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UNB Students Capture First Prize In APEX Competition, But Crash Course In Business Is The Real Win 

Huddle Staff Fredericton , New Brunswick , Saint John , Sponsored

FREDERICTON – When four University of New Brunswick (UNB) engineering students with limited business know-how wanted to turn their project into a business, they knew just the competition to join. 

Xavier H é bert -Couturier, Maxime Dumont, Dominic Levesque and Zachary Anderson are the founders of  Picketa  Systems, a company that’s developing instant plant and soil nutrient sampling for farmers (a process that typically would take weeks).   

They’re also the first prize winners of the 2021 Apex Business Plan Competition in the undergraduate category.   

Hosted by the UNB Fredericton faculty of management’s International Business and Entrepreneurship Centre, the annual APEX Business Plan Competition is not just about pitching and winning. It’s an intense crash course in business that helps students gain confidence and develop leadership skills. Whether they win or not, students who participate will come out with stronger business skills than they had before.   

And for the  Picketa  Systems team, that’s exactly what they were looking for.   

“Being four engineers, I think our weakest point was the communication of the technology. We had just finished our first semester doing a technical audit, which was very dry,” says  H é bert -Couturier. “Going off from that to APEX we had to shift strategy and really focus on communicating the value that we can bring and less the technical aspects.”   

Participants get the chance to participate in workshops, mentoring, and practice rounds, where they  receive feedback from business experts and professionals across the Atlantic region before pitching for the judges.

“The workshops helped us refine it even more and of course, we practiced for weeks and months before,” says H é bert-Couturier. “It was really getting it perfected and really starting that skill from scratch, being engineers.”

Unlike previous years, Covid-19 regulations meant that the competition had to be held virtually this year using Microsoft Teams. Workshops and mentorship were delivered through livestream, interactive panel sessions, keynotes and webinars on YouTube, Microsoft Teams and REMO. Speakers included Adam Peabody, Director of Planet Hatch; Krista Ross, CEO of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce; Stephanie Fox, Vice President of Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation; and Adrienne  O ’ Pray , Vice President of Client Success with MESH/diversity.  

This year’s APEX smashed all previous records, attracting 163 students in 70 teams, representing 45 universities from nine Canadian provinces and 15 other countries.  

Though the in-person networking and interaction were missed, the online format turned out to have lots of advantages, including having the competition  opened  to students around the world. 

“The neat part of it is they had students from all over the world,” says Kathy Malley of Malley Industries, one of the APEX judges. “One of my teams was from Nigeria, a couple more were from Singapore.” 

Malley recalls a particular pitch from a team in Indonesia, that demonstrated how the competition truly had a global reach. 

“At one time, there was some background noise … and the young lady said ‘well, they’ve been called to prayer.’ And you realize ‘ok, it’s a Muslim country,’ and obviously the time that our interview was booked, was at a time when the faithful are called to prayer,” says Malley. 

“While she probably didn’t want to say no to the time for the booking, she just did what she had to do. I found that so interesting. That’s what you’re dealing with when it’s a virtual trade show.”  

Being an APEX judge for about 15 years along with her husband and business partner, Terry, Malley, has seen how the competition has evolved over time. She says the addition of workshops and practice rounds gives the competition a strong educational component most other business plan competitions don’t have.

“When Terry and I were interested in getting involved in business, there was nobody out there to mentor you to understand what the obligations are of a  businessperson ,” she says.   

“You’re always pitching. If you’re a business owner or even an employee of a business, you’re always selling or advancing the cause of the company. Trying to explain in layman’s terms who, what, why and where, how and how much. Those basics need to be covered.”

Even for first-prize winner Pi c keta Systems, the mentorship and feedback the competition provides are more valuable than any monetary prize.

“Coming out of this, it gives you some confidence that you’re doing some things right. Even if you don’t win anything, you get some good feedback from the judges. And the judges are very good at pointing out what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong,” says Dumont,  Pi c keta  System’s chief operations officer.   

“Not coming from business, we don’t really know if you’re doing things right. Just to get the judges and everybody’s feedback, it means more than just a cash prize.”

Whether students are like Picketa Systems and are serious about starting a business, or if they want to just test the waters of entrepreneurship, the APEX Competition has something to offer everyone. 

“People have conceptions about business. That they’re easy and they’re a sure and fast way to money, and they’re not,” says Malley. “I think anything, going through this process gets these young people to think, ‘do I really want to go down with road?’ It gives them a good chance to test the waters and determine are you really entrepreneurial or not.”  

Banner photo, from left to right: Xavier Hébert-Couturier, Maxime Dumont, Dominic Levesque and Zachary Anderson are the founders of Picketa Systems. Image: submitted.

This article was sponsored by UNB Fredericton’s faculty of management .

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Apex Hybrid Business Plan Competition 2021: Compete for over $20,000 available in cash prizes!

Deadline: December 10, 2020 00:00 CET | Apply here [Oops, the opportunity has already expired. Sign up to AlphaGamma weekly newsletters to stay ahead of the game] Eligibility: Undergraduate or graduate student enrolled in a post-secondary institute, or recent alumni graduated within a year of competition. Every participant must meet the minimum tech requirements to run MS Teams. Location:  Online and Fredericton, Canada

Apex Hybrid Business Plan Competition 2021

For the past ten years, UNB’s Apex Business Plan Competition has attracted more and more  entrepreneurial students from across Canada to campus.

