Conquest 2006 - A B-Plan competiton with a difference

The Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL), BITS-Pilani recently announced that it has started inviting entries for its prestigious event, Conquest – The Business Challenge. Set up jointly by the faculty, students and alumni, CEL is an active entrepreneurial cell in the country. It works to encourage entrepreneurship among the student community. It is also a co-founder of the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN).

Conquest is a unique business event that helps transform ideas into reality. This business-plan competition includes intensive mentoring by industry champions and a rigorous simulation involving real-life start up conditions.

The competition is open to all students and corporates in the country. It encourages business plans from all industries - IT, Manufacturing, Pharmacy, Health Services, Rural Development, Infrastructure, Biotechnology, Finance & Marketing etc.. With prizes of more than INR 1 lakh and a lot of attention, both from industry and academia involved. Conquest promises its participants a highly challenging and rewarding experience.

After a highly successful run over the past two years, the competition is gaining increased visibility. This is in part due to its judges from top-notch positions in the industry and also due to the high quality of talent it attracts. With sponsors like Agilent Technologies and DELL this year, it’s bound to become one of the best business plan competitions in the country.

Conquest 2005 had been an exhilarating experience with entries coming in from IIM’s, IIT’s, ISB and other premier institutes across the country. The winning team “Jan Swasthya Rakshak” went on to win the Annual A.Lorne Weil Outrageous Business Plan competition conducted by Columbia University and the runners-up “Habits” (www.habits.in) have started up already.

Conquest 2006 promises to be a confluence of the ideas which will change the way we live tomorrow. Indeed, such an outcome goes without saying, given the theme “Inspire, Innovate, Conquer” and a dedicated and enthusiastic Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership working to realize this goal at BITS Pilani.

Important Dates:

December 20th 2005 - Last date to submit Executive summaries.
January 10th 2006 - Announcement of short listed 4 teams for the next phase.
January 15th 2006 - Beginning of electronic mentoring of the short listed teams.
February 5th 2006 - End of mentoring.
February 5th 2006 - Last date to submit the final Business plan.
February 17th - 19th 2006 - Conquest Final Phase in BITS Pilani.