Coming soon: a new website for Big Bang!

For those of you who have experienced frustrations with the Big Bang! website, fear not - a new and improved site is on the way! The new interface will be easier to navigate and will provide accurate, up-to-date information about the contest. Along with a host of other web tools, anyone and everyone should be able to have helpful information at their fingertips. The new site should be live any day now, so keep checking the website.

You will have to bear with us as we add content and information over the next few weeks. Feel free to give us your feedback or suggestions by commenting below, discussing website topic on our Facebook forum or emailing us at bigbang@ucdavis.edu.

Happy innovating!

YouNoodle

You might have seen the link in the right-hand column for "YouNoodle".

What the heck is YouNoodle?

Think of it as Facebook for entrepreneurs. YouNoodle provides forums for networking with fellow entrepreneurs and potential funding sources. Additionally, as a New York Times article mentions, they hope to build in a tool that predicts the future value of a start-up. YouNoodle is still in its beta phase, so this is an exciting time to get involved!

The Big Bang! has been invited to test the tools they provide for business plan competitions, so we created a group page. We encourage all Big Bang! affiliates to create a profile and join our group. The group page provides a forum for open discussion, which we will monitor and respond to throughout the year. It is also a great way for Big Bang! contestants to communicate with each other and might be very useful in team formation. So check it out and join!

We will also be creating a Facebook page this year so that anyone involved with the Big Bang! can have as much information at their fingertips as possible, no matter where they look.

However, as always, the main website (we will be rolling out a new site in the next few weeks!) is your definitive resource for official competition information.

Happy Innovating,
Liz

Wordle Rocks

Talk about putting innovation into action!  Check out Wordle, an amazing way to turn any text into word clouds.  I created the image using text from Wikipedia entries on business plans, entrepreneurship and venture capital.  The bigger the word, the more often it is found in the text.

Anyone can create one, and all clouds generated by Wordle are released via Creative Commons licensing.  So, Wordle away and get inspired!

Happy Innovating,

Liz

Big Bang! has a blog!

Welcome to the official blog for the Big Bang! Business Plan Competition at UC Davis!

The organizing committee for Big Bang! envisions this blog as a way to share important news and information related to the Big Bang! competition. 

This blog will supplement the information provided on our official competition website.  We highly recommend subscribing to our blog to get the latest and greatest information from Big Bang! organizers!

The 2008-2009 Big Bang! Competition Kick-Off is scheduled for October 15, 2008 from 7-9pm at UC Davis' Buehler Alumni Center.  More information is available here.

Happy Innovating,

The Big Bang! Organizing Committee (BBOC)