Despite restrictions and uncertainties imposed by COVID-19, the organisers are committed to continuing this momentum with the 2021 Apex Hybrid format, a blended online & in-person experience, that will be inclusive, engaging, and safe for students to compete and pursue their entrepreneurial dreams.

Teams will compete in a variety of events at either the undergrad or graduate levels virtually or in-person, in front of accomplished judges in the fields of marketing, finance and entrepreneurship.

The Hybrid Experience

The five-day 2021 Apex Hybrid Competition’s online and in-person elements provide flexibility for participants to take part from anywhere. During the competition, students get to build life-long connections and put their entrepreneurial ideas to the test with a panel of experts.

The hybrid experience extends beyond the competitive events, where students will be engaged in webinars with the business community, ice-breaker social activities, and networking opportunities with sponsors.

• Online Elements

Registered teams gain full-access to the Microsoft Teams platform which will be used across the fiveday event. Teams, judges, and APEX coordinators will be able to communicate through this platform.

• Hybrid Elements

The final day of the competition will take place at a venue on campus with necessary provision for social distancing*. The event will be live-streamed for remote teams to participate via Microsoft Teams.

Participants, judges, guest speakers, and sponsors can participate in-person or virtually.

Business Plan Content

Each team must submit only one business plan to the competition. Businesses previously submitted to the competition are not eligible.

Teams are required to have personally conducted the business plan analysis and prepared all financial projections for up to two years. Tell a story of “who, what, where, when, why, and how” so the reader clearly understands the business.

Competition Tracks & Prizes

The competition will challenge participants to be innovative and creative as they develop, direct, organize and present a business plan to a panel of judges.

These judges will select the most plausible and promising business plan in each track and award cash prizes to each successful team.

The competition offers over $20,000 in cash prizes. You may be eligible for additional theme-based awards in the competition.

• Graduate Track
• Undergraduate Track
• Elevator Pitch
• Viewers Choice

Theme based awards:

• Entrepreneurial Powerhouse
• Best business plan
• Social enterprise
• Undergrad first-year team

Interested in applying for the Apex Hybrid Business Plan Competition 2021? Register your participation by following  the  registration link  and taking the suggested steps.

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UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK UNB business students win at 2023 Apex Business Plan Competition

Business students from the University of New Brunswick's (UNB) Fredericton campus were among the winners of the 2023 Apex Business Plan Competition on Jan. 26 and 27.

The competition was created by UNB's International Business & Entrepreneurship Centre to challenge participants to be innovative and creative as they develop, direct, organize and present a business plan or new venture to a panel of judges and mentors.

UNB announced last month that the Bank of Montreal (BMO) pledged $500,000 to sponsor the BMO APEX Business Plan Competition for 10 years, starting in 2024. This continues UNB's partnership with BMO in recognizing entrepreneurial excellence.

The two-day 2023 Apex Hybrid Competition allowed 69 participants and 29 teams to take part from anywhere in the world. Participants originated from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Manitoba, Texas, Benin and Ghana.

Second-year UNB bachelor of business administration (BBA) student, Kevin Lauren Abraham, described his experience winning second place ($4,000) in the New Venture Track for Apex 2023 as stunning.

"We met other talented entrepreneurs, and it showed us the value of encouraging business ideas from students," he said. "The way people produced solutions to problems that we deal with regularly was mind-blowing. That competitive spirit just boosted my energy. It was exciting to be there."

Abraham and his teammates, Abhilash Sharma (MBA '22), Garrett Travis, a first-year building engineering student at the New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) and Abhishek Sharma, a fourth-year electrical engineering student at Thapar University), created Move-In.

Move-in is a platform that provides financially viable solutions to the hassle of finding a roommate, finding a new place to stay and finding quality furniture for your living spaces.

Aside from the cash prize, Abraham listed other benefits to participating in Apex 2023.

"They linked us up with the computer science department so we could source students to work on the software," he explained. "We were also given information about grants that we could apply for. It was exciting to make connections like that and extend our reach and network with people in the industry."

Last semester, first-year BBA students learned the fundamental skills to create an entrepreneurial venture and develop a pitch deck, financial model and written business plan. Six teams took that knowledge and competed at Apex 2023.

First-year BBA student Rukeme Akalusi, and her team members, Skylar Soh and Leen Abu Al-Sha'r created Otium. Their idea won the Business Administration Undergraduate Society (BAUS) Business Planning and Entrepreneurship Award ($500) for the best business project for a UNB ADM 1192 Business Plan and Entrepreneurship team and second place ($500) in the elevator pitch competition, out of 29 teams.

Derived from the Latin word meaning ease, Otium combines the function of a charger, an international adapter and a power bank for multi-devices regardless of their brand. It also has a smart Artificial Intelligence (AI) system to cut off the charging automatically when it detects that the battery is fully charged.

Akalusi said Apex 2023 was a terrific opportunity to share her work with like-minded individuals and people in the business community.

"Being part of this competition is an experience in and of itself," she said. "The competition was exciting, and we met a lot of people who encouraged us to move forward with our idea."

