'We're out...are you still in?'

While summer for many students is a time to have fun and relax, for the young entrepreneurs behind Startup Malta it has been a busy time. Over the past three months, planning has been underway for the new edition of the organisation's Get BIZZY! Business Plan Competition.

The competition is one of a number of projects run by the Startup Malta Foundation, a young and dynamic entity set up to promote an enterprise culture in Malta and bridge the gap between the student and the professional world.

The competition is aimed to "bring the student to the entrepreneur, and the entrepreneur out of the student". Primarily a business "game", it offers young entrepreneurs an infrastructure that will assist them in setting up their own companies. Now a yearly occurrence, over the past three years it has seen the birth of two startup companies.

Startup Malta adviser Erika Caruana said the event was the only one on the island to offer such a practical approach to the subject. "Our network of contacts both locally and overseas allows the participating teams to benefit from the experiences of some of the finest entrepreneurs around," she said.

Startup's management team will be present on Campus during Fresher's Week at the beginning of October with a campaign designed to stimulate young minds to go that extra mile. Setting itself aside as an entity that aims to do things in a different way, Startup Malta will be asking a question: "We're out... are you STILL in?"

"'Jumping out of the box' will symbolically represent the change in mindset that the organisation aims to promote. We want to show people that taking this extra step could mean the difference between doing and succeeding," said Ms Caruana.

Also present on campus will be The 2nd Agent, winner of last year's competition and the foundation's second success story. The company, composed of university students, will act as an agent for the sale of second-hand books.

Project manager Donna Micallef explained that through their smart card, students will now be able to purchase books in good condition much more cheaply, thus being able to use the remaining money at their disposal to buy other things.

This year's Get BIZZY! Business Plan Competition kicks off in the last week of October and comes to a close in April next year. Participating teams will be competing for numerous cash prizes, with the Best Business Plan of the year set to win its creators Lm2,000 in cash.

The competition will be complemented by a number of events and activities. New on the agenda for this year is Network Thursdays. Held on a monthly basis, these sessions will be held in the informal surroundings of a bar or coffee shop and will bring students and experienced entrepreneurs together, giving them the opportunity to exchange thoughts and ideas.

The foundation's partners include ETC, KBIC, iWG, PwC and APS Bank.

More information about Startup Malta, the Get BIZZY! Business Plan Competition and any of its programmes or offspring companies can be found at www.StartupMalta.com or via e-mail on info@StartupMalta.com