Smith School Names 20 Semi-Finalists in $50,000 China Business Plan Competition Maryland Secretary of State Makes Announcement in Beijing

The Smith School on June 27, 2006 announced the 20 semi-finalist teams in the schools second annual China Business Plan Competition during a news conference in Beijing. With many of the contestants in the audience, the names of the semi-finalists were read by Maryland Secretary of State Mary D. Kane and Shi Dinghuan, Counselor of the State Council and former Secretary General of the Ministry of Science and Technology for the Peoples Republic of China. Kane was in China leading a delegation of state government and higher education leaders, as part of Maryland's Sister State relationship with Chinas Anhui Province.

Mary D. Kane, Maryland Secretary of State (speaking at news conference)

Obviously as evidenced by my presence in Beijing today, our productive Sister State relationship with Anhui has led to many more opportunities throughout China and beyond provincial borders, where the State of Maryland and institutions of higher learning such as the Smith School of Business and Chinese educators and leaders have joined together in a number of mutually beneficial initiatives and strategic partnerships, said Kane before an audience that included more than 30 Chinese journalists.

Kane was joined at the news conference by Dr. Calvin Burnett (8th from left in photo below), the Secretary of the Maryland Higher Education Commission and Dr. James Fielder (9th from left in photo below), the states Secretary of Labor, Licensing & Regulation, along with state college and university presidents. Several high level Chinese officials were also on hand for the announcement at Beijings Zhonghuancun Science Park.

This is an exciting moment, as this competition is supporting the growth of world-class business ideas and business leaders in China, said Xia Yingqui (6th from left in photo below), Deputy Director of the Peoples Government of Beijing Municipality Administrative Committee of Zhonghuancun Science Park. Zhongguancun is the centerpiece of Chinas technological development, and we hope that by providing our support to Smiths China Business Plan Competition, we are further nurturing Chinas future business leaders.

The 20 semi-finalists were chosen from nearly 150 teams that submitted executive summaries on their business ideas. The semi-finalist teams must now develop full 15- to 25-page business plans. From those, five finalist teams will be selected to compete for a $25,000 grand prize, $15,000 second prize and $10,000 third prize in the final round of the competition September 13th in Beijing.

Among those selected to move on to the next round of the competition is the Wang Luo Guang Gao (WLGG) team. WLGG plans to use the Web to solicit advertising ideas, which it would then sell to multi-national firms. The team includes two Chinese natives, along with an Australian and a New Zealand native, both now living in Beijing. They view this first round win as a vote of confidence for their business idea.

The contest was an easy way of validating whether it was a good idea or not and we thought if we continued to progress, it would tell us we are on the right on track, said team member Jack Heseltine, who is immediately thinking about the next round. We will now firm up some of the numbers and talk to advertising departments at a couple of potential target companies. The Smith Schools Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship annually hosts the China Business Plan Competition. The State of Maryland's Department of Business and Economic Development joined as a competition partner this year. Other sponsors include: ING Investment Management Asia/Pacific, New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), Zhongguancun Wangjing Science Park, The Hina Group, iSoftStone Information Service Corp., Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, ChinaCast, Opus8, Zernike Group, ZERO2ipo, Dow Jones, Economic Observer, Discovering Value, Maryland Center China and Maryland China Business Council.

The annual China Business Plan Competition was started after the Smith School launched its first Executive MBA program in Beijing in 2003. The school also delivers its Executive MBA program in Shanghai and is currently delivering a custom MBA program for Otis Elevator China, one the largest multi-national firms in China.