Evan Despres and his fellow first-year students, Ellie Clair, Madeleine Desrochers and Kieran Brost, won third place ($250) in the elevator pitch competition for their idea, Kicks Clip.

Kicks Clip is a shoe clip that can attach to the outside straps of your bag and carry your shoes (or alternative items).

"With this, we hope to alleviate the issues of storage and odour while also letting you show off your kicks to family, friends and teammates alike," said Despres, who described how he felt about the experience. "I am not sure we will continue with the idea beyond the competition, but it was overall a rewarding experience."

Learn more about the  Business Plan Competition .

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Atlantic Canada Business Grants

Apex Hybrid Business Plan Competition

by Maurice | February 3, 2023

Type of Program:

Competition

Description:

The Apex Business Plan Competition challenges participants to be innovative and creative as they develop, direct, organize and present a business plan or new venture to a panel of judges and mentors. The competition has two tracks: 

• 1 The Student business plan track (open for students enrolled in post-secondary institutions);
• 2 The New venture track (open to recent alumni, non-students and students running early-stage ventures).

Comments on Funding:

Funding is $30,000 in cash prizes.

The prize for the winners of the New Venture Track is $10,000 (allocated to up to 3 teams).

When It Ends:

Next deadlines to be determined

Eligibility:

Applicants for the Student business plan track must:

• be actively enrolled full- or part-time students in a postsecondary institution (worldwide),
• have not competed in Apex with the same business before, unless team can show a significant pivot in their business idea;
• have personally conducted the business plan analysis and prepared all financial projections (up to 2 years) together with the team members.

Applicants for the New venture track must:

• own a venture that:
• has less than $1 million/year (CAD) in revenues;
• has fewer than 25 employees;
• is less than 5 years old;
• have the rights to use any content not created by the participant, and the content must be correctly sourced.

Application Steps:

Applicants must submit the online application form;

Applicants must compete in the elevator pitch round;

Applicants must compete in the presentation round.

Documentation Needed: 

Applicants must submit:

• 1 the executive summary;
• 2 the investor pitch deck, if applying for the new venture track;
• 3 a business plan, if applying for the student business plan track.

Other Things to Note:

The registration deadline for the 2023 competition was December 15. 

Program Contact:

Apex Business Plan Competition | IBEC | Faculty of Management | UNB

Related posts:

About Maurice

Maurice (Moe) Muise learned the ins-and-outs of government while an employee of the Government of Canada in Ottawa for 10 years. His current focus is helping small businesses in Atlantic Canada to identify and maximize government grants to grow their business. Click here to learn more about Moe’s background and how he can help your business.

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Meet the winners of the 2024 Mayo Business Plan Competition

Golden Connections, an AI-powered health and wellness digital platform designed to help with the needs of senior citizens and their caregivers, won the first-place prize of $30,000 in the 2024 Mayo Business Plan Competition.

Lauren Cunningham ’24 , Emma Route ’25 , and Sangam Shivaprasad ’24 developed the digital platform to serve as a bridge between adult caregivers and their aging family members.

The team says an estimated 65 million caregivers of seniors are also working adults, like their own parents. Cunningham shared the story of Sandra — her grandmother, affectionately called Grammy — who lives far from her family but needs help with everyday tasks like remembering appointments. Many of those tasks, she said, fall on her mom.

“We see our parents helping their parents, and we wanted to make that easier for them,” Cunningham, a marketing major, said. Caregivers report insufficient sleep, exhibit chronic stress, and lose productivity due to caregiving responsibilities.

Enter Golden Connections, a user-friendly digital platform that features an AI assistant named Grace that can help seniors with everyday tasks and reminders via customized check-in calls and provide health and wellness insights based on speech biomarker analysis.

“I learned about speech biomarkers at an internship last summer at Johnson & Johnson,” Route, a chemistry major, said. “They’re using these biomarkers in clinical trials for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease, so I wanted to incorporate that in our platform so that people can use it in their everyday lives.”

Speech and language biomarkers, such as speech rate, pitch, volume, vibration, and other vocal features, may indicate whether a person is experiencing cognitive changes.

Shivaprasad, a biology major, has been interested in medicine since she was young but recently became curious about business. “The Mayo Business Plan Competition helped me learn that this is something I want to pursue in the future,” she said. “It opened many doors and showed me how to make connections.”

This year, 25 teams competed in the challenge, spending much of the academic year on their projects. Three teams made it to the finals in the Mayo Concert Hall on March 27, where each had 30 minutes to make presentations and respond to questions from a five-person panel of alumni judges.

In all, $60,000 in prize money was awarded. A plan for a trendy and affordable thrift store to serve TCNJ students and the surrounding community was the runner-up, garnering team 2nd Chance $20,000. The third-place team, Girls Got Your Back, designed a location-based app to facilitate mutual assistance among women in a community during times of need and won $10,000 for their plan.

The Mayo Business Plan Competition was established in 2011 through the generosity of finance professor emeritus Herbert B. “Buddy” Mayo. Through the TCNJ Foundation, Mayo established an endowment that supports the competition — one of the most robust in New Jersey.

