2012 Idea To Product™ Europe Competition

Introduction

Do you want to develop new and exciting innovations? Is working on multi-disciplinary teams for you ideal? Does creating and presenting your innovation to an audience sound energizing? Not least, do you want to fly to win valuable prizes and present your innovation in Stockholm?

Then Idea-to-Product European Challenge is the opportunity you have been looking for.

Idea-to-Product (I2P) Europe is an innovative competition inspiring the innovative spirit in students around Europe where participants develop a technology commercialisation plan to confirm the validity and market potential of a new, innovative, and competitive product. Students then present the commercialisation plan to a group of knowledgeable judges. I2P’s mission is to create a competitive European forum in which to enhance cross-disciplinary studies in entrepreneurship, research, technology & emerging markets.

The competition goes through several phases:

PHASE 1

Teams enter the competition by submitting a one to two-page document containing answers to a series of questions covering their technology, the best market for initial commercialization and the basic intellectual property aspects of their project.

Deadline team registration: 11th of May 2012, 12pm

PHASE 2

Based on your summary and the key judging criteria (uniqueness, innovativeness, and a clear market need) the 10 best product concepts will be invited to participate in the finals in front of our judging panel in Aachen, 28th and 29th of June 2012.

Announcement of teams qualified: 1st of June 2012.

PHASE 3

The student teams will create a report of 3-5 pages about their new and innovative product.

Deadline 5-page report submission: 12th of June 2012, 12pm

Moreover, the teams will have another two weeks to prepare for the final presentation (presentation guidelines).

PHASE 4

At the 2012 I2P Europe Competition final the teams will have the chance to convince the judging panel of their new and innovative product. The winning team will fly to Stockholm to participate in the global competition and the first three places of I2P Europe will win other great prizes such as iPod Touch etc.

What needs to be done?

The teams need to register with an email to werhahn@gruenderzentrum.rwth-aachen.de before May 11th 2012, including the following:

• name of your team
• your selected team leader (will be the contact person through the entire process)
• names, contact address and field of study of all team members and
• your one to two-page summary about your idea/technology (one to two-page document).

The 2012 I2PTM – Idea to Product Europe Competition is organized in cooperation with the world-renowned I2P™ Global competition at the University of Texas in Austin. It is led by the Entrepreneurial Department at RWTH University and the Aachener Entrepreneurship Team (AC.E), a group of RWTH University students interested in fostering the entrepreneurial spirit in Aachen.

For further information regarding the global final and background information about history and previous competitions we kindly refer to http://www.ideatoproduct.org/global/.

Also join our new Facebook Group and get in touch with other participants!

Timetable 2012 I2P Europe Competition

“Free-Shot” Program, June 28, 2012

2012 I2P Europe Final, June 29, 2012

Entry Criteria

Exceptions to these requirements are possible, but need to be approved by the I2P-Coordinator.

• The technology associated with the product/service idea can either be owned by the participating university or by one or more of the student team members from that university.*
• Each team must have a faculty adviser with expertise in the technology underlying the product (although he/she need not attend the Challenge).
• Teams can consist of maximum 5 members, but all must be either a current student or have been enrolled at the University sometime during the academic year preceding the event (although exceptions presented to the I2PTM Europe committee may be considered).
• Teams are strongly recommended to have at least one student member with an academic background in a relevant science/medical/engineering discipline.
• Teams are strongly recommended to have at least one student member with an academic background in business.
• A single team member may meet both background requirements.
• The event will be structured in the form of a ten-minute presentation followed by a ten-minute question and answer session:
• on Day 1, this will be in front of the other teams and all faculty advisers;
• on Day 2, teams will be judged by an external panel of technology, commercial and investment experts.
• Teams must submit:
• a two-page Executive Summary of their idea
• copies of the slides of their Day 1 presentations
• Teams are not required to submit a full business plan

* The underlying technology

I2P is an early-stage technology commercialization plan competition with a central focus on the underlying technology. Entries should be unique and innovative, be feasible to implement, and address an identified market need, and they must have an underlying technology component.

