Nevada's (NCET) Donald W. Reynolds Governor's Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition

NCET's (Nevada's Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology) Donald W. Reynolds Governor's Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition is an educational program and competition focusing on business planning skills that is held annually for all Nevada, USA, college and university students in both undergraduate and graduate tracks. The program's purpose is to provide students with an opportunity to learn "real-world" business planning skills and to encourage them to consider entrepreneurship as a career option.

Students compete for nearly $100,000 in cash awards. The turnout increases yearly - in 2011, 74 teams (48 undergraduate teams and 26 graduate teams) entered. If a team has a single graduate student it is considered a graduate level team for purposes of entering the competition. Students have entered from a wide variety of majors including business, engineering, speech pathology, journalism, culinary arts, biotechnology and many more

Major funding for the competition is provided by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation,^[1] created by the late Donald W. Reynolds.

Each year, students from the University of Nevada, Reno, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Sierra Nevada College, Truckee Meadows Community College, College of Southern Nevada and Great Basin College enter the competition, along with students from private colleges such as University of Southern Nevada, Morrison University and University of Phoenix. In 2010, students from the University of Nevada Las Vegas won most of the major prizes.^[2]

Student who enter the Governor's Cup business plan competition may also enter a parallel competition for the Lt. Governor's Award given to the business plan that best employs clean, renewable or efficient energy technologies and services.

The top two winners in each category (undergraduate and graduate) compete in the Tri-State Reynolds Cup against winners in Arkansas and Oklahoma for a further $90,000 in prize money.

Lt. Governor Brian Krolicki has been the Master of Ceremonies each year since the program's inception.

References

1. ^ "Donald W. Reynolds Foundation Special Projects". March 31, 2010. http://www.dwreynolds.org/Grants/Web%20-%20SP.pdf. 
2. ^ Valerie Miller (April 24, 2010). "UNR Dominates in Governor's Cup". Las Vegas Review-Journal. http://www.lvrj.com/business/unr-dominates-in-governor-s-cup-91998064.html. 

External links

• [1] The Donald W. Reynolds Governor's Cup homepage
• [2] Nevada's Governor's Cup homepage
• [3] NCET - Nevada's Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology homepage