EVER wanted to be on shows like The Apprentice where strategic businesspeople fundraise to compete for an opportunity? National entrepreneurship competition Business Icon is now open.
Established in 2005, Business Icon is an Australian young leader competition. This year, they are working with an Australian run charity, Opportunity International. This is a charity that offers loans from $50 to $200 for women in third-world countries to start up their own businesses.
You must go through two rounds of challenges to win the title of Business Icon 2012. The first round is a team challenge with your peers in Victoria. The second round will the national final where you join peers from the rest of Australia.
As long as you are aged between 18 and 25, you are eligible for the Business Icon 48 Hour Challenge Victoria. The challenge will test you on on entrepreneurial and leadership skills during a two-day fundraiser. You will be allocated to one of the teams in this competition to showcase your ability to develop, create and run an entrepreneurial task.
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Winning the first challenge will get you one-week traveling and accommodation sponsorship in Melbourne worth up to $2,500 during the Business Icon National Final. You also earn a profile in the contestant handbook that will be handed over to more than 1500 Australian employers.
Industry professionals and university students will be the judges to select the best leaders, team players and innovators who can go into the national final. There will be 32 finalists at the Business Icon National Final.
Business Icon National Awards have a $10,000 prize pool to award the champion, runner-up, finalists and outstanding teams.
The national competition involves four tasks that reflect the difficulties of community, business and society in the 21st century. The challenge will judge you on creativity, logic, teamwork and passion.
The national challenges will have judges of leaders and entrepreneurs from industry, government and the not-for-profit sector. Past judges involved the chief executive of Wesfarmers, Head of the National Broadband Network in Australia and the Chancellor of Monash University.
The four national finalists will pitch live to six leading industry judges and 400 people at the evening final – and will be one of those moments when you have to give a I-deserve-this speech.
In 2010, the Business Icon 2010 champion title went to Victorian arts student Rosie Thomas for her anti-bullying and youth leadership program Project Rockit. Project Rockit now helps young people to develop resilience and leadership while exploiting their potential.
The team challenge will run from July 23 to 25 at Swinburne University’s Flinders St Campus.
Application closes on Monday July 9, 2012. For more information, go to www.businessicon.com