This underlying technology component should either be owned by the participating university or by one or more of the student team members from that university.

Judging Criteria

• The very best entries will have a unique product that uses an innovative technology with a clear market demand, i.e. present two key criteria:
• a technology product/service answering a clear market need;
• a demonstrable route to market for that product/service.
• The technology can be, but does not need to be, brand new technology or necessarily ‘high tech’. The entry can utilise existing technology and/or modification of existing technology for a creative new product/service.
• By ‘route to market’, we are looking for the team’s understanding of their product’s place within a market and the identification of a clear and logical target customer with a real need that the product addresses. The team needs to have a clear picture of the development necessary for the technology and the proposed product.
• As a technology commercialisation rather than a business plan challenge, the competition does not address:
• expanded distribution and marketing strategies,
• detailed financial analyses,
• finalised team CVs and advisory panels etc.

A well-developed business plan will not place a team in a stronger position relative to a team that has no business plan.

• If a team’s entry is just at the idea stage the team needs to be able to assure the judges that the technology is feasible. The team does, however, need to have a product in mind, not just a technology. If this is an early stage idea, the team needs to be able to offer assurances that it is feasible to create the product/service.
• To be judged highly, you do not have to assume that the team can or will be the ones to take the idea to market.
• For a good entry, it should be reasonable to assume that the product could be built and sold at enough of a profit, to enough of the targeted customers, to sustain a business. The technologies do not necessarily need to be ‘Venture Capital-fundable’.
• The closer the team members are to the inception or invention of their technological innovation, the stronger their position will be in the judges’ eyes. In other words, a presentation made by the inventors will score more highly than one by those only peripherally involved in the birth of the technology.

I2P vs. Business Plan Competition

Not Just Another Business Plan Competition

Idea to Product Europe is a technology commercialization competition, in which student teams from the best science, engineering and technology colleges in Europe present innovative ideas with clear routes to market. However, as an innovative competition format, the differences between a business plan competition (BPC) and one involving technology commercialisation is not always clear. This web page outlines those differences.

Technology commercialization plan: pre-business plan without team-building aimed at clarifying the commercial potential of a technology idea, and identification of a technology opportunity. The requirements for this approach are laid out in I2P International’s questions to entering teams, who must be comprised of current university students:

1. What is your product or idea?
2. What is the technology that underlies your product/ idea?
3. Is your underlying technology unique? Describe.
4. Is your product or idea innovative? Describe.
5. Who is your market and initial customer group (who will buy it)?
6. What customers’ needs does your product/idea address (why they will buy)?
7. Provide some indication of the general size of the market.
8. How do you anticipate developing IP protection for your technology?

Business plan: aimed at investors and focused around building a team to launch the new venture, identifying a full-blown business opportunity. Here are the judging criteria for a team’s entry into its New Business Challenge:

• Is there a clearly identified market opportunity?
• Have the team identified a target segment?
• How far has the product/ service been developed?
• Is there any evidence of proof of concept or prototyping?
• Is there an appropriate team in place, or gaps in the team identified?
• Have the team identified a clear route to market and rollout strategy?
• How much progress has the team made?
• Was the presentation strong and convincing?
• Would you invest?
• Quality and experience of the team
• Financial statements and analysis

Key differences summarized:

a) Idea: technology commercialization competitions require an explicitly technology-based product or service, while BPCs rarely stipulate business type.

b) Team: technology commercialization competitions, assume that technology businesses need to be run by experienced people so do not require that the presenting team pretends to be the business team; the team – or at least a skeleton of it – should already be established in a BPC, frequently putting relatively-inexperienced students at an automatic disadvantage.

c) Investment: technology commercialization competitions assume an investment-credible team will be assembled when the technology is at the required state of development, so relatively early-stage ideas can be entered: since investors typically invest in teams, BPCs assume ideas will be investment-ready. A technology-commercialization competition emphasizes university technology, does not over-privilege age & experience, and allows relatively early-stage ideas to enter.