DATE
March 4 - 5, 2011

LOCATION
University of Texas El Paso, College of Business Administration

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

To see the list of teams that participated in the 2011 Camino Real Venture Competition, please click here

WINNERS

First Place for Entrepreneurship - Cavelli Enterprizes, University of New Mexico
Second Place for Entrepreneurship - The Trailer Post, United States Air Force Academy
Third Place for Entrepreneurship - Talent Shop, United States Air Force Academy
First Place Challenge Round - Sound Rocks, University of Texas at El Paso
Venture Forum Display - The Trailer Post, United States Air Force Academy
Business Plan - Sound Rocks, University of Texas at El Paso
60 Second Elevator Pitch - Tatanka Natural, Colorado State University

PICTURES

For more pictures click here

IN THE NEWS

El Paso Times - March 4, 2011

ELIGIBILITY
The CRVC is for student created, managed, and owned ventures. In other words, students must (1) have played a major role in conceiving the venture, (2) have key management roles in the venture, and (3) own significant equity in the venture. Non-students may be members of the venture’s management team and may participate in planning the venture. However, only students may participate in the Competition.

The maximum number of students on a Competition Team is five (5); although there is no restriction on the total size of the venture’s founding team. At least one (1) of the members of the Competition Team must be a graduate student. Team members can be pulled from all academic disciplines. In order to be eligible to be on the Competition Team students must have been enrolled for at least one (1) semester of the Academic Year in which the Competition is held.

The following schools are allowed to send up to two teams:

• Colorado State University
• University of Colorado at Boulder
• University of Colorado at Denver
• University of Denver
• Colorado School of Mines
• United States Air Force Academy
• University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
• New Mexico Highlands University
• University of New Mexico
• New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
• New Mexico State University
• University of Texas, Permian Basin
• Texas Tech Paul Foster Medical School
• University of Texas at El Paso
• Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez
• Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Cd. Juárez
• Universidad TecMilenio, Campus Cd. Juárez
• Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua
• Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Chihuahua
• Universidad TecMilenio, Campus Chihuahua
• Centro de Investigación en Materiales Avanzados, S.C.

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REQUIREMENTS
Entry Forms and Written Business Plan
Each school must submit an Intent to Compete Form in order to reserve slots for their Teams in the CRVC.

Each Team must submit a Team Competition Entry Form detailing the names of team members and a Project description. This Form certifies that all work on the Business Plan by all Team Members is original.

Teams must submit an electronic copy of the Written Business Plan in English. Plans should be:

• 8.5 x 11 paper, 1 inch margins all around
• Typed 12 pt font, 1.5 line spacing. Single space will not be accepted
• 10 pages maximum, including the executive summary and summary financial data. Detailed spreadsheets and appropriate appendices may follow the text portion of the plan but are limited to 6 pages (16 pages total).

Plans should be submitted to Nancy Lowery at nlowery@bnsl.org

Venture Forum & Elevator Pitch
All Teams will participate in a Venture Forum and Opening Reception. This will allow each Team to display poster, prototypes and other material relevant to their technology and business plan to an audience of entrepreneurs, investors, academics and their peers. During the Forum one (1) team member will present a 60 Second Elevator Pitch to this same audience.

PowerPoint/Oral Presentations
In the Opening Round each team will be given 15 minutes to present its business plan followed by a 15-minute question and answer session between the presenting team and the judges. Teams will then participate in Feed Back Rounds. Teams that are selected to go onto the Finals round will present the second day of competition. All Team not in the Finals round will present in Challenge rounds. In these each team will be given 20 minutes to present its business plan followed by up to 25 minutes of question and answer. THESE TIME LIMITS WILL BE STRICTLY ENFORCED. Each member of the team must participate in the formal presentation of the plan.

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IMPORTANT DATES AND FORMS

Monday, October 25, 2010 - Submission of Intent to Compete Form

Monday, January 24, 2011 - Submission of Team Competition Entry Form

Monday, February 14, 2011 - Submission of electronic copy of the Competition Written Business Plan to Nancy Lowery at    nlowery@bnsl.org

Monday, February 14, 2011 - Submission of Team Eligibility, Permission and Prize Money Forms

Thursday, March 3, 2011 - Arrive in El Paso

March 4 to 5, 2011 - Camino Real Venture Competition.

May 4 - 7, 2011 - Venture Labs Investment Competition (formerly Moot Corp®)

• Winning Camino Real Venture Competition Team has an automatic invitation to participate in Venture Labs Investment Competition at the University of Texas at Austin

If you have difficulties meeting these deadlines, please contact the competition's administrators

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JUDGING
Judges
Judging panels will const of successful business people, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and other business experts. Judges reserve the right to alter prize amounts. The decisions made by the judging panels are final.

Judging Criteria
Judges will evaluate the written plan and the oral presentation. Judges will score the materials presented in the following manner: Judges Evaluation Form

• Written Business Plan (40%)
• Presentation (20%)
• Viability of Company (40%)

These quantitative measures will depend upon the qualitative evaluation of the judges.

Judging will focus on:

• Clarity and Quality of the written plan
• Clarity and quality of the oral presentation
• Ability to address issues/concerns raised by the judges
• Viability of the proposed venture
• Perceived ability of the management team to carry out the proposed venture
• Prospective financial return to investors

Ownership/Disclosure
The authors of the business plan will retain all rights to the plan regarding its use at all times prior to and following the competition except as stated below. Due to the nature of the competition, we will not ask judges, reviewers, staff or the audience to agree to or sign non-disclosure statements for any participant.

Contestants must abide by the laws governing intellectual property. All use of copyrighted or trademarked materials may be used only with the express permission of the owners. Contestants must acknowledge their use of these materials.

All public sessions of the Competition, including but not limited to oral presentations and question/answer sessions, are open to the public at large. Any and all of these public sessions may be broadcast to interested persons through media which may include radio, television and the Internet. Any data or information discussed or divulged in public sessions by entrants should be considered information that will likely enter the public realm, and entrants should not assume any right of confidentiality in any data or information discussed, divulged or presented in these sessions.

Contestants agree to allow the Camino Real Venture Competition, and the Bi-national Sustainability Laboratory, to make photocopies, photographs, videotapes and/or audiotapes of the presentations including the business plan and other documents, charts or material prepared for use in presentation at the CRVC. Students retain all proprietary rights. The Competition may use the materials in any book or other printed materials and any videotape or other medium that it may produce, provided that any profits earned from the sale of such items is used by The Competition solely to defray the costs of future Camino Real Venture Competitions. The Competition has non-exclusive world rights in all languages, and in all media, to use or to publish the materials in any book, other printed materials, videotapes or other medium, and to use the materials in future editions thereof and derivative products.

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

An informational webinar was held on Friday, October 15 to help on the preparation for the 2011 Camino Real Venture Competition, March 4 & 5, 2011.

This webinar was intended to educate participants on the Competition's rules and regulations, provide hints on how to write a successful business plan, and give a winning presentation and elevator pitch among other subjects that will make teams more prepared not only for the CRVC but for any other business plan competition.

To acces the information presented at this webinar please click here

ISSUES NOT COVERED BY THIS DOCUMENT
All questions not answered by this website can be directed to Nancy Lowery at: nlowery@bnsl.org or Lidia Caraveo at: acaraveo@gmail.com

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