Here is a guest post by all round nice guy and InnovationACT participant  Yasmi ‘Adrian’ Adriansyah (from SMARTEDU).

FINALLY

Finally, our Business Plan has been submitted. Teams who submitted their Plan by the deadline 4 November 2011 must have taken a deep breath. Congratulations!

Yes, we all shall celebrate the ‘victories’: the victory of participating at the useful programs organized by the InnovationACT 2011 Committee; the victory of preparing and delivering ‘one of the most difficult tasks in universe’, which is the ’1 minute-Pitch’; the victory of working so hard in finishing the Plan; and the victory against ourselves in fulfilling our own ambitions: to have a saleable (and certainly workable) business plan.

For these victories, it arguably will not be too early to convey sincere thanks to all for the great journey at the InnovationACT 2011. To the Committee: Rish, Mathew, Hayward, Ricky, Ashik, and their able colleagues, you have done great job, Mates. To the presenters and judges, we have learned a lot from you, from how to generate ideas, the necessity to work in a team, and even to prepare and deliver a pitch. Certainly your intellectual and practical contributions are countless, and it is now up to us on how to utilise them for a better go. (By the way, all materials put on the blog are very useful. If authors agree, why don’t we write a book on business plan with a copyright license belongs to the InnovationACT? We can even write it into other languages such as Indonesian where the market is so huge. If there are any interested investors, we can prepare a ‘5-minute pitch’).

And last but not least, we shall convey the sincere thanks to all participants. Whether realising or not, we actually have learnt from each other, from listening to the excellent ideas to the do’s and the don’ts. Thus, whoever achieves victory from this competition, we shall congratulate you.

To conclude, this competition is not only about winning the AU$25,000 prize. It is about learning, networking, and achieving the targets we have set in the beginning. And for sure, it is about a better future through entrepreneurship.

Congrats to everybody. Look forward to seeing you all becoming great entrepreneurs in the near future.

Adrian, the SMARTEDU

Canberra, 7 November 2011 

To submit your plan, please have your team fill out a cover sheet, and email the plan, scanned cover sheet, and photocopies of your student/staff cards to enquiries[at]innovationact.org. (The cover sheet and photocopied cards to not count to the 30 page limit)

We will not be accepting late business plans. However (because of the short notice), if you’re having trouble getting signatures or photocopies of cards by the deadline, just let us know and we will arrange getting them off you early in the week beginning 6/11/2011.

Date: Fri 04/11 (ANU wk 13/UC wk 11)

Time: 12pm

Location: Online

1) Pitches are 2 minutes long. Go overtime and you’re instantly disqualified.
2) You will be asked questions by the judges, and this time you can answer them. (The amount of time you’ll be given to answer them will depend on the number of pitches we have on the night).
3) No PowerPoint presentations or equivalent.
4) Small props are allowed, but as with last time, no time will be given to set them up.
5) The pitches are to be delivered to the judges like they’re potential investors.
6) If you’re competing for the Blackhall undergraduate business planning prize, then your pitch has to be wholly delivered by undergraduates.

With regards to marking, the judges will be paying attention to the following four criteria:

1) The Pitch: Was the pitch convincing and engaging?, Was it delivered professionally and confidently?
2) The Venture: Is the product/service clearly and simply described? Is it plausible?
Is it clear how it is delivered and how it makes money?
3) The Market: Has the customer been clearly identified? Does this product/service
improve the customer’s circumstances and/or bring new value to them?
4) The Team: Is the team’s balance of skills, experience, passion and commitment
adequately suited to carry out this venture successfully?

Now, last time we noticed that, whilst pretty much everyone had a great idea, many teams struggled to articulate their ideas, and in particular struggled to get across all of the information an investor would require. So, to give you some pointers, check out the awesome one minute pitches from the MIT100K elevator pitch competition.

We figured you’d be keen to know who the judges for InnovationACT 2011 are. Yes? The following 5 people will be judging your final elevator pitches and your business plans.

Michael Cardew-Hall: Pro Vice-Chancellor, Innovation and Advancement, ANU + CEO, ANU Connect Ventures + Director, Australian Solar Institute + Director, Synergistic Services Ltd + Director, Simile Systems Pty. Ltd .

