Two Minute Drill: Green Venture Competition
January 16, 2008 – 6:25 pm
The UT Sustainable Business Summit will join students, faculty, community leaders, and distinguished business professionals in a dialogue about how to leverage green business practices to create competitive advantage. Speaker panels will focus on the important environmental issues that face businesses in the 21st century and the economic opportunities therein. Half of the event will be hands-on learning opportunities, from a green venture competition to an alternative fuel vehicle car test drive.
The Two Minute Drill: Green Venture Competition will provide participants with a forum to pitch their green business ideas to a seasoned group of distinguished faculty members from the McCombs School of Business. Aspiring entrepreneurs have two minutes with each judge. Participants will have exactly one minute to give their elevator pitch, while the judge reserves the final minute to ask questions and provide feedback. In round robin style, the entrepreneurs cycle through each judge until they have pitched to all of them.
The criterion for judging includes the following in no particular order: start-up costs, financial feasibility, and the environmental and/or social problem(s) the venture will attempt to address. The judges will be looking for creative business solutions to some of the world’s most pressing environmental and social issues. In particular, judges will be looking for new ventures that could be launched with low initial investment.
The winner of the Two Minute Drill competition will be given a chance to present their green venture to the expert staff at the Austin Technology Incubator’s Clean Energy Incubator (CEI). CEI is a first of its kind incubator that strives to help companies solidify their management teams, secure adequate funding, and accelerate their time to market. Companies applying to join CEI are typically subjected to a rigorous screening process to qualify them for a presentation to CEI staff.
This event is open to registered summit attendees only (visit www.utsummit.com to register now, only $10 for students, $50 for professionals). Those interested in the Two Minute Drill will be asked to complete and submit a very short questionnaire prior to the competition. The questionnaire is intended to ensure that participants are prepared to answer questions from the judges during the Q&A/feedback period and will not be shared with anyone prior to the event (please visit www.utsummit.com/GV_Comp.html for additional information).
