By Laura Acuff, Opinion Editor
The registration deadline for this year’s SpringBoard Ideas Challenge has been postponed to Monday. This delay gives entrants additional time to register in light of this weekend’s Easter holiday, said Jim Porter, Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the College of Business Administration.
The competition first took place last year, and is meant to encourage local entrepreneurship. It requires participants to submit a 10-page mini-business plan detailing an idea for a new business.
Porter said the goal of the competition is to provide an outlet for and reward local creativity and innovation.
“It’s a way to encourage students to formulate their ideas and to give strong consideration to taking their ideas and building businesses from them,” Porter said.
As last year’s student winner, Ryan Stephens, senior finance major from Houston, won $7,500. Now, Stephens serves as the ‘student face’ of this year’s competition, helping to plan the annual event.
“The idea is: let’s get a bunch of people to really think, look at some ways we can create businesses here in Abilene or on a global scale, however you want to do it,” Stephens said.
While in the past only ACU students and faculty have been eligible to participate, this year’s competition welcomes Abilene community members as well. However, only the first 150 entrants will be allowed to compete, Stephens said.
“This year, we opened it up to the community because we really want Abilene to be thinking entrepreneurially,” Stephens said. “We want people to be innovating, creating businesses here in Abilene.”
According to the SpringBoard Web site, www.springboardchallenge.com, the competition “fosters business growth at university and community levels by giving participants a chance to organize, direct and present a business idea to a panel of judges.”
Yet Stephens encouraged even non-business majors and owners to participate, emphasizing a lack of business expertise could be overcome because of the competition’s structure.
“We set up the business plan judging so that it’s more the idea that matters, the idea and the fact that you understand how to monetize on that idea,” Stephens said. “It’s definitely not just for business majors. Everyone comes in on an equal playing field.”
Following registration, the competition has sponsored ‘Boot Camps’ each Monday from 5-6 p.m. in the AT&T Theater in the Hunter Welcome Center to assist those unsure of how to proceed in the competition. One such question-and-answer session will take place Monday.
Registration costs $10 and may be completed online at the SpringBoard Web site, where entrants can find specific guidelines and instructions.
Contest winners will be announced at the Finalists Presentations and Awards Dinner, where Camden partner Christopher Kersey will speak on the subject of “What they don’t teach you at Harvard about entrepreneurship.”
Individuals not registered in the competition must pay a $15 entrance fee to the dinner, but Stephens said he believes hearing the speaker’s message will be worth the expense. Kersey was the first person admitted into the Harvard business, law and medical programs at the same time, and so should have valuable insight for audiences, Stephens said.
In addition to an experienced keynote speaker, Porter said the competition brings welcome creativity to the ACU campus.
“It’s very exciting to see how many students get involved in this sort of thing,” Porter said. “We have a lot of very innovative and imaginative students here at ACU.”
