Bigger cash prizes to be awarded for iCentre’s new business plan competition
Following the success of iCentre’s previous business plan competition programme, iCentre today launched its 4th business plan competition programme and the event was launched by Yang Mulia Datin Hajah Adina binti Othman, Deputy Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports.
Today’s event not only marks the launching of the business plan competition also introduces the rebranded name for the competition; THiNK BIG Ignite 2011. The name THiNK BIG Business Plan Competition was previously introduced in 2008 and has been a successful programme, focusing on writing business ideas in relations to Information Communication Technology (ICT). It has been 3 years and iCentre feel the needs to changed and upgrade the programme. With the intention to spark individual business ideas to participate in the competition, the word “Ignite” was introduced. The competition is merely the first of a series of steps provided by iCentre to start their journey on being a successful Entrepreneur. Additionally, introduced today were the additional categories and special awards. With additional categories and special awards, this means bigger cash prize money to be awarded. This year’s competition is seeing a total of BND$68,500 of cash prizes to be awarded to the winners.
The new category is known as “International category” and supplements the current ICT Open Business Plan category and College and University category. iCentre is keen to reach out and build more potential collaborations between local entrepreneurs and other regional ICT entrepreneurs hence the International category is introduced. Three new special awards are also added to this year’s competition, breaking the boundaries of ICT, iCentre is introducing the “Multimedia Award”, “Mobile Application Award” and “Outstanding Rookie Award”. Each business plan will be considered for special awards according to the right criteria. The Outstanding Rookie Award is a recognition for new participants in the Open ICT business plan category, who shows outstanding initiative and remarkable skills in their business plan ideas.
The event starts with a welcoming remark by Dr Lily Chan, CEO of NUS Enterprise, elaborating on the Ignite 2011. She commented “we have seen the improvements in the quality of business plans in writing and presentation, and successful start-ups mushrooming such as Rafiqun IT Services, Crescent Sdn Bhd, Infindo’s Polygon project and the upcoming MeSixty project”. Throughout the 3 years, the number of submission has increased and “we see a continued increase in youth participating each year”.
This year’s competition has attracted additional award partners for the Special Awards. The Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam or known as AiTi in short and DST Group has agreed to be part of the competition giving special awards in Multimedia Award and Mobile Application Award. iCentre is also fortunate to continue to have Microsoft Corporation and Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam (BIBD) who will be sponsoring the BIBD Islamic Application Award and a continuation strong support from University of Brunei Darussalam (UBD), the leading entrepreneurial university in Brunei Darussalam.
Each participant has until 13 October 2011 to submit their first executive summary. Each business plan will be read and judge by a committee and short-listed participants will be announced on 19 October 2011. All business plan participants are able to access the workshops, and the shortlisted participants will be able to attend the THiNK BIG Innovate 2011 Forum and mentoring sessions organized by iCentre, allowing them to gain insights and groom their entrepreneurial skill sets and finalizing their best business plan for the submission.
For the THINK BIG Innovate 2011, iCentre will again collaborate with regional forum convener Asia Inc Forum who will bring various business IT experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by the region based on the theme “Innovation…Inspiring and Driving change”. The event will be held at Empire Hotel & Country Club on 20 October 2011.
iCentre will continue to run roadshows at various institutes to create awareness and promote the business plan throughout the month of July and August. Participants who are interested on the business plan competition can find more information at the business plan website http://ignite.icentre.biz or simply email the Business Plan Coordinator at bizplan@icentre.biz.
To kick off the competition, iCentre is partnering up with LiveWire Brunei to conduct a workshop on “Setting up business in Brunei” that will be on 13th July 2011. It will be held at iCentre from 1.30pm onwards. Participants are encouraged to reserve their seats to avoid disappointment. More information can be found on iCentre’s website at www.icentre.biz.
