Southwest Business Plan Competition Announced

For Immediate Release      DATE: June 27, 2000

CONTACT: Trish Leggett
PHONE: 713-348-3443
E-MAIL: alliance@rice.edu

First Annual Southwest Business Plan Competition To Be Held in March, 2001

Co-Sponsored by Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University

HOUSTON, June 27, 2000- Future entrepreneurs and business leaders will converge on the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University on March 30-31, 2001 to participate in the first annual Southwest Business Plan Competition for MBA and graduate students.

The Southwest Business Plan Competition will be the only competition of its kind in the southwestern region of the United States. It will bring together aspiring entrepreneurs from universities in the states of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico. The winner of the competition automatically will qualify to represent the Southwest at the international MOOT CORP® Competition, the largest business plan competition in the world which is held each year at the University of Texas, Austin. Other regional competitions whose winners qualify as participants in MOOT CORP® are currently held in California, Georgia, Indiana, Nebraska, and Oregon.

"Our competition provides an opportunity for business students in the southwestern United States region to participate in a business plan competition that is close to home," says Professor Steve Currall, who will serve as the Director of the new regional competition co-sponsored by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management. Currall is Director and Co-Founder of the Rice Alliance and Associate Professor of Management and Psychology at the Jones School.

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The Rice Alliance is a collaborative effort among the Schools of Engineering, Management, and
Natural Sciences at Rice that promotes entrepreneurship and technological innovation. Co-sponsorship of the event underscores the Alliance's dedication to the study and creation of new entrepreneurial business concepts.

"The Southwest Business Plan Competition will be a meeting ground for entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and technical experts. Out of this event, many new technology businesses will be born. Our sponsorship shows Rice's commitment to technological innovation and its positive impact on the business community," Currall says.

The Jones School has a longstanding commitment to entrepreneurship education; it was one of the first business schools in the country to require an entrepreneurship course and boasts Professor Edward E. Williams-the No. 2 ranked entrepreneurship professor in the U.S.-according to Business Week magazine.

Jones School Dean Gil Whitaker is enthusiastic about the school's partnership with the Rice Alliance to host the competition. "The Southwest Business Plan Competition will provide our students, our faculty, and the Jones School an opportunity to encounter and compete with some of the most talented, creative, entrepreneurial thinkers from other business schools in the region," he says.

This summer, business schools from the southwestern region of the U.S. will be invited to participate in the new competition. MBA and non-MBA graduate students will then conceive an idea for a new business, and develop the idea into a written business plan. Judges of the business plans will be venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, investment bankers, angel investors, and corporate executives from across the country.

For more information about the Southwest Business Plan Competition, visit the Rice Alliance website at www.alliance.rice.edu, or contact the Rice Alliance staff by phone (713) 348-3443 or e-mail: alliance@rice.edu. Detailed information on the Southwest Business Plan Competition will be posted on the Alliance website in the very near future.