An entrepreneurship class at NKU is looking for big ideas to improve life on campus and get creative juices flowing ahead of the annual
Cincinnati Innovates start up competition.
NKUInnovates is a first-time, campus wide competition encouraging creative and innovative ideas from anyone with an @nku.edu email address. Students, faculty and staff can submit ideas in seven categories ranging from waste reduction and wellness promotion to entertainment and new businesses.
The competition started March 26 and ends April 22. It's modeled after
Cincinnati Innovates, a regional competition that starts May 1 this year.
"Out of the 286 ideas submitted to Cincinnati Innovates last year only 17 came from Northern Kentucky and only one was from NKU," said Bill Cunningham, director of the
NKU Entrepreneurship Institute. "The class felt we needed to jumpstart that. People need permission and a venue to be creative, and this is a great opportunity to do that."
Ideas can be submitted at the
NKUInnovates web site in these categories: Green Planet, Health Wellness, Campus Environment, Community Connection, Culture, Start-Ups, and Big Ideas/The Future.
Anyone with an @NKU.edu email address can vote for favorite ideas once a day. Each day an idea will be selected randomly and posted on the NKUInnovates website and the Student Union as Idea of the Day. A group of 50 selected judges from the business, education and cultural and social communities will also select top ideas. The top vote getters in each category and the People's Choice winner will be awarded an iPod. The person with the top-ranked idea out off all categories will win an iPad.
Cunningham will encourage those with start up ideas to enter then into the Cincinnati Innovates contest. Other ideas will be presented to appropriate people on campus, and some of them could become reality.
Writer: Feoshia Henderson
Source: Bill Cunningham, NKU Entrepreneurship Institute
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