Agent511 Finalist in Business Plan Competition

Business contest finalists selected

By Keith Lawrence, Messenger-Inquirer
Published: Saturday, March 21, 2009 12:07 AM CDT
Owensboro's eMerging Ventures Center for Innovation has selected the four finalists for its first $15,000 Challenge -- a business plan competition.

Madison Silvert, executive director of the center, said Dalisha's Desserts, a dine-in high-quality dessert company; Fluent Universe, an Internet-based translation business; Agent511, a mobile technology company; and Stay-Dri, a continence solutions firm, will move on to the final round of the competition in April.

The companies are competing for a $15,000 investment award and a six-month lease at the Centre for Business and Research, a 27,000-square-foot laboratory and office facility being developed in a former tobacco warehouse in the 1000 block of Allen Street.

"We were excited by the level and quality of applicants in our first year," Silvert said in a news release. "It was, no doubt, a valuable learning experience for all of those who participated, and we would like for this to become an annual event."

The applicants had to provide an executive summary of their business plan, which was then scored by a panel of judges.

Now, the four finalists must provide a full business plan, complete with financial and marketing analysis, by April 13.

They will then pitch their ideas to judges with public presentations April 17.

The winner will be announced April 20.

The eMerging Ventures Center for Innovation is a division of the Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corp. It is designed to assist entrepreneurs and start-up companies in the Owensboro area.

The center includes a field office for Western Kentucky University's Central Region Innovation and Commercialization Center, the Owensboro office of Murray State University's Kentucky Small Business Development Center and the Owensboro chapter of the Service Corps of Retired Executives.

Silvert said earlier that the competition was designed to "entice entrepreneurs to start and expand businesses in Owensboro."

Owensboro's Police Department and Agent511 have begun an outreach program this month targeting youths and students in the Owensboro/ Daviess County Public School System. The program is designed to educate students about the new text message program that has been implemented by OPD. Students can now text in crime tips and non-emergency crimes to the Owensboro Police Department by texting in OPD + their message to 511511. The program has already been presented to Owensboro High School and will be presented to Daviess County High School and Apollo in the coming weeks.

Residents of Daviess and the surrounding counties can also sign up for TextBlasts from the Owensboro Police Department. Citizens can sign up for traffic alerts, crime tips, messages form crime stoppers, Amber Alerts and missing persons, and press releases. To sign up visit http://www.owensboro.org/police/.

ABC affiliate, KVUE, in Austin Texas is now partnering with Agent511 to send weather alerts, breaking news alerts, stock closings and more via text message! Viewers will be able to keep up with current events, weather, and promotions without being tied down by a computer or television.

KVUE is also launching an interactive newscast using Agent511. Local Austin residents will be able to text in comments on controversial news topics. Viewers comments are then scrolled through the crawl on the bottom of the screen. This allows both the station and the viewers to keep up with the general consensus of the public regarding current events.