AFN Launches 2011 Alaska Marketplace Competition
All-new essay component invites writers to share innovative ideas
AFN launches its fifth Alaska Marketplace Competition today, calling on Alaska’s best and brightest to share their innovative ideas by August 1, 2011. This year’s competition includes a groundbreaking essay component, which invites Alaska’s great writers to share their thoughts on helping rural Alaska thrive. The well-loved business/nonprofit ideas competition will also continue as it has in recent years. Applications are available online at http://www.alaskamarketplace.org or by calling AFN at 907-274-3611.
“The winners of our first four Alaska Marketplace Competitions have had a genuine impact across Alaska – creating jobs and building village economies,” said AFN President Julie Kitka. “What we really love about this competition is that it helps folks who might not otherwise have access to funding and publicity pursue their dreams.”
The Alaska Marketplace Competition is an AFN initiative launched in 2005 to foster economic development in rural Alaska by soliciting creative ideas from entrepreneurs across the state in an ‘innovation competition.’ The past four successful competitions have distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars in seed money and have helped spur real economic growth in Alaska’s rural communities. Past winners range from archeological digs to village farms and producers of high-end botanical beauty products.
The 2011 Alaska Marketplace Competition allows applicants to submit either an essay or a business/nonprofit proposal under the competition theme Planting Seeds of Change. Following the application deadline of August 1, a diverse panel of assessors will formally evaluate the business/nonprofit proposals and essays. Finalists will be notified in mid-August, and business/nonprofit finalists will be asked to submit implementation plans and presentations for the final event. Fixed essay awards and cash investments will be awarded to the top proposals following the “Marketplace Event” which will take place during the AFN Convention in Anchorage in October 2011.
The Alaska Marketplace is an initiative of the Alaska Federation of Natives and is supported by a growing list of partners including the Denali Commission, BP, ConocoPhillips Alaska, and the Mitsubishi Foundation.
Visit www.alaskamarketplace.org to learn more.
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