Business Ideas Competition 2012 at FAST School of Management Concluded

The third edition of Business Ideas Competition 2012 (BIC 2012) was organized by Best Practices – FAST Business Club on 6th and 7th of April 2012 at the FAST School of Management, National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences, Lahore.

This 2-days annual entrepreneurial challenge witnessed participation of more than 30 teams from all over the country. Participants presented business ideas in three themes i.e. E-businesses, Energy businesses and Agri businesses.

These themes were specifically selected keeping in view the country’s existing socio-economic outlook, challenges and opportunities as ideas presented in these specific areas have the potential to achieve economic prosperity and respond to different crises.

On the first day of the event, during the preliminary round, judges analyzed all the business ideas and scored them on a host of criteria. Based on the scoring by the judges in the preliminary round, six teams were selected for the final round. These teams comprised of students from leading universities of the country including, GIK Institute, NUST, UMT, Lahore School of Economics, FAST, Preston University and Lahore College for Women University.

At end of first day’s proceedings, Mr. Omair Bangash, co-founder of Tossdown.com delivered an engaging and inspiring talk on following own’s dreams.

On the second day of the event, an elite panel of judges witnessed interactive and engaging presentations followed by a tough Q&A session for all the finalist teams. After completion of final round, Director, FAST-NUCES, Lahore campus gave away the prizes to winning teams.

2nd Runners up prize, a shield and cash prize of PKR 20,000 went to team from UMT for their business idea related to mobile phone charging. Runners up prize, a shield and cash prize of PKR 30,000 went to team from Preston University for their idea based on hydroponics farming.

The Winning prize for BIC 2012, winning shield and a cash prize of PKR 50,000 was bagged by the team from FAST School of Management, Lahore for their business idea related to social commerce and electronic discount coupons.

Judges’ participation in the event was a key highlight of this event. Judges’ panel in the Preliminary round consisted of 25 professionals from various organizations. While during the final round an elite panel of judges comprised of reputable business leaders. All the judges shared their experiences with the participants formally and informally, and gave valuable feedback to inspiring entrepreneurial talent on their specific business ideas. Elite panel of judges for final round comprised of:

• Mr Zafar Khan (CEO, Sofizar, Constellation CK and an avid agri-entrepreneur)
• Mr Khurram Zafar (A serial entrepreneur from Silicon Valley and currently working as CIO at Lahore Stock Exchange)
• Mr Mubeen Mughal (Director, Mughal Steel)
• Mr Zia Imran (CEO, Vahzay and Ex-MD Pakistan Software Export Board)
• Mr Faisal Naveed Asif (CEO, Scaled Aviation, Pakistan’s 1^st private sector aircraft manufacturing company)
• Mr Raffat Iqbal (Ex-Director Marketing, Honda Atlas)

In the closing ceremony of the event, President of Student Executive Body, FAST Business Club, Mr. Muhammad Mehsim thanked all the audience, participating teams, judges as well as organizing teams for making the event a great success.

In his closing note Director, FAST Lahore Campus, Dr. Arshad Hussain congratulated the winning teams and encouraged all the young entrepreneurs to keep their spirits high and appreciate the value of innovation in entrepreneurship.