2 Minutes to Win It
We Have Winners!
The Finalists
Thursday, November 15 marked the finals of the 2 Minutes to Win It business idea competition at the Joint school of Nanoscience and Engineering in Greensboro. Twenty finalists competed for prizes with top prize going to Glenn Zimmerman, an entrepreneurship major at UNCG, for presenting the Autostration.com, a website for college students to register for classes. Second place went to Joppa Penn for InstaInternships, a site to match potential interns with companies seeking students. Joppa,a student in the Communication Studies program at UNCG, was also awarded "Best Presentation". Trevor Nelson, a senior in Entrepreneurship at Elon, was awarded third place for his idea, First Person Immersion, a method of teaching language and culture through gaming technology.
The NC Entrepreneurship Center wishes to congratulate all these students for their efforts in this competition. We also wish to thank our co-sponsor in the finals, the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce for all their help and support.
See the coverage from News 14 Carolina and WXII 12 on the day of the event.
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Some enterprising Greensboro college student is going to earn $1,000 in two minutes this fall.
The N.C. Entrepreneurship Center (NCEC) at UNCG is sponsoring the “2 Minutes to Win It” business idea contest, open to full-time students who are at least 18 years old at UNCG, NCAT, Greensboro College, Guilford College, Bennett College, Elon University and Guilford Tech. Prizes will include $1,000 for first place, $500 for second place, $250 for third place and $250 for best presentation.
Entering is easy. Students develop original ideas for any type of business or social entrepreneurship venture. The only exceptions are that ideas can’t be franchises or something that has already been started by the student. Students can enter multiple times, but all ideas must be submitted online by Oct. 12.
Contest finalists will be notified by Nov. 1, at which time they’ll be invited to attend a workshop to get some tips on how to make an elevator pitch. On Nov. 15, each of the 20 finalists will have two minutes to pitch his or her idea to a small panel of entrepreneur judges as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week. Prizes will be announced at a reception to follow.
The contest is sponsored by the North Carolina Entrepreneurship Center which provides co-curricular and outreach programs to help entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses, and serves as a catalyst for the creation of sustainable and globally competitive enterprises in the Piedmont Triad, North Carolina and beyond.
How to enter:
1) Come up with an original business idea. It can be any type of business or social entrepreneurship venture, any size, any location (including virtual). The only thing it can't be is a franchise. It must be your original idea and it cannot be something that you have already started.
2) Develop a creative name for your business, tell us where it will be located, develop a brief description, define your your target customers and how you will reach them, and provide some evidence as to why you think you've got a great idea. (A little outside research with some numbers or examples to support is always helpful!)
3) Submit this online form no later than midnight October 12, 2012. Enter as many times as you want as long as each idea is original. After you enter information about your idea, carefully read everything else on this page and electronically sign the form before you hit Submit.
Closed for 2012
It's that simple! If you have any questions, contact Jan Szelkowski at jiszelko@uncg.edu, 336-256-8649 or Bryan Toney at bctoney@uncg.edu or 336-256-8647 for more information.
Judging:
The best 20 ideas will be selected through blind judging. Only the information about your idea will be revealed in the first round of judging. Judges will not know your name, major, year in school, or any other identifying information. Contest finalists will be notified by November 1. Each finalist will be invited to a short workshop to get some tips on how to do a pitch. All twenty finalists will make their pitches to a panel of entrepreneur judges on Thursday, November 15, 2012 at the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering (JSNN). The judges will vote on the best idea and the winner will receive $1,000! Other monetary prizes will be awarded to runners up.