YDC - About YDC, Programs and Objectives

Introduction

Background

The Young Entrepreneurs Development Council Entrepreneurs' Challenge (YDC E-Challenge), a business plan competition open to all full-time students in Hong Kong Universities and Institute of Vocational Education (IVE), has been annually organized by YDC in collaboration with Stanford University since 2000. Following the success in the past eight years, YDC is proud to present YDC E-Challenge 2008.

The competition is designed to provide students with exposure to the entrepreneurial community, the competition helps develop the skills required to facilitate an entrepreneurial spirit and mindset.

YDC organizes this business plan competition as part of its continuous efforts to generate the best ways and ideas to put Hong Kong's talents and skills into our innovation and knowledge based society. Full-time students at all levels are invited to put their new business ideas to the test. Finalists can have the opportunity to present those business concepts to a judging panel comprised of seasoned entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and other professionals. The winning teams may have a chance representing Hong Kong to join other regional or global business plan competitions, such as Startup@Singapore and "The University Business Plan Proposal of China". Details will be announced in due course.

Prizes

Grand Prize	HK$30,000
1st Runner Up	HK$20,000
2nd Runner Up	HK$15,000
Semi-finalist Teams	Cash Coupons

Provisional Competition Schedule

Phase I - Preliminary Round
January - February	Briefings to be held at universities in Hong Kong
25th February (Mon)	Deadline for Pre-registration
8th March (Sat)	Workshop I
15th March (Sat)	Workshop II
25th March (Tue)	Deadline for submission of Executive Summary (no more than three pages)

Phase II - Semi-final Round
5th April (Sat)	Workshop III
8th April (Tue)	Email announcement of semi-finalist teams
23rd April (Wed)	Deadline for submission of Investment Proposition Teaser (no more than five pages) and DVD of 5-minute Presentation

Phase III - Final Round
5th May (Mon)	Announcement of finalist teams
May - Mid June	Mentorship Program for finalists in conjunction with YEO
31st May (Sat)	Workshop IV
5th June (Thu)	Deadline for submission of business plans (no more than 30 pages of text, graphics and appendices)
14th June (Sat)	Presentation by finalists to Final Judging Panel
20th June (Fri)	Press conference to announce the Top Three

Workshops and Resources to Participants...Online System

YDC will hold briefing at all the universities & IVE in Hong Kong in January 2008 to introduce YDC E-Challenge 2008. Students who are interested to participate in this competition are welcome to attend the briefing. The briefing schedule will be announced soon. Interested students can reserve a seat via Briefing Registration.

Find Team Members Online can help the students who are looking for team members and/or projects to participate in by posting messages in the page. Students can find useful resources on developing a business plan in the Resources column.

Workshops are key components of YDC E-Challenge 2008. The workshops are scheduled to correlate with milestones in the competition process. In order to participate in the workshops, students are required to complete the Online Pre-registration process. The deadline will be on 25th February 2008. For details, please refer to Guidelines.

We highly recommend all participants to join the workshops. The workshops will be very interactive, and participants will be able to have their questions answered by experts in their fields. These workshops will be useful both in preparation for YDC E-Challenge 2008 and exposing participants to entrepreneurial experiences. All the participants are welcomed to join all the workshops we will provide. The details and registration method of the workshops will be announced via email to who completed the Online Pre-registration process.

To help each of the finalists prepare their final business proposal for judging, the YDC with the support of the Hong Kong Chapter of the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization (YEO) recruited seasoned entrepreneurs from their members to act as mentors to the finalist teams and to advise them on their specific business ideas. YDC will arrange the first mentorship meeting for the finalist teams to meet their mentor. Finalist teams are required to present their business ideas and the blueprint of the business plan to the mentors in the meeting. To know more about Mentorship Program, please visit Words of Mentor.

For the details about competition and registration, please refer to the Guidelines.