Bard Center competition putting best-laid plans in business
More proposals than ever are being evaluated at the Bard Center for Entrepreneurship as part of its sixth annual Business Plan Competition. Thirty-nine entrants, a jump of nearly 25 percent over years past, are hoping to be among six finalists who will vie for more than $100,000 in cash and in-kind prizes.
“The competition has grown each year and the quality of the business plans keeps improving,” says Alexander Bracken, executive director of the Bard Center.
Keynote for this year’s awards presentation and luncheon on June 13 is University of Colorado Denver Chancellor M. Roy Wilson, which exemplifies the important marriage between business and the university’s health sciences programs, and the heightened emphasis on bioscience.
“The bioscience category is very significant,” Bracken says. “The Bard Center is launching a bioscience initiative to take advantage of the combined UCD and HSC campuses and the focus on bioscience business growth at the state level.”
Two bioscience nonprofit proposals and four nonprofit proposals will—if they make the cut—be competing for $5,000 awards in addition to first, second and third place. All finalists are guaranteed at least $1,000 to help get their businesses under way.
The competition is open to graduate students, faculty and alumni from Colorado colleges and universities and has awarded more than $350,000 in cash and in-kind prizes since its inception in 2003. Six finalists will be chosen from the pool of candidates and will present their plans to the public and a panel of judges composed of Denver’s leading business entrepreneurs.
The Bard Center for Entrepreneurship has been a catalyst for economic development and new business growth in Colorado since 1996. The center builds bridges between the Business School, the university and the Colorado business community.