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mtvU, the 24-hour college network of Viacom’s (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B) MTV, and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), a unit of NYSE Euronext (NYX), today launched the third-annual “Movers & Changers” competition, a nationwide challenge to find the country’s next wave of leading entrepreneurs. Competition finalists will be featured in the mtvU “Movers & Changers” short-form series, premiering this fall on mtvU, and compete for the ultimate prize of $25,000 in start-up money, as well as the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ring The Opening BellSM at the New York Stock Exchange.
“We’re excited to reunite with Viacom and mtvU on the quest to find America’s next generation of young innovators and entrepreneurs,” said Marisa Ricciardi, Senior Vice President, NYSE Euronext Global Head of Marketing. “The ‘Movers & Changers’ competition is a perfect platform for college students to express their creativity, showcase their inventive ideas and realize their dreams.”
“America’s colleges are incubators for some of the most innovative and successful business ideas in the world,” said Carlo DiMarco, Senior Vice President of mtvU University Relations. “mtvU’s partnership with NYSE Euronext provides the ideal route to take the country’s best young minds from the classroom to the boardroom.”
Some of today’s top young entrepreneurs will serve as ambassadors for the “Movers & Changers” program, including Dennis Crowley, CEO and Co-founder of foursquare; Charlie Chanaratsopon, CEO and Founder of Charming Charlie; and Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, Co-founders of Gilt Groupe. The ambassadors can be seen in promos for the program at www.moversandchangers.com.
The Competition
“Movers & Changers” calls on 16-28 year old college students, individually or in teams of up to three people, to develop and produce a compelling business proposal. Ideas must be creative, original, and scalable to large corporations. Students can submit entries online at www.moversandchangers.com and are encouraged to submit a video “elevator pitch” application from now until Oct. 3, 2011.
The competition will culminate at the Movers & Changers Forum on Monday, Nov. 14, 2011, taking place during NYSE Euronext’s Global Entrepreneurship Week. The top five business proposals will be voted on by the college audience and two teams will then be flown to New York City for the Movers & Changers Forum, where they will ring the NYSE Opening Bell. The grand prize winner will be announced on stage at the NYSE.
mtvU and the NYSE unveiled the first-ever “Movers & Changers” competition in 2009 and followed it up with a successful 2010 campaign. Last year, each team of finalists presented its business plan to the “Movers and Changers” Board, a gathering of top business and social media professionals that included Entertainer and Chairman of TeenNick, Nick Cannon; CNBC’s Jim Cramer; CEO of (RED) Susan Smith Ellis; Tumblr Founder David Karp; and Next Jump Inc’s CEO and Chairman Charlie Kim. In an extremely competitive field, the judges chose University of Tennessee students Aeron Glover and Kaliv Parker as the Grand Prize Winner. Glover and Parker impressed the “Movers & Changers” Board with their eloquent presentation and well-conceived business idea, “HowstheLiving.com,” an international student review housing site.
The “Movers & Changers” competition with mtvU and Viacom is one of many collaborations between NYSE Euronext and its listed-issuer community and underscores NYSE Euronext's commitment to inspire the next generation of young entrepreneurs, new and established enterprises, investors and the public to innovate and gain a better understanding of finance and global capital markets.
For more information on “Movers & Changers,” please visit www.moversandchangers.com.
