The School of Business at SUNY New Paltz held its annual business plan contest and award ceremony on Wednesday, May 7, in the Student Union Building on campus.
Over the course of the semester, five teams of students in Professor Caskey’s Entrepreneurship and Business Planning course researched ideas that they then developed into feasible and profitable business plans. Each team had 15 minutes to present their plan before a panel of judges at Wednesday’s event.
“To pitch an idea in 15 minutes is incredibly tough…but you all did an incredible job. Many of you have a great future ahead in public speaking. You represented the school well and you represented yourselves well,” alumnus C. Edward Burke, Jr. ’90 told students after the competition.
The business plan contest was initiated by the Entrepreneurship and Business Planning course as a way to give students the opportunity to test their knowledge in real business settings and combine the excitement of competition with learning.
“This contest provides students an opportunity to apply what they learned from regular classes on a creative project,” said Interim Dean of the School of Business Chih-Yang Tsai. “It is also an excellent test ground for their leadership and teamwork skills.”
Clovis Bernier ’17, Quentin Courtaugis ’17, and Marion Long ’17, three international French students, were named the first place team and received a prize of $2,400. The idea for their business plan, Clust’art, came from the team’s desire to market fellow art students’ creations to the campus community by featuring designs on various products, such as cell phone cases and t-shirts.
Professor Caskey hopes to see Clust’art come to fruition and support other initiatives on campus, such as 3D printing.
“I am especially happy with this year’s result,” he said. “We have wanted greater involvement from the rest of campus. This year, the winning idea has our business students supporting the creativity of art students. I would love to see more such cooperation in the future.”
The business plan presentations were judged by SUNY New Paltz alumnus C. Edward Burke, Jr. ’90, The Hudson Valley Financial Group; Tim Allred, Williams Lake Project; Tracy Badgley, Goldstein, Karlewicz & Goldstein, LLP; Irene Berner, Berner Financial Services; Steve Deutsch, Campus Auxiliary Services, Inc.; David Freer, Jr., Freer Associates Inc.; and Ed Lane, Lane Asset Management.
Sponsors of the contest included: Campus Auxiliary Services, Inc.; Sodexo Food Services; Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union; Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union; and Ulster Savings Bank.