Second Place ($20,000): 2nd Chance by Caley Faith Cortezano ’25 , public health; Alex Fabiano ’24 , interdisciplinary business; Dylan Romanski ’24 , finance. The team pitched a second-hand store that aims to provide students at TCNJ with financially and eco-conscious shopping options with high-quality new and used clothing, furniture, and school supplies.

Third Place ($10,000): Girls Got Your Back by Olivia Chiarella ’25 , communication studies; Victoria Dasilva ’25 , finance; Tatiana Sawka ’25 , marketing; and Madilynne Slifer ’24 , marketing. The team has the vision to create a supportive and empowering digital community for women facing “mini emergencies” in their daily lives (like needing a phone or laptop charger ASAP when you’re in the library studying but forgot to pack your own).

—  Emily W. Dodd ’03

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Ideas with Impact UNB Faculty of Management

Making connections to last a lifetime: bmo apex business plan competition.

Author: Luke Saunders

Posted on Feb 26, 2019

Category: Students , Programs , IBEC

Using drone technology to inspect infrastructural integrity of bridges, exoskeletal technology to help physically impaired people walk, and a chemical process to produce super alloy out of carbon: these were some of the ideas being pitched at the recent 2019 BMO Financial Group APEX Business Plan Competition . Over 26 teams of students from across the country participated in the competition January 24th and 25th to compete for $20,000 in prizes. “It was a very exciting place to be,” said Dr. Devashis Mitra, dean of the Faculty of Business Administration. “There were so many different ideas being generated. Year after year, one of the most exciting aspects of this event is to hear students’ ideas and learn how they were able to collaborate on these ideas and turn them into business plans.” “There is an interesting story behind every plan,” said Andrew Lockhart, Programs Officer for the International Business and Entrepreneurship Centre (IBEC) which organized the competition. Jenna Evans, Aric Johnson and Elena Ascher won the top prize for their business plan “Luftkuss”, which offers high quality custom lip products made with organic, vegan ingredients. The three UNB BBA students were excited about their product when they formed their team, but knew that it would meet tough competition in the Canadian and US markets, where similar products were already being offered. It just so happened that Ascher is an exchange student from Germany where no such products exist, so here was a perfect market for Luftkuss. “Customizable lip products already exist, and are quite popular within the Western market, so when we realized that there was nothing like this available in Germany we immediately saw potential,” said Evans. As the plan came together, the team even developed a prototype of the product to share with the judges. Their marketing plan and prototype set them apart from all the other great plans in the competition. Winning was certainly a big highlight of the competition, said Evans, but what also made the whole experience valuable, was the “networking opportunities, which provided me with many contacts in the business field.” Students competing in APEX have many opportunities to network with seasoned business people and entrepreneurs, as well as with venture capitalists and angel investors. Sharing their ideas with this group and getting feedback that will help them improve their business plans is a benefit for all of the competitors. This year students heard from Marcel LeBrun, Venture Partner with Real Ventures , who talked about “5 keys to scaling your Startup from $1M-$10M” on the first day of the competition. On the second day they heard from a panel of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists - David Alston, Entrepreneur in Residence for the Province of New Brunswick; Jeff White, CEO of the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation ; and Peter Clark, Director of Pelorus Venture Capital Limited   - who shared candid advice to students on how to pitch their start-ups to investors. In an interview with CTV news , Lockhart said that from an organizer’s perspective, seeing students build confidence in themselves is one of the best things about the competition. Until now, he said, “… some of these students haven’t had this opportunity.” When asked if she had any advice for students who may be interested in APEX in the future, Evans echoed students from previous years by saying, “Do not hesitate, join the APEX competition! You will not regret joining. There is so much more to the APEX competition than money. I have fostered connections that will last for a lifetime.” Photo: Jenna Evans, Aric Johnson and Elena Ascher won top prize in the 2019 BMO Financial Group APEX Business Plan Competition for a customizable lip product called Luftkuss which they plan to introduce to the German market.

For more information, contact Liz Lemon-Mitchell. Learn more about our BMO Financial Group APEX Business Plan Competition and our International Business and Entrepreneurship Centre (IBEC) .

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5 Students Use Couri Hatchery to Prepare for New York Business Plan Competition

Frank Marin, Natasha Brao, Tosin Alabi, Motolani Oladitan and Jessica Grace McGhee

This semester, five University students working at the Couri Hatchery Student Business Incubator at the Whitman School of Management made it through the regional level of the New York State Business Plan Competition (NYBPC), an intercollegiate event designed to help prepare the next generation of entrepreneurs in New York state.

The hatchery, led by Program Manager Indaria Jones and supported by faculty from the Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises (EEE), assists students in preparing for this highly competitive event. They will compete for up to $100,000 in cash prizes to support their ventures.

The following students are currently competing for a place in the statewide competition to be held in Albany, New York, on April 25:

Tosin Alabi G’25 (MBA ) is an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Couri Hatchery and a student in Whitman’s MBA program. She is competing with her business venture DiabeTech, an electronic bandage created for diabetic foot ulcers.

The bandage not only protects the wound but has sensors that check temperature and glucose levels in real time, providing vital information for the patient and physician. This information can be used to ward off dangerous consequences of diabetic foot ulcers like gangrene or amputation.

From Nigeria, Alabi appreciates the support she has been given at the Hatchery, particularly as an international student.

