Registration underway for 29th annual Burton D. Morgan Business Plan Competition
October 1, 2015
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Registration is underway for the 29th annual Burton D. Morgan Business Plan Competition, a $100,000 event that showcases innovative ideas with commercialization potential from Purdue University students.
Entrants have until noon Nov. 6 to sign up for the event, which is scheduled for Feb. 23 at Discovery Park's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship. To register, go online to https://purdue.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eeMnxArvCs9D9qd
"The goal of Purdue's annual Burton D. Morgan Business Plan Competition is to provide an opportunity for Purdue students to learn about entrepreneurship through the development and presentation of a business idea to a panel of judges," said Joseph Pekny, interim director of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship. "Just as exciting, participants compete for substantial cash prizes that can be used to further the commercialization of their inventions."
The Gold division is open to all graduate and undergraduate student teams from any discipline. The winner from among the five finalists will receive a $30,000 top prize. In the Black division, five undergraduate teams will compete for a $20,000 top prize.
Participants have until noon Nov. 6 to submit executive summaries on their business ideas. Semifinalists will be announced Dec. 9, and the deadline for those teams to file formal business plans is Jan. 15. Ten finalist teams will be announced in early February for the competition.
For more information, contact Bambrah Walker of the Burton D. Morgan Center at 765-494-1335, bambrah@purdue.edu.
Competition sponsors are the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship and Krannert School of Management. Indianapolis-based law firm Ice Miller, which has provided scholarship funding for Purdue's Certificate of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program, also is offering in-kind services to the competition's top finishers.
The late Burton D. Morgan was a Purdue alumnus who started 50 companies, six of which have become major corporations, including Morgan Adhesives, one of the world's largest makers of pressure-sensitive adhesives. He also was president of Basic Search Co., an idea-development firm, and wrote several books on entrepreneurship.
The entrepreneurship competition started in 1987 with an endowment gift to Purdue from the Burton D. Morgan Foundation. The Morgan Foundation also funded the $7 million, 31,000-square-foot Center for Entrepreneurship.
The Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, through its sponsored initiatives and partnerships - including the Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Technology Realization Program, Entrepreneurial Leadership Academy and business plan competitions - aims to stimulate entrepreneurship at Purdue and serves as a state, regional and national resource.
The building also is home to the Purdue Foundry, an entrepreneurship and commercialization hub that provides assistance in areas such as product ideation and market analysis as well as business-plan development, alumni and faculty mentoring, and help in finding funding.
Opened in 2004, the 31,000-square-foot, two-story Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship was the first building completed in Discovery Park, Purdue's interdisciplinary research complex for large-scale projects.
Writer: Phillip Fiorini, 765-496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu
Sources: Joseph Pekny, 765-494-7901, pekny@purdue.edu
Cliff Wojtalewicz, managing director, Burton D. Morgan Center, 765-496-3961, cliffw@purdue.edu
Bambrah Walker, 765.494.1335, bambrah@purdue.edu
