Ten student teams are preparing pitches for the Big Idea Competition, and another group of student entrepreneurs is competing to win the first Student Business of the Year award. Winners will be announced April 11 as part of Entrepreneurship@Cornell’s Celebration conference.

Celebration 2014

Celebration will take place April 10-11 on campus and includes several events that are free and open to the public:

Thursday, April 10
• eLab Demo Day, 4:45-6:15 p.m., Statler Auditorium.

Friday, April 11
• The Playground Startup Career Fair, 8:30–11 a.m., Statler Ballroom.
• “BIG Idea” Undergraduate Competition Finals, 4:30-6 p.m., Statler Ballroom.

To register for the entire conference, visit entrepreneurship.cornell.edu.

The Big Idea Competition, sponsored by Entrepreneurship@Cornell and RECESS – a national organization that runs music and idea festivals on college campuses to empower student entrepreneurs – offers $3,000 to the winning undergraduate students or teams for the best idea in the for-profit or social categories. Business ideas range from a clean car wash service to a learning app.

For example, Daniel Masetti ’17 and Mike Merrill ’17 developed a Code Problems app, which would provide users with short puzzles or problems that could be solved with a few lines of code, logic and problem-solving skills. The app would be valuable, said Masetti, for college-age engineers or high school students or adults wanting to learn about programming.

One Big Idea finalist will be chosen by RECESS to travel to Las Vegas in May to pitch their idea at a national college business idea contest there.

The Cornell Venture Challenge finalists, vying for a $25,000 prize, will give their business-plan presentations April 10. The challenge is sponsored by BR Venture Fund, a student-run venture capital fund.

RECESS is providing a networking event at the conference called “the Playground” to help students meet entrepreneurs and find jobs. RECESS will also bring a trio of panelists – About.me CEO and True Ventures partner Tony Conrad; Roozt co-founder and CEO Brent Freeman; and Change Hero’s founder Taylor Conroy.

Also speaking will be Cory Levy, co-founder of One, who will give the keynote for the Student Business of the Year Luncheon April 11.

The Student Business of the Year is new to the conference this year. Each of Cornell’s schools and colleges was invited to nominate students for this award, which includes a cash prize of $5,000 and recognizes commitment to developing and operating a successful business while pursuing an education.

The winning business will be chosen by a selection committee, which conducted initial screenings and listened to presentations from finalists earlier this month.

Seven student businesses are in the competition. One, Ithaca Hummus, led by Chris Kirby ’15, is already generating revenue with freshly made products available at 38 stores. Within the next year, Kirby said he hopes to move into a larger production facility so the company can expand its distribution to New York City and Wegmans stores throughout New York and Pennsylvania.

“My first five months in business I did everything from production to distribution to sales completely by myself all while enrolled full time at the [School of Hotel Administration],” he said.

Entrepreneurship@Cornell’s two-day Celebration will bring more than 200 alumni to campus for networking, panel discussions and meetings with students and faculty. A highlight of the event will be a dinner honoring the Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year 2014, Greg Galvin, M.S. ’82, Ph.D. ’84, MBA ’93, chairman and CEO of Rheonix Inc. and Mezmeriz Inc. and co-founder and former CEO of Kionix Inc.

“Celebration is our premier on-campus e-ship event. We are delighted to be expanding its scope and getting even more students involved. Highlighting student activities is a great complement to the overall Celebration,” said Zach Shulman, director of E@C.

Kathy Hovis is a writer for Entrepreneurship@Cornell.