John Howard: Pro Vice-Chancellor, Development, UC + Convenor, Science Policy and Innovation at ANZSOG Institute for Governance + Director and Chair of the Programs Committee, Australian Centre for Excellence in Local Government + Director, Epicorp Pty Ltd + Board Member, Canberra Business Council + Director (Non Executive) at Howard Partners

Roger Price: General Partner, Innovation Capital + Chairman and CEO, Windlab Systems

Mary-Anne Waldren: Founder, Master Entrepreneur Program + CEO, MAW Action

Michelle Williams: Co-Founder and Co-chief Changemaker, Social Innovation Sydney + Director, Creation Nation.

Our thanks go out to these amazing people!

“When you’ve finished the first draft of your business plan, do a search-replace on the name of your product. Everywhere the plan mentions your product, replace it with the words ‘cut flowers’. If the business plan still makes sense, then what you have written is way too generic – meaningless almost – and provides no real guide to the critical imperatives of your specific business (that is, assuming you are not actually in the business of selling  cut flowers!)”.

Have a go at it, you might learn something

Photo Credit: http://littlelioness.net/

Click here to view the embedded video.

Oh, and if you want to see some super smick one minute elevator pitches (and some deer-in-headlight moments), check out the MIT100K elevator pitch finals on YouTube.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Coming up on November 4 is Lighthouse and UC’s Design and Invention Commercialisation Conference. This fantastic event has 3 sessions which will definitely be of interest to IACT participants (and anyone else).

Inventors and Inventions – Several local inventors will share war stories of their commercialisation process, beginning with the ‘ah ha’ moment through to design and marketing. They will each share how they came to understand the market for their invention or design and how they work to anticipate the future needs of those markets.

Design and Engineering – This session will bring together a panel of industrial design and engineering practitioners to give inventors some information on the process of engaging with a professional design firm. The University of Canberra will also share information about its capabilities in this area.

Intellectual Property and Commercialisation – Your ability to protect and monetise your invention is what separates ‘commercialisation’ from a hobby. This session is delivered by experts in intellectual property protection and creating global business and distribution models for new innovation.

For more information, see here.

ACT Social Enterprise Showcase

Canberra is perhaps best known as a hub for business and government – but it’s also home to a thriving network of social enterprises, providing valuable employment opportunities and income streams for some of the community’s most disadvantaged members.

Now, for the first time ever, you have the opportunity to meet the people behind Canberra’s best known and most successful social enterprises, all gathered together in one place.

Check out the Social Enterprise Showcase, from 11:30am to 12:30pm on Tuesday 11 October at the Canberra Museum and Gallery, to learn more about these exciting enterprises and check out their broad range of products and services.

Participating businesses are operating in such diverse areas as fashion, child care, Aboriginal art, café operation and catering, paper-making and greeting card design, car and bike parts and accessories, even snail farming!

Details
Canberra Museum & Gallery, Cnr London Cct & Civic Square
Tuesday October 11
11:30am – 12:30pm
Contact : Jane Speechley 0414 354 928 or Mandy Richards 0448 644 600 ]]> http://www.innovationact.org/two-upcoming-events-in-canberra/feed/ 0 http://www.innovationact.org/mentor-update/ http://www.innovationact.org/mentor-update/#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 08:43:24 +0000 Rish http://www.innovationact.org/?p=684 Continue reading →]]> Just a quick update on the mentor-team pairing up process. Congratulations to the one third of teams that managed to secure a mentor on the night of The Pitch. Being able to network and impress someone fast is a skill that will serve you well.

For the other teams, we’ve now paired you up with a mentor we hope will have skills and experience complementary to your idea. Presently we’re getting into contact with them to confirm they feel that they can add value to you. (PS. This is very hard for us to do well if you don’t have a profile on the site. Go here to find out how to get one). We’re doing this as fast as we can, and will email each team individually as these confirmations come in. 

As always, if you have any questions, read through the appropriate blog posts, and if that doesn’t help, email us.