06 July 2009

Worldwide call for start-up businesses in travel, hospitality

SINGAPORE - Have you a fabulous idea for a start up in travel or hospitality?

Have you written a business plan? Do you lack funds for the plan? If so, the WIT Start-Up Pitch is an ideal competition for you.

Open to contestants from anywhere in the world, The WIT Start-Up Pitch is aimed at unearthing and discovering good ideas in the online travel space in Asia Pacific.

The competition is for start-up companies with less than three years of operations who strive to move their business to the next level.

The 2009 Start-Up Pitch will be held in two parts. Three finalists will be chosen to pitch their ideas to a panel of investor judges during the Web In Travel conference, alongside ITB Asia on October 20.

The winner of the competition will have the opportunity to work with investment advisors, Stream Global, to build a winning investment pitch.

You will also be able to leverage their contacts within the venture capital industry.

As a bonus, winners will be given assistance by Stream Global to position themselves to receive a Singapore government grant worth S$50,000 in the Interactive Digital Media space should they wish to avail of it.

Four runner-ups will have the opportunity to share their ideas at the "Pitch & Feedback" session during the WIT Ideas Lab on October 22 and have their business plan work-shopped by a panel of investors with audience participation encouraged.

You will benefit from the experience of many wizened individuals from all walks of the hospitality and travel industry, and their ideas will strengthen your proposed business plan to the point that you could possibly take it commercial.

Our panel of judges include: Lim Kim Hai, executive chairman of Regional Express Airlines, Australia, Dennis Melka, of East Pacific Capital and Bill Liu, chairman of Stream Global, an investment and consultancy company in the ICT and Digital Media space.

More judges will be added to the panel in the coming months.
The panel of advisors for the "Pitch & Feedback" session will comprise some of the leading minds in the online travel marketing, distribution and technology space.

Entries for the competition close on July 31.

Send your submissions to The Producer, WIT-Web In Travel, admin@webintravel.com

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it, subject: "The Start-Up Pitch 2009".

Your submission must follow this template and be kept within a maximum of two A4 pages.Ã¢â¬~¨

1. Executive summary Ã¢â¬~¨
2. Description of the business, core/products/services Ã¢â¬~¨
3. Key customers and users Ã¢â¬~¨
4. Business & revenue model, strategy for profitabilityÃ¢â¬~¨
5. Market & opportunity analysisÃ¢â¬~¨
6.Competitive analysis - why is it better than what exists today, how is it unique? Ã¢â¬~¨
7. Finally, three reasons why they should invest in your idea

So get cracking on your submission.