The 2018 Nova Scotia International Entrepreneurship Competition is the first competition in Halifax focused on supporting local entrepreneurs with global ambitions. The competition is open to either entrepreneurs who come from different places across the world or local entrepreneurs who are looking for exporting their products worldwide. We believe the international emphasis will help build relationships between Halifax and the rest of the world, and will offer new cross-cultural opportunities.

Starting from late September, entrepreneurs will be trained to formulate their business ideas, create business plans, talk to potential customers, and conduct a final pitch. We will send teams to local workshops, events, and networking sessions. There are two streams of the competition to accommodate two different types of entrepreneurial ambitions. The first is the Lifestyle/traditional stream, while the other Technical/scalable stream. Each stream will have one final winner. The prizes will be given from local corporates such as business consulting, immigration services, lawyers’ fees and accounting fees as business credits, which help both the entrepreneurs and the corporate partners involved.

Objectives:

1. To help international students and immigrants to build skills and gain a better understanding of their business opportunities.
2. To support the Halifax community in developing an understanding of the international community here in Nova Scotia.
3. To build an international innovation and entrepreneurship link across the globe.
4. To showcase Nova Scotia immigration, funding, community opportunities to the international community, which helps this community to stay in Nova Scotia.  
Participants
All business ideas are welcome; whether these ideas are mature or just beginning. As long as you think these ideas are workable and doable, we will have several training sessions to guide your idea into the right way, and to ensure that you are provided more useful and detailed suggestions.

Eligibility Criteria

1. Entrepreneurs who come from a different country (international students, refugees, immigrants, etc.) and want to operate businesses in Nova Scotia.
2. All applications are welcome. However, business with more than three months effective operation won’t be considered for the final presentation.
Examples of effective Operation are but not limited: revenue, mass promotion in the community or strong cash flow

Competition Process:

    1. Registration: applications are now open.
    2. Qualifying Round: each candidate will be qualified by a 5-10 mins presentation video OR an one-page business description, by Emailing to NSIEC2018@gmail.com.
    3. Training: all qualified teams will be provided several training sessions and lectures to improve business ideas.
    4. Semifinals: all trained teams will be judged by NSIEC Committee and conducted 3 teams of each stream as 6 finalists.
    5. Final Round: all finalists will be judged by NSIEC Committee AND publics on Final Round Evening.

Competition Schedule

October 3rd   Application Deadline
October 7th           Workshop/Training Starts
November 1st       Final Pitch Competition

Prize
First Prize (for both of categories):
         $8000 Value of service including space, law, accounting and marketing services and cash

Confidentiality

All submissions will be treated confidentially and will not be made available to the public. Only those directly involved in managing or judging the competition will view submitted documents. While summary details will not be disclosed, the competition organizers reserve the right to announce those who advance to subsequent competition rounds.
 
Host Organizations
Nova Scotia International Network Society (NSINS)  and  Global Shapers Halifax Hub