New Ventures BC

Those of you with aspirations of entrepreneurial glory might be interested in the business plan competition underway over at New Ventures BC. The competition is one of the largest business plan competitions in North America, based on the $120,000 worth of prizes up for grabs. Registration costs $25, and the deadline for registering your idea for the first round of the competition is April 15th.

Though I was interested in entering the competition this year, I haven’t really got an idea that I’m happy with. I also wouldn’t really feel good about entering the competition, given that I don’t really plan to start a business right now. I know I’m going to be pretty busy for the next year now that I’ve accepted UBC’s offer of admission to their MBA program. Sure, I probably wouldn’t win, but if I did, I think it would be pretty slimy to take the money and run.

That said, the New Ventures BC competition is offering a number of free seminars on various aspects of starting a new business venture. The seminars are designed to help those who are registered for business plan competition, but are open to anyone that registers to attend the seminars ahead of time. I attended the first seminar, “Managing Intellectual Property”, last Thursday. Two hours with two patent lawyers that probably would be worth a couple thousand bucks if you actually had to pay for their time. Anyone interested in business would be stupid not to take advantage of this learning opportunity.

Then again, maybe spending your Thursday night with lawyers isn’t your idea of a good time.