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A panel of judges, formed by representatives from all organizing committee schools will review all eligible applications. The review process will be double blind – judges and participants will not be aware of each others’ identity, and judges will not review plans originating from the same college or university that nominated them to be a judge. No more than eight teams from each of the two tracks will be invited to event finals (16 teams total maximum).
The business plan must be for a seed or start-up venture and must address the entire business concept (including implementation). Proposals for the buy-out or expansion of an existing company, tax-shelter opportunities, real estate syndications, franchises, and other consulting projects or analyses are not eligible.
The business plan must represent the original work of each contestant. Also, the plan may not contain fabricated information about (but not limited to) the following: backgrounds, experience and educational level of members of the management team, stage of product development, product performance claims, or market survey results. Submitting a plan indicates that the business plan is the original work of the author(s). The author(s) will retain all rights to the plan regarding its use at all times prior to and following the competition.
Each presenting team will receive further guidelines regarding presentations including the equipment that will be provided (screens, microphones etc.), presentation protocol, etc. Students are not allowed to bring food or beverages into the rooms for presentation. Students may bring product samples for their presentations, but may not bring any giveaways to the judges. Handouts are allowed, but not required.
Summary financial data should include a cash flow statement, income statement, and balance sheet. Include an explanation of the offering to investors indicating how much money is needed, how the funds will be used, and possible exit strategies.
Each plan will be reviewed by a minimum of three judges. Admission
Committee judges will receive their plans by Friday, September 26th at 5:00
p.m. and be required to return their scoring sheets by Thursday, October
9th. Finalists will be notified immediately after the scores and rankings are determined by the Organizing Committee, and given until Monday, November 5th to confirm their participation. In the event that an admitted proposal elects not to compete, the next highest scoring team will be invited as a finalist.
In the finals, there will be two panels of six prominent members of the Florida business community, representing different regions in the state.
Judges will be permitted to ask questions only during an eight minute question and answer session following each twelve minute presentation. Should a team elect to present for less than twelve minutes, the remaining time may not be used as additional Q&A time.
The panel of judges will utilize scoring procedures similar to those used in other prominent national and regional collegiate business plan competitions. Although the scoring procedure will produce overall scores for each team, these scores will not determine the winner. The award winners for each track will be determined based on face-to-face deliberations among the panels for each track in a closed, private room.
The finalists will also be provided with ten minutes of feedback from
the judges shortly after their presentations. Further, judges will be seated at different tables with participating students during the luncheon so that finalists can seek informal feedback regarding their presentations.
The winner from the Capital-Intensive Track will be invited to pitch their proposal at the Florida Venture Forum’s February 2009 convention in Naples. The winner of the Limited-Investment Track will be invited to pitch their proposal to the Winter Park Angels investment group in Winter Park, FL.
Entrants agree that by participating in the competition that their proposal may be viewed by attending members of the media, members of the business community, students and faculty. Any data or information discussed or divulged during the presentations should be considered public information.
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