Club Billionaire to launch and run micro-enterprise competition at UTech

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

FOLLOWING the success of the 2011 hosting of the Micro-Enterprise Competition, Club Billionaire, a student entrepreneurship club at the University of Technology (UTech), Jamaica, is once again embarking on another hosting of the competition. The launch was held yesterday, Monday January 23, 2012, at the Technology Innovation Centre.

The fall semester saw Club Billionaire registering contestants and providing them with basic skills via workshops and seminars focused on business plan writing and other core aspects of business operations and management.

Semester two will see students participating in phase 2 of the Micro-Enterprise Competition, the main attraction of the club, from which four businesses will be operated in and around the UTech campus from January 30 to May 30, 2012. Contestants will be vying for over $100,000 in cash and prizes and will be awarded for Creativity, Long-term Financial Viability, and other merits.

After 10 weeks of competition, final judging will see the celebration of the top three businesses in an award ceremony at UTech's own Technology Innovation Centre at the beginning of April.

Competing businesses and their members are as follows:

* Team MangoBerri: Darren George, Samantha George & Christopher Brown

* Team Expresso Dreams: Yanique Gardner, Tedean Gordon, Danielle Clarke, Yanique Spencer & Ramone Collins

* Team Iconic Links: Jermaine Henry, Jevaugh Clarke, Nicheal Hickson & Orville Whyte

* Team Better Bargain: Lamont Adamson, Richard Campbell & Onyekon Linton

Club Billionaire was established at the University of Technology, Jamaica in September 2008 under the initiative of the Scotiabank Chair in Entrepreneurship and Development, UTech.

It is an extra-curricular entrepreneurship club focused on training young minds at the tertiary level on how to be successful entrepreneurs and develop the much-needed practical and personal skills crucial to maintaining the competitive edge in today's economy.