A brand new addition to this year’s TecBridge Business Plan Competition is the Innovation Challenge, presented by Gibraltar Ventures, the Venture Capital Group of Prudential and TecBridge. The Innovation Challenge is an opportunity for student teams from the 14 regional institutions of higher education to solve a problem within the financial services industry and compete for a cash prize. Teams are encouraged to have a diverse membership, pulling students from entrepreneurship, finance, marketing, engineering, IT and any other disciplines.
The intercollegiate Innovation Challenge is related to the current and future retirement population. Each day, 10,000 Americans turning 65 and millions are looking toward the retirement phase of their lives. Today’s reality shows many are not prepared with adequate savings. Challenge teams will be given a specific question for which students have to push their minds as they work to create a viable solution.
Team registration closes on March 17th but regional college students looking to create and solve a real world problem are still able to register!
“When Gibraltar Ventures presented the idea of facilitating an Innovation Challenge with the network of 14 intuitions of higher education, we knew this would align perfectly with the Business Plan Competition” states Tiffany Cross-Luciani, Managing Director of TecBridge, the organization for which the competition originated. The returning co-chairs for the 2016 Business Plan Competition, Shawn Mera from New Horizons Computer Learning Center, and Lynn Banta from Twin Stacks Center saw the synergies as well.
Thanks to Mr. Mera and Ms. Banta the event has grown tremendously, with many additions seen at the awards dinner including finalist’s expo-style booths, wildcard crowd-funding voting and the sold out crowd of over 250 attendees. The 2016 Business Plan Competition and Innovation Challenge Awards Dinner will be held on April 28th at Mohegan Sun Hotel and Convention Center. To learn more about the event including the full advisory committee, sponsors, or to register your business plan or Innovation Challenge team, please visit www.nepbpc.com.
