Student Enterprise Competitions & Events 2007-2008

Rookie Challenge 2007 -

'A little less Conversation, a little more Action'

12 Teams - 4 Days- €4,000

Date: 26th- 29th Nov 2007

Click Here for Rookie Challenge 2007 Pictures

Click here to watch the Rookie '07 60 Second Clip

On Thursday the 22nd of November, the 'Rookie' recruitment team set out on its mission to find twelve teams to compete in 'The Rookie Challenge' a four day apprentice style competition on DkIT campus. An astounding 37 teams registered consisting of students from various different course stage and from all academic backgrounds, Electonric Engineering, Mechanical, Marketing, Plumbing, Public Relations, Business Information Systems, Building Surveying, Cultural Studies, Accountancy, Music and Creativity were all represented in the competition. A large proportion of entered teams were made up from different disciplines.

To be fair to all teams, a draw was held between the 37 entrant and twelve teams were drawn to compete for the prize of €4,000 and a trip to the SIE Student International Summit to be held in Dundee, March 2008.

Monday 26th - Task 1 - Sell-Sell-Sell

For Mondays task competitors had to sell a basket of goods making as much profit as they can. Simple? Not so. Items range from household goods such as toilet rolls, air fresheners and sweets, to more challenging items such as Men's chest wax (Soul Retreat), Electric skateboard (Dundalk Appliances), DkIT Raven's Jersey and fishing kits (Greenore Co-Op), Sporttracker Diary (sporttracker.ie) .

Teams then presented to an audience and panel of judges. Profits recorded by the teams ranged from 20 cent to €92. After presenting how they achieved the task and telling their success stories (Toilet roll reached a lofty height of €10, another team offered bad exchange rate by selling £5 for €10), judges then eliminated 3 teams leaving the remaining 9 teams to proceed to task 2.

Tuesday 27th- Task 2-Design an Advertising Campaign for a Never-Before-Seen-Product

The product is a canopy for a rotary clothes line that deploys automatically when rain is detected thus protecting the clothes.

Each team received a CD containing drawings and a short video of new product and must produce a suitable poster advertisement and a storyboard or short film for a 30 second TV or Radio advertisement.

In this task, teams excelled and the judges found it extremely difficult to eliminate three teams.

Wednesday 28th- Task 3- The Start Up

With only 6 teams remaining in the competition and the pressure is mounting….So far competitors have completed a day of hard sell, produced an advertising campaign to promote a product. They should now have a good understanding of how to identify customers and their market. Maximum investment is €100.

For task 3, the remaining teams had to set up a business and operate it for a day. They needed to get an idea, promote it, buy stock, operate it and produce a profit statement. One team recorded an incredible €520 profit by using their marketing skills, others teams produced smoothies, gift ideas such as unique balloons, another team were aware of a company which had gone into liquidation and bought €20 worth of stock with a retail value of €300+. Yet again the judges had a difficult job of eliminating three teams. The standard of the competition was continuously gaining momentum.

Thursday 29th Final- Task 4- The New Development

The remaining teams, must conceptualise a new building top replace the prefab building located near the crèche and must pitch their idea to a group of investors (The Judges)

The two teams competing head to head for the prize of €4000 and trip to International Summit, Dundee were Colm McElarney, Maria Farrelly, Alexander Nobel and Danielle Fisher first year Business Information System Students, who pitched their idea of an nightclub with expectional financial projections and reasoning.

Pipped at the post by Clodagh McDonell, Alan Wilson and Neil Rogan, 4th year Marketing Student, who pitched their idea of an Itower.

Congratulations to the winners and all those who participated in the competition.

A word of thanks to the Judges: John Sisk DKIT, Sean Mc Entee RDC , Mario Mac Blain DKIT, and Aidan Devenney RDC, Colin O'Brien Obridry and Ronan Dennedy LCEB. A special word of thanks to Louth County Enterprise Board for their continous support throughout the Student Intern Progamme.