Bolton Trust Enterprise Competition
The Bolton Trust/ TU Dublin Student Enterprise Competition 2020
In this, the 27th consecutive year of the competition, TU Dublin is again providing its students, both undergraduate and postgraduate students, with the opportunity to win a range of cash prizes in the biggest 3rd level institute enterprise competition in the country. The main objective of the competition is to foster a spirit of entrepreneurship among TU Dublin students and to encourage and support a rigorous business planning approach to entrepreneurial activities.
The competition is open to individuals and teams of registered TU Dublin undergraduate and postgraduate students. The students can come from any discipline and any college and multi-disciplinary, cross-college teams are particularly welcome. Please read the Rules of the Competition which are available here.
The competition is now OPEN for entries and the deadline is Feb 21st 2020.
This competition is sponsored by AIB, Bolton Trust, Enterprise Ireland and Hothouse.
Stage 1: Eligibility Criteria/ Entry Form
- Register your team using the Preliminary Entry Form
Stage 2: Business Plan Information
Hints and guidelines for your business plan can be found here in the 2020 Business Plan template
The length of completed business plans should be no more than 4,000 words or approximately 12 to 15 pages plus appendices.
Failure to adhere to this will lead to automatic disqualification
Submit an electronic copy of your Business Plan to bizplan@dit.ie before February 21st 2020 . Late entries are not permitted.
Three (3) hard copies of the business plan must be given to your course tutor to present to the judging panel.
Stage 3: Shortlisting of Business Plans
A shortlist of the business plans received will be selected to go through to the Semi Final stage and the team captain will receive notification by email.
- Please note: At this stage, in the event of a high volume of entries to the competition, only shortlisted teams will be notified of the outcome.
Stage 4: Poster Competition ** compulsory for Semi-Finalists **
At this stage, all semi-finalists will need to prepare a poster to summarise their business plan using the 2020 Poster template and submit in PDF format to bizplan@dit.ie
This template is a guideline only, more images and change of headings is permitted but sponsor logos must be retained.
The competition organisers will arrange the printing of the posters.
Posters will be displayed and a prize awarded for the best poster on the evening of the Final.
Stage 5: Video Pitch ** compulsory for Semi-Finalists**
Students selected to go through to the semi-finals must also submit a 90 second Video Pitch of their business plan to bizplan@dit.ie
You will find some tips when making the video below and remember, less is more ...keep it short and make it memorable!
- what the product is
- your target market
- how quickly you can commercialise it
- it's export potential
- if there is a competitor, why is your idea better?
Stage 6: The Semi-Finals : 4 TU Dublin locations, Wednesday March 11th 2020
Those teams short-listed for the Semi-Finals of the competition will be required to make a 10 minute presentation of their plan to a panel of five judges, followed by a 5 minute Q&A session. This presentation may augment the formal document but must be based on the submitted business plan.
Stage 7: The Finals : TU Dublin, Bolton Street City Campus Wednesday April 1st 2020
Students selected to go forward to the Finals may make some minor changes to their business plan based on the advice and comments made by the judges. The amended business plan must sent to bizplan@dit.ie
For your presentations, you must use Microsoft Office PowerPoint.
No Audio files or Streaming links please – they rarely work. If you have a video clip that you would like to use, please save it in Windows Media Audio (.WMA) format. You must also bring a copy of your presentation on a memory stick as a back-up just in case!
The Final will consist of a 10 minute presentation of your Business Plan to a panel of five judges, followed by a 5 minute Q&A session.The judging panel will then retire to the judging room to make their deliberations. The decision of the panel is final.
The Winners will be announced and all prizes presented at a reception immediately after the event. The posters will also be displayed on the night and a prize awarded for the best poster.
** All Prizewinners must attend the Final to collect their prizes. Otherwise they will forfeit their prize. **
Last year’s winners were Micron Ltd with their product Paratest
For more information contact Colm O’Kane at Colm.okane@tudublin.ie