PanIIT 2009 Global Conference Business Plan Competition

Posted by Paritosh Sharma

at June 18, 2009

(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

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The PanIIT 2009 Global Conference to be held in Chicago IL, is one of the biggest entrepreneurial extravaganza of 2009. The event promises to be the biggest conglomeration of some of the brightest and the best brains who have tasted success and created possibilities for the entire ecosystem.

The event, with its theme Entrepreneurship and Innovation in a Global Economy, is host to some of the biggest success stories in the speakers who shall be gracing the occasion with their esteemed presence.

An entrepreneurial event without a Business Plan competition - how can that be fair?

We received a great response at the Bplan competition held at PanIIT 2008, which was held at Chennai, India and hence the PanIIT team decided to include the same to the PanIIT 2009, making it more exciting and giving emerging entrepreneurs a great platform to showcase their business talent and acumen.

Objective of the Bplan competition

The objective of the inaugural PanIIT Business Plan competition is to foster entrepreneurship among IIT Alums, and provide a stage to showcase emerging business ideas in the IIT Community. The refinement process of this competition would help the participating teams build a network of mentors, investors and advisers that would ultimately help them be successful.

The Business Plans shall be accepted in the following areas:

Communications/Information Technology (Internet/Software/Mobile)
Cleantech/ energy
Life sciences/ Healthcare
Educational Products/ Services

The Involvement and Structure of the Business Plan Competition

Only businesses requiring seed stage funding would be considered. It is important that all businesses be of the same stage, so the following rules would be refined in considering business plans

Any revenue generated business would automatically be disqualified from participation to keep a level playing field
The competition requires the participation of the startup team of two or more people.
More details added here….

The competition will accept entries from participant teams with at least one IIT Alumni as a member. For the first year, the participation will be limited to US residents, with the intent of expanding it worldwide next year.

Phases of the Business Plan Competition

Regional Rounds

The Regional rounds will be held in four to five major centers in the US, namely Chicago, Boston, New York, Dallas and Bay Area. The regional rounds need to be completed by July 1st, in order to give the entrepreneurs enough time to write a full business plan for the main competition. The regional rounds would be conducted as follows:

Entrants would need to send in a two page executive summary to be considered for this round.
These executive summaries would be read and narrowed down to a list of five teams by a panel of judges
The selected teams would present a seven minute pitch to a panel of judges, with three minutes kept for Q & A
One winner would be chosen to represent the area in the Final

Finals

The Final event would be held at the Pan IIT Conference 2009 in Chicago. The winners from round 1 would be required to submit a detailed business plan two months before the finals. These business plans would be reviewed in depth by a panel of judges.

The event would involve a 20 minute presentation for each business plan, followed by 10 minutes for Q ans A. At the end of the session, the judges would determine the winner of the completion. The winners would be awarded with the following prize money, and be considered for seed funding by the IIT Angel Fund.

First Prize: $5,000

Second Prize: $2,000

Three Finalist Prizes: $1,000

How can you be involved in the Business Plan competition if you are Not competing?

Everyone invited to be a part of this competition, even if not participating as a competent. We would be looking for people to act in the following roles:

Judge the Competition: Help the review the entries and choose the winners of the completion. The Judges are a small, select group of Entrepreneurs, Professional Services Providers, Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists.

Mentor a Current Team: Help a current team of students through the competition process and the beginning stages of forming a company.

Speak at an Event: We will look for interesting speakers to speak at the regional/finals on topics such as presenting business plans etc. Entrepreneurs and people involved with entrepreneurship provide a great perspective and are quite often able to give tips and advice that will help our current participants

Sponsor the Competition: Sponsors will be invited both for the finals and the regional competitions.

In these times when the entrepreneurial space is changing the rules of the game in business all across the Globe, and especially in India. The Indian entrepreneur today commands high value and respect globally.

We invite interest in the Business Plan competition and also if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment on this post and we shall get back to you.

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