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Rules and Policies
The Alaska Business Plan Competition is open to for-profit and non-profit businesses that have or intend to have a significant operating presence in Alaska. Businesses not meeting this criterion are eligible to compete, but not to receive monetary prizes.
To enter the competition, each participant must consent to follow these rules:
Registration
In order to be considered for the competition, each participant must submit a completed Intent to Compete Form to the competition administration by the Submission Deadline.
Deadlines
Submission Deadline by 12:00 PM - April 20, 2012
Intent to Compete and Business Plan submission
Notification Date by 12:00 PM - April 26, 2012
Finalists notified to prepare for the final competition
Final Competition Date beginning 9:00 AM - April 28, 2012
Presentations
Business Eligibility
The following guidelines must be met in order for participants to receive monetary prizes:
• Each business entering the competition must include at least one person who is either a student currently registered to take at least one (1) credit, undergraduate or graduate at any university in Alaska, or one who has graduated from any Alaska university in the most recent semester.
• Only students to be associated with the business (directly or indirectly) are eligible to receive monetary prizes through the competition.
• Only one (1) entry per participant.
• Only businesses that the presenters are interested and committed to launching, should they obtain funding, are to be submitted.
• All businesses being presented must be seeking primarily equity funding. Plans that are designed to attract only debt funding may be submitted but will not be eligible for monetary prizes.
• Non-students may submit plans and have the opportunity to present should their plan be chosen for the final stage. However, no monetary prizes will be awarded to non-students.
Acceptable Business Plans
There is no required format, except for the following, for the submitted business plans. Each business must submit one (1) electronic copy in PDF no later than 12:00 PM on the date of the Submission Deadline. All financials must be included in the PDF copy - No attachments.
Please use the following format when submitting your plan;
• All plans must have a cover page that includes:
- Student(s) name
- Name of the business
• All submissions must be in a single PDF document with the Business Name in the file name: ex: Salmon Salsa.pdf; Climb Green.pdf, etc,
• All submissions must be e-mailed to Enter@AKBizPlan.org
• All submissions must include your company name in the subject line of the e-mail.
To be eligible for consideration, participants must submit the following:
• Intent to Compete Form with updated information
• A Business Plan that includes at a minimum the following elements:
- Executive Summary
- Industry Overview
- Company Overview
- Market Analysis
- Business Strategy/Model
- Financials – at least one (1) year including funding requirement
Competition participants agree to provide the Alaska Business Plan Competition with information that is accurate and timely. Each entrant is free to choose their own format for the business plan; sample business plans are available from the organizers upon request.
Confidentiality
While the competition organizers and judges are bound by ethical considerations to keep information confidential, neither the organizers nor the judges will sign non-disclosure agreements with any of the participants in the competition. Participants are therefore advised to include in the submission only information they deem as non-confidential in nature.
Selection Process
The Alaska Business Plan Competition Administrator will review each submitted business plan for completeness and eligibility. Those acceptable will then be submitted to a judging panel consisting of members of the Anchorage business community and which membership may differ from year to year. The judges will select the top 6 – 8 entries that will participate in the final round.
To ensure the quality of the business plans presented in the final round, the organizers reserve the right to select fewer entries if the submissions do not meet judges’ quality standards.
Presentation Guidelines/Final Round
• No more than two individuals are to represent the business at the presentation.
• Presenters will have a total of 15 minutes: ten (10) minutes to present their plan and five (5) minutes to answer questions from the judges. However, at the sole discretion of the competition administrator, presentation time may be extended.
• In order to maintain eligibility, contestants must remain at the competition throughout the entire event. Competitors participating remotely must be in direct contact throughout the competition, unless they make different arrangements with competition organizers. Events beyond the control of the organizers and participants are the exception (e.g. network outages). The announcement of the winners shall be made at the conclusion of the competition event. The decisions of the judges are final.
• Audio-visual equipment will be available for use by contestants in the final round. Requests and coordination for such equipment must be noted on the Business Plan Competition Submission Form.
Disclaimers
Participation in this competition gives entrants no guarantees, expressed or implied, to any prizes or to any potential or future funding. Copies of business plans submitted to the competition will not be returned to the entrepreneurs. Participants agree that the organizers of the competition are not liable for any direct or in-direct damages, including any loss of revenue that may or may not be related to business advice received in conjunction with the competition.
This competition does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase securities. This competition is merely a forum for entrepreneurs to present their projects, and for entrepreneurial businesses to hone their business plan writing and presentation skills. Neither the University of Alaska, the Alaska Pacific University, the UAA College of Business & Public Policy, the Alaska Business Plan Competition, nor any other person or organization connected with the com-petition makes any representation as to the reliability of the information provided by participants or their representatives.
Changes to the Rules
Any changes to these rules shall be communicated by e-mail, within 24 hours of such changes, to all registered participants. Registered contestants shall then have a further 48 hours to decide whether to remain in, or withdraw, from the competition. Should the competition administrator not receive e-mail notification within that 48-hour period, it shall be assumed that participants have consented to the rule change.
Publicity Regarding the Competition
The organizers reserve the right to use the following information about each business to publicize the event:
• The name of the business.
• A one-paragraph description of the company as provided by the participants as part of the Intent to Compete Form.
• The names of all students or any affiliated businesspersons mentioned explicitly in the business plan.
• Any pictures taken at the competition.
Competition Administrator
Dr. Scott Fredrickson
Alaska Pacific University
4101 University Drive
Anchorage, AK 99508
Enter@AKBizPlan.org
907.564.8267
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