|
By Dianne George
Do you want to know how to earn $300 in 90 seconds? Then just ask the UVic students who survived the shark pit at the recent Pitch It competition, held annually for budding entrepreneurs. This is the first of two competitions designed for students to hone their business planning and presentation skills and to engage students from across campus in entrepreneurship.
The Jan. 20 event saw 12 teams pitch their ideas to five judges who served as potential investors. Brendan Clement, an eye-glass wearing computer science student, pitched his idea for “OpticalView,” a wall-mounted touch screen device that takes photos and allows customers looking for prescription glasses to preview their frames before their purchase.
“Pitch It was a great place to present my idea,” says Clement. “The judges’ feedback was great and the prize money will help me build a prototype of the device.”
Other winning ideas included a “green” hydroponic system for organic urban farming; an East Indian wedding attire-and-accessory rental boutique; IamISP.com, a client which allows businesses and individuals to trade unneeded bandwidth capacity; and a product called PoleMesh, which is hardware and software that allows businesses to deploy wireless networks for advertising, content distribution and Internet access.
“Students have excellent ideas and, with practice, they learn how to present their ideas to potential investors,” says Mia Maki, entrepreneurship instructor with the Faculty of Business.
“We had great support from our sponsors—UVic Innovation and Development Corporation (IDC) and the Innovation Centre for Students—and wonderful participation from members of the community, who judged and provided presentation feedback.”
“The students’ enthusiasm was apparent, and one or two of the ideas could easily be put into the marketplace and have excellent potential,” says judge Gwen Page, mentor, entrepreneur and founder of Page Publications.
“Today’s business environment requires us to be more entrepreneurial than ever before,” says Maki. “We have excellent initiatives at UVic through the Business Plan competitions, the entrepreneurship specialization, IDC and the Innovation Centre for Students. We’re now expanding our teaching capacity and are introducing a new Graduate Certificate and Diploma in Entrepreneurship possibly as soon as the summer session.”
Plan It, the business plan competition, is now under way. Students have until Feb. 10 to register and they can win $5,000 and a chance to compete nationally in the Nicol Entrepreneurial Award competition. Prizes also include $2,000 for second place, $1,000 for third place and $1,500 for the best social entrepreneurship plan sponsored by UVic’s Centre for Co-operative and Community-based Economy. Details and registration info.
|