“International students are already dealing with acclimating to both the culture and the rigors of the education here. Sometimes I feel like an octopus juggling so many things at once,” she says. “It took courage for me to go to the hatchery, but the resources there have helped me understand the rules, legalities, licenses and visa limitations that impact my business. And, I could not go a day without the support of Indaria. She has put a light in the Couri Hatchery and made it the place for me. DiabeTech is not just a business idea for me. It’s helping people have a better life, even those in my own family who are diabetic.”

Natasha Brao ’22 (College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA)), G’23, G’24 (MBA) first discovered the deliciousness of the classic Mediterranean dish Shakshuka on a trip overseas in 2019 and soon realized it was a compilation of many Mediterranean backgrounds and cultures. Having always loved experimenting with cooking, she created Shooka , a spiced tomato sauce with the idea of “mixing and melding cultures to promote creative cooking” and formalized her business in 2023. The product quickly gained attention this March when she started selling the sauce. Brao recently acquired a spot at New York State’s International Taste Festival where upwards of 7,000 attended and had the chance to try Shooka.

“My entrepreneurial side comes from my creative background [Brao earned a bachelor’s degree in design]. I was an idea machine and very passionate about food and culinary businesses,” she says. “I’ve been hanging out at the hatchery for quite a while, planning the future of the business, considering strategic partnerships and creating a road map so I can stay on track as a busy student and entrepreneur. I have weekly meetings with the advisors at the hatchery and that has kept a fire under me to keep progressing week to week.”

Frank Marin ’23 (College of Engineering and Computer Science), G’24 (MBA) is enrolled in a dual program earning an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science and an MBA with concentrations in entrepreneurship and supply chain management. He is working on a business opportunity called Marhold Space Systems LLC , which involves the removal of debris in space through innovative techniques. Marin is creating a general process for the spacecraft to follow that will give it maximum efficiency in debris removal.

“I am incredibly passionate about science and its growing importance, and I have a lot of ideas on how to make the world a better place, starting with removing debris,” he says. “The Couri Hatchery has been a place for me to talk with like-minded, entrepreneurial people, including members of the EEE faculty who challenge me and also help me stay on track. I hope that one day my ideas can make a difference in people’s lives.”

Jessica Grace McGhee ’19 (VPA), G’24 (VPA) is a fine artist with her own online gallery, who is also a creative arts therapy graduate student in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. She is entering her business venture Sacred Art of Rising (SAOR) in the competition. SAOR will engage survivors of chronic and complex trauma on three different platforms: the Resource Center in Syracuse’s South Side, an area of the city with a high poverty level; the Retreat Center, a safe space with a myriad of nonverbal and verbal therapeutic platforms with access to restorative rest; and the Sacred Art of Rising mobile app with sliding scale access to psychoeducational, motivational and self-care content with a platform for telehealth therapy.

As a survivor of complex and chronic trauma, McGhee has created SOAR as an alternative, non-verbal therapeutic platform to help others recover, especially those who are underserved, as a means of “symbolic investment.” She wants SOAR to create a full-circle investment in marginalized communities that heals and uplifts people to reach their own self-directed goals. And, McGhee hopes it will be a place to provide safe outdoor space for individuals and families to build healthy attachments, get social rest and also reach people in need of a place to heal and decrease the chronic toxic stress that accompanies poverty.

“I knew SOAR would be amazingly helpful but, financially, I couldn’t see how I could make it happen. Linda Hartsock just lit up that path for me,” she says. “I moved from Los Angeles to Syracuse in 2008 and was promised a very healthy existence but then endured several kinds of abuse before I got up the courage to leave. But, Syracuse University and the people at the Couri Hatchery have rooted for me and done their best to uplift me and help me reach my dreams.”

Motolani Oladitan ’24 (A&S) , a psychology major, has created Tà Beautie , an online marketplace for African entrepreneurs to sell their beauty products collectively online. From Nigeria, Oladitan is starting with six to eight products and hopes to expand from there, becoming the premier destination for African beauty and wellness by helping get these brands into mainstream U.S. markets. She has tested and used every product she offers, and when people kept asking to borrow her products, Oladitan knew she was on to something.

“Traci Giesler, Indaria Jones, Linda Dickerson Hartsock and all the mentors at the Couri Hatchery and the Blackstone LaunchPad have been so good to me and are always ready to help me practice my pitch or offer recommendations on how to tackle the things I’m facing,” she says. “I’m looking to put together a marketing plan, and even if I don’t win the competition, I know it’s a learning experience. Syracuse University has been a learning experience, too, and I will take the feedback and implement that into the future of the business. I am in this for the long run.”

The Couri Hatchery is named for John Couri ’63, co-founder of Duty-Free International and president of the Couri Foundation.

Dawn McWilliams

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Strogino Design Competition Moscow River

Strogino Design Competition Moscow River Embankment News, Russian Architecture Contest 2020

Moscow River Embankment Competition

23 Oct 2020

Strogino River Embankment Design Competition

Location: Strogino, Moscow, Russia

3 Firms Shortlisted for Moscow River Embankment In Strogino

Two Russian and one international consortia reach the final of the competition to develop riverbanks in Strogino On October 21, the jury of the Open International Online Architectural Competition for developing the right bank of the River Moskva from Moscow Ring Road to Stroginskoe Shosse (Highway) held its first online meeting. The jury analyzed 36 applications of the bidders and selected three finalists.

