iBucs Competition

JOHNSON CITY (April 19, 2019)– Entrepreneurial minded students at East Tennessee State University will pitch their business ideas to a panel of judges during the second annual iBucs Competition on Friday, April 20, at 10 a.m. in the Millennium Center first floor auditorium.

Presented by ETSU’s College of Business and Technology, innovative students will compete for cash prizes to help accelerate their business ideas.

In order to qualify to present a pitch at iBucs, student teams were required to submit an executive summary, a feasibility analysis and business plan for any type of idea or concept they would like to bring to reality. Each team will give a five-minute presentation followed by a question and answer session with the judges.

Students enrolled in programs of study across the university will participate in iBucs, with business ideas ranging from health care, to technology and services.

“We continue to see students who have great ideas, but wonder what to do next,” said Stephen Hendrix, co-organizer of the iBucs competition and instructor in ETSU’s Department of Computing. “We started thinking about how we could help students push their idea forward with a business plan, so we created a platform to present ideas.”

The iBucs competition promotes student collaboration and connections to resources available in the community. Professionals, ETSU faculty, and entrepreneurs selected to serve as judges include Mark Bays, assistant director of ETSU’s Tennessee Small Business Development Center; Liz Bennett, assistant director of the ETSU Innovation Lab; Heath Guinn, entrepreneur and founder of Sync.Space in Kingsport; Dr. Joel Ryman, associate professor, ETSU Department of Management and Marketing; and Mary Trigiani, senior vice president, strategic planning and development at New Peoples Bank, Inc.

The public is invited to attend this free event. For more information, contact Stephen Hendrix at hendrixs@etsu.edu or Bill McTier at mctier@etsu.edu.