A New Kind of Scavenger Hunt – Entrepreneurial Students Will Be Tested on their Skills

Starting with a single clue, teams of the brightest undergraduate entrepreneurs from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), DePaul University, Milwaukee School of Engineering and the University of Illinois at Chicago will follow a path of quick business decisions, innovation, and money to compete for cash prizes

All of downtown Chicago will be the Chicago Entrepreneurial Quest’s playing field. Throughout the event, innovative Chicago-area companies and organizations, including the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, Businesspov.com, Cleversafe, Inventables and the Jules F. Knapp Entrepreneurship Center, will host tasks to test the participants’ entrepreneurial skills. Clues will lead teams from one location to another until they arrive at the site of one of the Quest’s four main tasks: an elevator pitch, a rapid prototyping activity, a media interview, and a written opportunity assessment report. Video clips and photographs were taken during the Quest will be published online in real-time so that the event can be followed throughout the day. The first place team will receive $2,000, second place $1,000, and third place $500.

Chicago Entrepreneurial Quest Schedule of Events

8:30 am - Opening Ceremony
10th floor meeting room, IIT Downtown Campus, 565 West Adams
Continental breakfast will be served, and rules will be explained to participating teams.
10 am - Quest begins
First clues are given out, and the Quest officially starts. Teams will have five hours to find as many clues and complete as many tasks as possible.
2 pm - Opportunity Assessments due
For the Opportunity Assessment task, each team will need to complete a three-page report.
3 pm Quest ends
All teams and volunteers return to the IIT Downtown Campus.
4 pm - Closing Ceremony
1st floor auditorium, IIT Downtown Campus, 565 West Adams
Video footage of the competition will be shown, and awards will be handed out to the winning teams.
5 pm - Reception
1st floor lobby, IIT Downtown Campus, 565 West Adams
After five hours of hard work, the teams will be given a chance to celebrate.
Both the closing ceremony and reception are open to friends, family and the press. Come and congratulate the winning teams!

Motorola and the Coleman Foundation are sponsors of the Chicago Entrepreneurial Quest.

Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting university with more than 6,700 students in engineering, sciences, architecture, psychology, design, humanities, business and law. IIT's interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum is designed to advance knowledge through research and scholarship, to cultivate invention improving the human condition, and to prepare students from throughout the world for a life of professional achievement, service to society, and individual fulfillment.