During the online session, the jury members evaluated the participants’ applications based on a number of criteria: relevance of the projects presented in the portfolio, their originality and efficiency, as well as the degree of implementation, the essay content and validity of the key ideas and approaches to the project concept development.

At the second competition stage, two Russian and a Russian-German consortium will work on the Strogino concept development. They include 13 companies, the absolute majority of which are Moscow-based. The consortia leaders are well-known urban design and architectural design studios with projects of iconic public areas development in their portfolios. Many of them have received Russian and international awards.

• Consortium led by Citymakers LLC (Moscow, Russia) – Participants: MASTER’S PLAN LLC (Moscow, Russia), BB ZOLOTO LLC (Moscow, Russia), ARTEZA LD LLC (Moscow, Russia), Kamen Art Group LLC (Moscow, Russia), APEX Design Bureau LLC (Moscow, Russia)

• Consortium led by AB WOWHAUS (Moscow, Russia) – Participant: TSPA (Berlin, Germany)

• Consortium led by Orchestra Design LLC (St. Petersburg, Russia; Paris, France) – Participants: 8 L LLC (Moscow, Russia), NGO IRK (Moscow, Russia), Faculty of Geography of the Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia), SP Maltsev Grigory Andreevich (Moscow, Russia).

Along with the three finalists listed above, who were selected according to the terms of the competition and received the highest rating, the jury also mentioned high quality of applications submitted by four other teams:

• Consortium led by AI-architects LLC (Moscow, Russia) – Participants: NGO Association Guild of Landscape Engineers (Moscow, Russia), the Peoples Friendship University (Moscow, Russia), SP Sheredega Y.V. (Moscow, Russia), TOLK (Kaluga, Russia)

• Consortium led by TPO PRIDE LLC (Moscow, Russia) – Participant: MADMA (Rotterdam, the Netherlands)

• Consortium led by AB Narodny Arkhitektor LLC (Moscow, Russia) – Participants: aZONEguide (Rotterdam, the Netherlands), Dr. William Veerbeek / Doctor of Science (Rotterdam, the Netherlands), Ilyina I.N. / Environmentalist, professor of the HSE (Moscow, Russia)

• Consortium led by BURO (BUROMOSCOW) LLC (Moscow, Russia) Participants: FELIXX (Rotterdam, the Netherlands), HabidatumInternational (New York, USA), Deltares (Delft, the Netherlands).

These four teams will be invited to develop the project proposal without participating in the distribution of the Competition Prize Fund.

22 Oct 2020 96 Firms Enter Moscow River Embankment In Strogino

96 Companies From 11 Countries Applied To Participate In The Competition For The Development Of The Strogino Embankment

October 2020 – 96 companies from 11 countries have applied to participate in the Open International Architectural Competition for the development of the Strogino embankment. They will have to develop a project for comprehensive improvement of the territory, preserving the unique natural landscape intact, but making it safe and comfortable for recreation.

October 15 was the application deadline. The competition site is part of the Moskvoretsky Natural Historical Park specially protected natural area (SPNA). Therefore, the participants are required to know the features of protected areas, being as careful as possible towards flora and fauna, thoroughly analyzing landslide processes to design the territory fully accessible for people with limited mobility.

“Specially protected natural areas do not mean that they should be wild, abandoned and inaccessible for recreation. They need to be taken care of, so the competition is an attempt to find a balance between comfort for people and good for nature. It aroused great interest among the professional community not only in Russia, but also in different parts of the world. Despite a short period given to submit applications, the Organizing Committee has approved 36 applications from 26 cities located in 11 countries. The Netherlands became the leader among foreign participants submitting as many as 7 applications. Three participants will represent Germany, the United States, the UK, France and Italy. Two companies from Switzerland and one each from Singapore, India and Kazakhstan will also join the fight for victory,” said Sergey Kuznetsov, Chief Architect of Moscow and Chairman of the Competition Jury.

Those wishing to develop the concept of the Strogino embankment had to submit a portfolio of completed projects relevant to the competition task, as well as to prepare a short essay describing their vision of the updated embankment. After filling out the application form, 96 companies from 11 countries joined the list of participants. A total of 36 applications were submitted: 12 applicants will participate in the competition individually and 84 – as part of 24 multinational consortia. There were even more people who wanted to take part in the competition – 134 participants from 22 countries registered on the site, but some of them failed to pass the selection process.

Dina Sattarova, CEO of the State Research and Design Institute for Urban Development of the City of Moscow (GRADPLAN Moscow): “Based on the results of communication with the park residents, their concerns about the planned human interference in this specially protected natural area are quite understood. Every tree should be saved! Along with distrust, the residents are dissatisfied with the current state of things – a crumbling embankment, irrelevant old-fashioned design of the park, its ecological paths and fishing sites. The competition is believed to generate a new bank of ideas to develop a modern design concept for the park with its picnic gazebos, benches, children’s and sports grounds. It will allow planning new bicycle and pedestrian paths along the existing routes together with local residents.”

