NAU Yuma will host Border Entrepreneurial Challenge
Thanks to a collaboration between colleges and universities by the border, the Border Entrepreneurial Challenge (BEC) 2023 will bring college students, university alumni and entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch new ideas and expand existing businesses in front of a binational panel of judges.
The challenge comes from a partnership between Arizona Western College, Northern Arizona University, CETYS Universidad, San Diego State University and Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. Participants from both Mexico and the U.S. are being sought for the challenge, which will be held online March 9 and 10 and in person
March 11 and 12 at the AWC/NAU-YUMA campus at 2020 S. Avenue 8E.
NAU Business Professor and BEC Event Coordinator Monica Acosta Alvarado explained that one of the primary benefits of the challenge will be for participants to have guided sessions with mentors, hear their success stories and learn how to create business models and business plans to give forms to the ideas participants have so that they can present them to potential investors.
“The main purpose of this is we’re going to give them challenges of our region and ask for them to come up with business ideas that can help us to solve those problems or to take advantage of the opportunities that we have in this region,” Acosta
Alvarado said. “We’ll help them through the process through the weekend and so at the end, they can pitch to potential investors and find a way to give form to their ideas or at least make connections through networking.
“They’ll also have the opportunity to practice their communication skills with international students. Students are coming from Mexicali, Tijuana, Ensenada and Sonora so they are going to work with international students by national teams and work through the weekend to finally have their pitch for Sunday afternoon.”
Acosta Alvarado noted there are three different tracks. One is for students, another is for alumni entrepreneurs who already have a specific idea and just need some assessment or advice and the third is for small business owners who wish to expand and would like the advice of mentors to help make that pitch to potential investors.
“It could be for anyone in the community if you’re interested in someday establishing your own business,” she said. “It will help you to go through these exercises and make connections and network. For different disciplines, it doesn’t have to be for just students of business. It could be for any academic program – maybe they’re studying art topics, but they will like to establish their own clinic or their own medical facility so they can be interested in this also and they will gain some knowledge that will help them in the future.
“So it will be anybody that just wants to in the future or the near future to establish a business or just has ideas and wants to go through the process and work with them.”
Acosta Alvarado noted that the challenge will feature a panel of entrepreneurs as well as a professor who’s been entrepreneurship research and marketing work.
According to AWC’S press release, the startup event will give participants the opportunity to:
• Present their business ideas to potential investors
• Interact with different participants from the border region
• Listen to presentations from experts from different entrepreneurial and business fields • Participate in guided working sessions with a mentor
• Put into practice and improve specific skills and abilities such as communication, negotiation skills, teamwork, and networking
• Compete with their team or entrepreneurial idea for a chance to pitch in the final round
Admission for BEC 2023 is $40 and includes meals for Saturday and Sunday. To register, visit nau.edu/ yuma/bec. NAU students are able to have the $40 waived. Should they struggle to have the fee waived, they are welcome to contact Acosta Alvarado at monica.acosta-alvarado@ nau.edu or 928-317-7112.