It's time to make it big!

Young entrepreneurs from across the country get a much deserved opportunity to build, showcase and sell their dream project at a contest organised by the IIBMFrom creating a mobile phone application to locate eateries in the vicinity to setting up a mobile school laboratory, new Indian entrepreneurs are ready to fight it out in the finale of Next Big Idea, an initiative by Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.On March 25, the top 10 teams comprising entrepreneurs from across the country will participate in this competition to showcase their innovative projects. The top three teams will be mentored by the panel before participatingin the international competition in September 2011The three top teams would win cash prize of about Rs 1 lakh and get an opportunity to participate in an international competition in the University of California, Berkeley. The competition is an initiative by Nadathur S Raghavan Center for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) cell in IIMB. The objective is to increase conversion of ideas into business. Here competition is incidental. The aim is to speed up and nurture ideas into successful business, said Chandar Sundaram, consultant, NSRCEL.Learning to sellSessions on marketing and product selling were conducted before teams showcased their products. Sundaram informed that the projects cover domains like telecom, tourism, education, eco-friendly manual machines and so on. Even if they don't win, they would take something back in form of inputs and ideas on how to take it to the next level of implementation, said Kumar, Chairperson NSRCEL.This is a value addition for our idea and money is a secondary matter. We had a fruitful experience and it will be inspiring to see other entrepreneurs at work. This is a platform for engineers to understand how to refine ideas and sell them, said 21-year-old Vaibhav Srivastava, an engineering student and participant in the competition.