The application deadline was October 15 for every team to participate in the competition – the official website www.moskvarekastrogino.com. This week two important events of the competition take place: yesterday Expert Council held a meeting and prepared its recommendations to a jury. The jury meeting is scheduled for October 21, during which three finalists will be selected to share their ideas concerning the Strogino embankment first, and then to start developing their projects. On December 2, the winner will be selected.

The competition has been initiated by the Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning of Moscow (Moskomarkhitektura) and is organized by the State Research and Design Institute for Urban Development of the City of Moscow (GRADPLAN Moscow). The Agency for Strategic Development CENTER is the competition operator. The jury consists of ecologists, landscape architects, representatives of public authorities, experts in the field of architecture, economics, marketing, real estate and urban planning. The jury has been headed by the Chief Architect of Moscow Sergey Kuznetsov.

Additional questions and information

The Competition Press Service [email protected]

Previously on e-architect:

Strogino Design Competition Moscow River Embankment

The Jury Started Accepting Applications For The Open International Architectural Competition To Develop The Moscow River Embankment In Strogino

Moscow, October 2, 2020 – Today, we started accepting applications from participants of the Open International Architectural Competition to develop the territory of the right bank embankment of the Moscow River from the MKAD to Strogino Highway. The competition will be held online.

Applications will be accepted on the official project website http://www.moskvarekastrogino.ru/ until October 15. The most important conditions to operate on the competition area include the need to comply with all environmental and other requirements for working with specially protected natural areas, and participating in teams of landscape architects.

The competition has been initiated by Moscomarchitecture and is organized by the state institution “NI and PI Gradplan of the City of Moscow” as a singe municipal operator to implement the urban development concept to develop territories adjacent to the Moscow River and the Khimki Reservoir.

Sergey Kuznetsov, Chief Architect of Moscow: “We have launched a competition for a new park in Strogino. There are excellent natural resources here that will not only be preserved, but also in some sense multiplied. If we provide this territory with a comfortable infrastructure, we will get a very interesting green space with a careful attitude to nature, safe at any time of the day, adapted for recreation and equally accessible to everyone. I encourage everyone who is interested in taking part in this exciting work, to submit applications. The competition has already been announced, so we started accepting the applications today.”

The area of the competition territory is 105.5 ha. It is located in the North-Western administrative district of the city of Moscow and is bounded by the right bank of the Moscow River, the Moscow Ring Road and Isakovsky Street. Strogino is one of the oldest districts in Moscow with good transport accessibility and developed infrastructure. There are three metro stations there – Strogino, Shchukinskaya and Myakinino. The territory under consideration is a key part of the city’s natural and recreational framework, which is part of the Moskvoretsky natural and historical park.

Dina Sattarova, Director of the state institution “NI and PI Gradplan of the City of Moscow”: “The goal of the competition is to create a high-quality, comfortable, inclusive urban environment for recreation of citizens, as well as to preserve and maintain a unique landscape creating a recognizable image of this territory, which is part of the Moskvoretsky natural and historical park. The Northern bank of the Strogino floodplain is sandy, and the sandy soil is most susceptible to the destructive effects of water.

The sloping part of the Spassky Backwater bank is destroyed by river washout, and the high steep slopes facing the Moscow river are also destroyed by rainwater, whose active flow forms deep ravines and crevices. All this will eventually lead to the destruction of the bank, the fall of trees and the washing of soil into the water. Therefore, the primary task of the contestants is to offer interesting and innovative solutions to protect the riverbanks taking into account the specifics of this protected natural area. Other measures are also needed to preserve and maintain the unique natural landscape, to ensure maximum safety of people in this area.”

The Open International Competition will be held in two stages. The first one ends on October 21, when the jury will announce three finalists depending on the results of submitted applications. The winners will be determined based on their portfolios of completed projects that demonstrate relevant experience, as well as essays describing the main ideas to form the future concept base. The teams will start developing their concepts, and a winner will be determined at the final jury meeting on December 2. The CENTER Agency for Strategic Development is responsible for the competition procedure.

The organizers are waiting for proposals coming from participants on architectural and planning, spatial and landscape solutions for the improvement of the embankment to integrate into the environment, taking into account the requirements for a specially protected natural area. That is why landscape architects, professionals in the field of strategic development of territories and urban planning, architecture, design, creation and development of public spaces are invited to participate. Preference will be given to teams with proven experience working with natural areas.

Chief Architect of Moscow Sergey Kuznetsov is the Chairman of the jury. The jury consists of landscape architects, environmentalists, representatives of public authorities, experts in the field of architecture, economics, marketing, real estate and urban planning.

The total prize fund of the competition is 14,000,000 rubles. Of these, 11,000,000 rubles will be spent as payment fees to a winner and finalists of the second round. Another 3,000,000 rubles is an additional remuneration to the winner after the jury accepts his final revised concept version.

As part of the competition preparation, Gradplan as a single city operator and coordinator of projects developed on the Moscow river embankments, conducted a comprehensive analytical study of the territory to be improved on the Moscow river’s right bank from the MKAD to Strogino highway. The goal of the research was to identify the area potential and the needs of those who live there. As a result of the research, the current situation and the main directions to develop the territory were analyzed, the world experience of working with reference examples was consolidated, and the needs of the population were taken into account.

