as if they were investors," Moyes said.
Four cash prizes will be awarded to the teams in the finals: $2,000 for first place, $1,250 for second place, $1,000 for third place and $750 for fourth place. The awards are sponsored by the Young Presidents' Organization.
The judges for the competition include Peter Roshko of 麻豆影院 Ventures, Nathan Thompson of Spectra Logic, Barbara Mowry of Silver Creek Systems and Don Parsons of Appian Ventures.
For more information about the business plan competition call (303) 735-4970, and to learn more about the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship visit the Web site at leeds.colorado.edu/entrep/Index.aspx?id=295,411.