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Judges :: Guidelines
The judging process, including feedback and the ranking of plans, is accomplished through an on-line judging system. All judges and teams are asked to register on-line and are given a user ID and password.

In Phase I , judges review the submitted plans and offer feedback. Phase I is non-competitive, and the feedback offered at this point will have no effect on the phases that follow.

In Phase II , each plan is reviewed by multiple judges. The submitted plan is judged on clarity and effectiveness of the document in communicating the items described in Business Concept Template, the viability of the business and evidence that sufficient research and analysis to demonstrate the viability of the business concept has been conducted. Each judge reviews the overviews via the on-line judging system, provides feedback and scores the plan in three distinct categories. Those scores are then aggregated to produce a final score. The twenty-five teams with the highest scores proceed to Phase III.

In Phase III , each plan is reviewed by multiple judges. Judges are ultimately responsible for choosing which teams proceed to the Venture Finals. The submitted plan is judged on how well each team demonstrates that it can achieve its goals and that its goals are worth pursuing. Each judge reviews the business plans via the on-line judging system, provides feedback and scores the plan in three distinct categories. Those scores are then aggregated to produce a final score. The eight teams with the highest scores proceed to the Venture Finals.

In the Venture Finals , each of the Great Eight Finalist teams submit a final business plan for review of a panel of judges prior to the Venture Finals. In addition, this panel of judges will be present at the Venture Finals to hear each team's presentation. Ultimately, the Venture Finals judges determine the prize winners.

The Venture Finals is judged based on the following criteria:

Quality of the idea
Communication
Scale of the potential opportunity
Overall knowledge of the entrepreneurial management process

Each phase is overseen by a different set of Judges. No judge participates in more than one phase. This is to give the teams the opportunity to make significant improvements between phases without fear of bias, and to provide a fresh set of eyes at each step.

To ensure that the process is as fair as possible, names should not be included on the submitted materials. This pertains to Phase I and Phase II, the Non-Competitive and Executive Summary Phases, respectively. Starting with the Semi-Finals, teams are permitted to put names on their business plans. For the first two rounds, however, judges are not given names of the participants.

Judges may not contact participants and participants may not contact judges. Either situation could result in the expulsion of the participant and/or the team.

If judges would like to contact the team directly, the Student Management Team will make the introduction, but only after the phase in which the judge participated is complete.