INTRODUCTION TO USA VIRTUAL COMPETITION(S)
The Global Student Entrepreneur Awards is extremely excited to launch our inaugural ’Virtual Competition’ platform in March 2008. This new platform labelled as the ‘Rolls Royce’ in live webinar communications will help facilitate our United States competitors by allowing participants to conduct presentations locally to a panel of international Entrepreneurs’ Organization member judges.
The process and application procedure:Student entrepreneurs’ must be nominated first. Once their nomination is received an auto-generated email will be sent with an application link for the student entrepreneur to fill out and submit with all completed criteria. Their initial application will be evaluated by a panel of Entrepreneurs’ Organization members and Senior Executives to determine if they will move forward to compete in one of the 2008 virtual competitions.
Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
a) Completeness. At time of review, the student entrepreneur submitted a signed letter from accountant or financials verifying business revenues;
b) Application shows student entrepreneurs’ ability to overcome obstacles;
c) Clarity of business mission and vision;
d) Leadership;
e) Innovation;
f) Presentation. We request a non-essay format response to application questions.
Following each monthly review of the applications, student entrepreneurs’ if selected to compete, will be notified for the virtual competition they will compete in. They will be presenting in a webinar type format with powerpoint, voice and video presentation capability to a panel of leading entrepreneurs’. In this competition the students will be evaluated on:
a) Overall presentation;
b) Scalability of business model;
c) Ability to overcome obstacles;
d) Overall student entrepreneur impression;
e) Ability to answer questions from the judges.
Following the virtual competition, the students will be notified if they will be advancing to the Global Finals in Chicago the 5-6th of November.
The application deadline is August 31st. However, we encourage students to get their applications in now to compete early in the virtual competitions that are taking place during the school year.
After August 1st, there will be three “Wildcard competitions taking place September 12th, 19th, and September 22nd.
COMPETITION DATES:
April: 10th, 25th
May: 23rd
June: 6th
+ September 12th, 19th, and September 22nd
Note: All dates are scheduled for Friday afternoons with the exception of April 10th which is a Thursday and September 22nd which is a Monday. Competitions will operate from 1pm-3pm Central Time unless specifically announced otherwise.
WHAT YOU CAN WIN FROM THE VIRTUAL GSEA COMPETITIONS:
- $500 Cash for First place
- $250 Cash for Second place
- All expenses paid (airfare, hotel, food) to attend the GSEA Global Finals competition in Chicago, IL. (Opportunity of making great connections with Entrepreneurs’ Organization members)
- Press Release and media on your winning
- Entrance to the EO Accelerator Program for 1 year. (Value $1000)
- Winners are announced on GSEA.org and throughout our global network
ABOUT THE ‘WILDCARD’ WINNERS:
Each of the five virtual competitions held before August 31st will have one guaranteed wildcard nomination winner.
The wildcard nomination provides the competitor with the third highest accumulated total from each round a spot to compete again in the September wildcard virtual competitions.
FOR THE VIRTUAL COMPETITIONS HERE ARE THE DETAILS:
- You dial into a conference line for audio communication plus you log in to a live interactive Webinar for virtual presentations.
- Through the Webinar format you can present with a PowerPoint or a creative short prerecorded video or use a web cam.
- Our virtual whiteboard feature allows competitors to illustrate complex ideas by drawing on screen circles, straight lines, free-form lines and more.
- You will be presenting to a panel of Entrepreneurs’ Organization members from around the world.
- You will have 10 minutes to present and then 10 minutes of questions from the judges. The judges will then have 4 minutes to complete their evaluations.
- Competitors will provide presentation files and documents to GSEA no later than 3 business days before the virtual competition.
- The Virtual Competition will be recorded live and the video will be posted on our website after the final competitor has presented.
- A professional conference operator will be present behind the scenes and plugged-in audibly throughout competition to facilitate streamlined upload of presentation materials in order to maintain timeliness during presentations and limit the need for competitors to operate software during the Webinar.
BENEFITS OF THE GLOBAL FINALS:
- Competing in the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards brings you unlimited value! Fun! Connecting with your peers - other student entrepreneurs from around the world, as well as EO members and over 1200 entrepreneurship students at the Global Finals conference!
- Exposure! Local and national media attention for you and your business!
- Did we mention PRIZES! $10,000 cash prize, plus tens of thousands in business products and services donated by EO members including web services, printing, PR, consulting and more!
- Over $100k in total!
For any questions please contact The Global Student Entrepreneur Awards directly by email or telephone.