The Moscow River

The Moscow river is a business card of the Russian capital. Its length within the Moscow region is 473 km, the basin area is 17,600 km². The river begins on a slope of the Smolensk-Moscow Upland and flows into the Oka on the territory of Kolomna. The length of the shoreline of the Moscow river within the city limits, including the Khimki reservoir, is 246 km, and the total area of the territory adjacent to the Moscow river and the Khimki reservoir is 12,270 ha.

As of 2020, the landscaped embankments are 77.1 km long. As part of the project to implement the Concept of urban development of the territories adjacent to the Moscow river and the Khimki reservoir, it is planned to improve 117.6 km of embankments of the Moscow river and the Khimki reservoir, adding another 16 to the 45 existing bridges.

Moscomarchitecture

Moscomarchitecture is responsible for forming and developing the legal base for the city of Moscow in the field of urban planning and architectural activities; performs activities that relate to territorial planning, pre-project preparation and property design of city programs in the field of capital construction, cartographic works and engineering surveys. Y.V. Knyazhevskaya is Chairman of the Committee; Sergey Kuznetsov is the First Deputy Chairman of the Committee and Chief Architect of the City of Moscow.

Under his leadership, many processes in the professional environment have speeded up to improve the quality of architectural and planning solutions, integrating Moscow into the international process of assessing the quality of architectural projects. A number of architectural competitions and educational activities continue; large-scale urban development projects and city programs are being implemented to build an open dialogue between the city, architect and investor. State Institution “NI and PI Gradplan of the City of Moscow”

NI and PI Gradplan of the City of Moscow develops urban planning documentation for the territories, performs a preliminary assessment of urban potential of the territory, develops plans for several urban projects to implement, including commercial, budgetary and socio-economic effectiveness of urban development.

In 2017, Moscow’s senior officials appointed NI and PI Gradplan of the city of Moscow as a single city operator in order to implement the urban development concept on the territories adjacent to the Moscow river and the Khimki reservoir. In 2018, the Institute expanded its powers to coordinate the projects developed on the Moscow river embankments, in terms of interaction with Federal executive authorities, Moscow city executive authorities, and investors.

Over 6 years of operation, the state institution “NI and PI Gradplan of the City of Moscow” has completed more than 385 projects in 527 territories. Employees of the Institute conducted more than 435 assessments of the urban development potential of territories, evaluated the economic efficiency of implementing design solutions for 519 projects of urban development of territories, took part in 5 professional competitions of Federal and International scale, performed 7 research works, conducted 5 sociological studies with the participation of 35,000 respondents, as well as 5 field surveys on areas of more than 6,782 ha.

Website: www.gradplanmos.ru

The CENTER Agency for Strategic Development

This is a Russian analytical and consulting organization that implements integrated projects in the fields of development, urban planning and urbanism, one of the leading operators of architectural and urban planning and design competitions. The CENTER Agency was established in Moscow in 2014. It deals with issues of integrated development of territories and real estate objects, as well as the quality of urban environment in more than 60 regions of Russia.

The main activities of the company: development of concepts for the development of territories and functional programming of the environment; analytics and research; GR and public-private partnership; professional competitions in the field of urban planning, architecture and design; organization of expert events and educational programs; territorial branding.

The CENTER Agency’s portfolio includes projects implemented for major developers, investment companies, owners of territories and facilities, federal and regional government agencies, and professional communities. Some of the CENTER’s projects were implemented in strategic partnership with local governments of constituent entities of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Construction and Housing of the Russian Federation.

Additional questions and information The Competition press service [email protected]

Strogino Design Competition Moscow River Embankment information / image received 021020

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Nikken Sekkei Wins Competition to Design Moscow's New Cultural Center

• Written by Eric Baldwin
• Published on September 26, 2019

Nikken Sekkei has been selected as the winner of the international design competition for the Sberbank Business Complex and cultural center in Moscow . The competition was hosted by Russia largest bank, Sberbank. The project is planned to become a new TOD model of Moscow, connected to multiple railway stations, including the metro adjacent to the site. The proposal was based on the concept of two evolving cities that complement and speak to one another through Moscow City and Sberbank City.

Within the site there are four existing buildings; two of which already in use and two towers under construction. The overall number of employee within the complex is expected to be 25,000. The aim of the competition was to create an ‘eco system’ for employees to increase their quality of life and shape a cultural educational complex. Nikken Sekkei ’s proposal presented the creation of a simple volume with a program that includes a museum, a visitor center, a medical and a sports center with direct access to the offices. With a wedge-shaped design, 300m long, the future building is made to integrate with the surrounding landscape while conforming to program conditions.

As the team explains, to ensure an efficient and effective plan, the building program is divided in two distinct zones: one for employees and one for the general public. A large void space, filled with greenery and light, parts the upper and the lower portions of the area. This void space includes a plaza on ground floor, which extends to upper levels through stepped green terraces, creating an indoor park to be used all year round. The complex will also offer a multi-functional multimedia area, suspended in the middle of the cultural center, with a variable volume for international forums and conferences. The project will feature views over Moscow for both employees and visitors.

The competition was launched in April 2019, and the appointment of Nikken Sekkei was determined by Sberbank in August. The building is aiming for completion in 2023.

About Nikken Sekkei : http://www.nikken.jp/en

CG Copyright: Nikken Sekkei / CG Ownership: Sberbank

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