By ELLIOTT DONNER

Staff Writer

The College of Business and Administration announced the winners of the Top Dawg business plan competition Saturday.

"This is the third annual business plan competition, and everyone is excited about it," Debbie Inman, the coordinator for entrepreneurial studies, said.

The Insendi, Inc. team was awarded $5,000 for first place.

Team WiseTag and team Tactical Decoys tied for second place and won a prize of $2,500 each.

Because of the tie there was no third place team which would have been awarded $2,000.

The competition was held in the CEnIT boardroom and lab.

"I am very pleased with the competition, there was a lot of excellent potential business ideas," Gene Trammell, the director of Account Management and Technical Services for NetQoS, Inc., and a judge for the competition said.

Trammell said most students do not realize, in the business world, it is different than presenting a business plan for a competition and this event can help students understand what a presentation and a career in business actually entail.

Trammel also said it is great students from different areas of study can collaborate and make a team to get a business plan together.

"This competition has tremendously improved since last year's," Trammell said.

"This competition is the biggest event that the ABESE puts on every year," Robin Pollard, Association of Business, Engineering, and Science Entrepreneurs president and a senior mechanical engineering major, said.

"The purpose of this organization is to promote and cultivate and entrepreneurial culture on the Tech campus," Pollard said.

"The founding members of this organization felt strongly that the core of economic development in North Louisiana as well as the economic success of Tech students lies in an entrepreneurial spirit.

"This vision of growth and prosperity is what drives the student leaders."

The two-to-five person teams that competed in this competition were made up of undergraduate and graduate students from at least two different disciplines, Pollard said.

The competition started early in the fall and the students had three months to get their plans together and organize their presentations before they were to present them to the judges, Pollard said.

The judges for this competition were made up of professionals working in technology, banking, law, and business.

The teams compete in two rounds of judging, Pollard said.

Judgment in the first round was based on a written plan and an oral presentation. The teams were able to take their plans and improve them according to the judges' comments on the plans, Pollard said.

The plans were awarded prizes during the second round of the competition.