Competition Guidelines

2009 Competition Information

The Whittemore School of Business and Economics will host the 21^st Annual Holloway Prize on Wednesday, April 29^th - Bud Albin Challenge Round and Wednesday, May 13^th (Finals Round). Contenders present their strategies before panels of business leaders who judge the plan's feasibility and merit. The competition honors those students who have developed the best cases and concludes with the presentation of the Paul J. Holloway Prize.

Competition Goals

• Maximum Educational Value to Students
• Increase the Potential for New Business Creation
• Generate, Highlight and Grow Entrepreneurial Endeavors and Initiatives at the University and in New Hampshire
• Support the Land, Sea and Space Grant Mission of the University

Guidelines

• A well-developed business plan is not required and will not place a team in a stronger position relative to a team that has no business plan.
• The emphasis is on the quality of responses to the questions and the strength of your presentation to the judges.
• The technology (product or service innovation) can be, but does not need to be brand new or necessarily ‘high tech' in nature.
• You do not have to assume that the team can or will be the ones to take the technology (product or service) to market.
• To get to the final round, the team must convince the judges that the technology is feasible and provide a rough estimate of the investment needed to develop a working prototype.
• To get to the final round the team must demonstrate through a cost analysis and simplified 2-3 year cash flow statement that the product/service can be built and sold at a profit. Assumptions should be clearly stated for critical cash flow line item estimates.
• The technologies do not necessarily need to be "Venture Capital Fundable."
• The closer the team members are to the inception or invention of their technology (product or service innovation), the stronger their position will be in the judges eyes. That is, presentations made by the inventors or owners of the technology will be scored more highly than one by those only peripherally involved in the development of the technology.

Bud Albin Challenge Round

Information for Contenders:
Memorial Union Building (MUB)
 Wednesday, April 29, 2009, 1:30-7:00 p.m.

• Check in by 1:30 p.m. in MUB Room 304
• 15 teams (5 teams per room)
• 15 judges (5 judges per room)
• All teams need to be in their assigned rooms during all presentations
• Each team will be allotted 10 minutes to present
• Judges will have 15 minutes per team for Q&A
• Teams will be randomly called up to present
• Judges will provide feedback to each team
• Six teams will advance to the Championship Round to be held on Wednesday, May 13^th

Key Dates

• Information Session - Monday, Feb 9th, 5-7pm - WSBE, Reading Room
• Response to 'Two Page Questions' (See Questions) - Due: Monday, Feb. 23rd
• Invitations to Submit 'Six Page Questions' (See Questions) - Monday, March 2nd (Due to the University's snow-related closing on March 2nd, invitations will not be sent out until Wednesday, March 4th.)
• Help Session/Seminar - Monday, March 9th 4:30-7:00pm - WSBE, Reading Room
• Responses to 'Six Page Questions' - Due: Friday, April 3rd
• Semifinalist competitors notified - Friday, April 10th
• Undergraduate Research Conference - Wednesday, April 22nd, MUB
• Bud Albin Challenge Round - Wednesday, April 29th, MUB
• Holloway-Prize Championship Competition - Wednesday, May 13th, Holloway Commons

 Prizes                                                          

• 1^st Place $ 10,000
• 2^nd Place $ 7,000
• 3^rd Place $ 5,000
• 4^th Place $ 1,500
• 5^th Place $ 1,500
• 6^th Place $ 1,500

Competition finalists are judged on:

• The innovation potential of the product, service or business model.
• The market potential of the innovation.
• The "persuasiveness" of the summary.
• "Fact-based" summaries will be scored higher than those based purely on an "idea" or "business".
• The written quality and completeness of the two-page summary.

The Judging Panel will be comprised of a representative sample of entrepreneurship faculty and practitioners.

For more information, please contact:

Cynthia Nizzari-McClain
Competition Coordinator
603.862.0017
cnmc [at] cisunix [dot] unh [dot] edu

Changli Song
Competition Assistant
crw35 [at] unh [dot] edu (crw35@unh.edu)

Dr. Michael Merenda
Competition Director
603.862.3352
michael [dot] merenda [at] unh [dot] edu