Story last updated at 6/22/2011 - 1:56 pm
AFN has launched its fifth Alaska Marketplace Competition, calling on Alaska's best and brightest to share their innovative ideas by August 1. This year's competition includes a new 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 www.alaskamarketplace.org or by calling AFN at 907-274-3611.
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, 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. Visit www.alaskamarketplace.org to learn more.
