Weekend events highlight entrepreneurship, technology at Rice

Weekend
events highlight entrepreneurship, technology at Rice
…………………………………………………………………

BY MAILEEN HAMTO
Special to the Rice News

Entrepreneurship
takes center stage at Rice this weekend as future entrepreneurs
and business leaders, managers and professionals converge
to participate in events showcasing innovative ideas, new
approaches and the latest technologies.

The first Southwest
Business Plan Competition, March 30-31, and the second annual
Business Plan Presentation Forum, March 31, both are sponsored
by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship,
a collaboration of the George R. Brown School of Engineering,
Wiess School of Natural Sciences and the Jesse H. Jones
Graduate School of Management.

Nine teams of
M.B.A. graduate students from universities in Texas, Georgia,
Louisiana, Arizona and Michigan will compete in the two-day
business plan competition, co-hosted by the Jones School,
at Herring Hall.

On March 31,
rising entrepreneurs will present business plans to an audience
of business people, business owners and members of the financial
community at the presentation forum, to be held from 9 a.m.
to noon in Anne and Charles Duncan Hall. Presenters will
get candid and constructive coaching on various components
of their business plans, including an analysis of the technical
basis of the innovation, the innovation’s market potential
and clarity of writing.

“The Southwest
Business Plan Competition will provide our students, our
faculty and the Jones School an opportunity to encounter
and compete with some of the most talented, creative entrepreneurial
thinkers from other business schools in the region,”
said Jones School Dean Gilbert R. Whitaker Jr. “Hosting
the event concurrently with the Rice Alliance Business Plan
Presentation Forum also provides an opportunity for participating
students to encounter entrepreneurs, technologists and professionals
whose ideas for startup companies just may be the next big
thing in technology and business tomorrow.”

Sponsorship of
the events underscores the Rice Alliance’s dedication
to the study and creation of new entrepreneurial business
concepts, said Steve Currall, director of the Rice Alliance
and associate professor of management and psychology at
the Jones School. “These events will be a meeting ground
for entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and technical experts.
Out of these events, many new technology businesses will
be born. Our sponsorship shows Rice’s commitment to
technological innovation and its positive impact on the
business community,” he said.

At the competition,
M.B.A. and graduate students will present their plans to
judges who are members of the Houston business community
to qualify to enter the prestigious International MOOT CORP®
Competition, the largest business plan competition in the
world, held each year at the University of Texas–Austin.
A team of Jones School students will represent Rice University.

“It is
the only competition of its kind in this region of the United
States,” said Dennis Murphree, a lecturer of management
at the Jones School who has served as a judge at MOOT CORP®.
“Other regional competitions whose winners qualify
as participants in MOOT CORP® currently are held in
California, Georgia, Indiana, Nebraska and Oregon.”
Recognizing Rice’s opportunity to provide schools in
this region a closer, more convenient contest venue, Murphree
and Currall met with event organizers last year to establish
the business plan competition as the regional qualifying
event for the international contest.

Forty-five judges
— entrepreneurs, business leaders and professionals
in various industries — were drawn from Houston’s
burgeoning startup community, the Austin and Dallas high-tech
industries and a pool of Rice alumni that stretches from
Silicon Valley to the East Coast, Currall said. “We
received a tremendous response of support from the business
community,” he said. “Their participation underscores
their recognition of Rice’s contribution to the overall
climate of technology entrepreneurship in Houston.”

Judges will evaluate
the business plans according to the quality of the idea,
strength of the management team and clarity and persuasiveness
of the written plan and oral presentation. “The judges
will seek to reach consensus on the business venture they
believe would most likely be funded in real life,”
Currall said.

The top winner
of the competition will receive $5,000 and the opportunity
to enter MOOT CORP®. The first runner-up will be awarded
$3,000; the second runner-up, $2,000.

Beyond the prizes
and prestige, the competition also provides an opportunity
for future entrepreneurs and business leaders to meet their
peers and industry professionals. “Some of the most
important aspects of a business education come from outside
the classroom, through speaking with folks that have done
what we study every day,” said Tom Stein, a second-year
M.B.A. student at the Jones School who was instrumental
in rallying other students to participate in planning and
organizing the event.

“Students
were eager to help for two reasons: They are interested
in promoting the competition for the Jones School, and they
see a benefit to networking with all of the invited guests.
Such a forum also presents students with an opportunity
to network with folks they generally would not get the chance
to have an informal conversation with,” Stein said.

Networking also
is on the agenda of the presentation forum, where six business
plans related to various industries — from life sciences
to information technology — will be presented. The
inaugural forum featured 10 business plans — many involving
ideas for startup Internet companies. This year’s forum
involves startup companies that are in more advanced stages
of development, Currall said.

More information
on the competition and the presentation forum is available
on the Rice Alliance Web site at <www.alliance.rice.edu>
or at (713) 348-5376.

— Maileen
Hamto is assistant director of public relations at the Jesse
H. Jones Graduate School of Management.