BIG Ideas | Honors College

The signature program of the Kennemer Center is the BIG Ideas Contest, a student innovation contest focused on developing ideas with social impact. BIG Ideas is, by design, an entry-level program that encourages students who have limited or no competition experience to develop their ideas, transform their thinking, and address societal problems through creativity and ingenuity. Advising, mentoring and assistance are integral parts of the program, along with funding and recognition. Beyond the contest itself, BIG Ideas will support every participant throughout the learning process, helping them to be better prepared for other in-class and on-campus idea competitions, as well as for the future real-world competition of ideas that follows.

The BIG Ideas Contest is different from typical business plan and entrepreneurial contests in that BIG Ideas:

Focuses on social problems and solutions.
Emphasizes social impact versus financial impact.
Includes all disciplines and all schools.
Requires no experience. It is an entry-level program.
Stresses teamwork and collaboration.
Collaborates with other campus programs.
Concentrates on the benefits of and experience gained in the start-to-finish process.

Rules

BIG Ideas Team Leads must be Honors College students. All team members must be current UA undergraduates or Stillman College Honors undergraduates who are in good academic standing and can be from any field of study. Teams consist of three to five members.

Workshops

The Kennemer Center conducts workshops throughout the year to assist students along their entrepreneurial journey. Workshops include such topics as:

How to Research your BIG Ideas
Presentation Skills
Telling Your Social Impact Story
Budgets and Timelines
Intellectual Property
Corporate Structure

Past workshops

Phase I

Teams create a 3-page pre-proposal and a 1-minute video. The proposal identifies a social problem and a proposed solution with emphasis on the solution's creativity.

Reviewers

The Phase I proposals are submitted to three judges for feedback.

Mentors

Each BIG Ideas team that chooses to have a mentor is assigned one. Mentors are entrepreneurs in the start-up or innovation ecosystem or subject matter experts. Teams and their mentors work together for approximately 1 hour per week via email, telephone, or virtual or in-person meetings for approximately seven weeks. During these engagements, mentors assist students in reviewing the feedback teams received from Phase I, coach teams through implementation plan development, connect teams with relevant members of their network, and provide constructive feedback on the project.

Phase II

Teams create an 8-10-page proposal and a 5-minute video. There is an increased emphasis on viability. Teams also create a 30- to 60-second video and a short description with non-proprietary information that may be used for marketing purposes.

Basic Elements of the Proposal

Problem Statement:

A description of the problem or need that the project will address, which communicates the teams’ understanding of relevant research / statistics on the problem.
Existing Solutions:

Overview of any existing services, programs, interventions or products that have been designed or implemented to address this problem.
Proposed Innovative Solution and Impact:

A summary of the innovative idea (e.g., project, service or product), how it works and its intended impact.
Implementation Timeline and Proposed Budget:

The timeline describes the key next steps for implementing the idea for the first year. The proposed budget includes both expected costs and revenue for the first year of the project, including any ideas or plans for possible funding sources.
Measuring Success:

Information about how a team would monitor or measure the impact or success of its project throughout the first year of implementation.

Judging

Proposals are evaluated on their creativity/innovation, potential for impact, quality and viability. In Phase I, judges give strong consideration to the creativity and innovation of the projects. In Phase II, judges increasingly consider the extent to which their projects are viable in their first year of implementation.

Awards

Monetary awards are given to the winners in a variety of categories.

Acknowledgement

The BIG Ideas contest is patterned after a similarly-named program developed at the University of California – Berkeley. We are grateful to UC Berkeley and the Blum Center for generously sharing their Big Ideas resources.