The competition is sponsored by Principal Global Investors, LLC (“Principal”). The competition is open to participants 18 years of age or older who are currently in an undergraduate program, where allowable by law. Excluded are people who are employed by or connected to a company in the financial services industry or its affiliates, as well as people who have been involved in organizing the competition, their children, and anyone who has a conflict of interest.
Submissions are due before midnight Eastern Time, January 19, 2018. Submissions must be made electronically via the challenge website at participants/submit.php. Submissions must be drafted in English in MS-Word using the template available here. Any submission that is incomplete or contains inaccuracies will be automatically disqualified. Participants are required to compete using their true identities. Participants who do not use their true identities will be disqualified. The University of Iowa – Tippie College of Business, Principal, and IdeaConnection reserve the right to carry out all checks that may be necessary. Selected finalists will be invited to make a presentation of their submissions at the Final Event (date to be decided).
A panel of judges will be responsible for judging the contest and choosing the winners. The University of Iowa – Tippie College of Business will be responsible for enlisting the panel of judges, which may include professors, industry professionals, and independent external experts. The judging panel is sovereign and is not required to provide reasons for its decisions. All decisions by the judging panel are final. Accordingly, no claims shall be accepted with regard to the selection of the winners.
Prizes awarded will be $2,000 for first place, $1,500 for second place, $1,000 for third place, $500 for fourth place, $250 for fifth place, and $250 for sixth place. In the event that submissions of sufficient quality are not submitted to justify the awarding of all six prizes, the judging panel reserves the right to eliminate any or all of the prize levels. The award will be made in U.S. Dollars. All currency exchange costs are the responsibility of the winner. The award may be subject to taxes depending on the winner’s country. Winners are responsible to comply with all tax requirements.
Participants agree that personal data and image collected by the University of Iowa – Tippie College of Business, Principal, and IdeaConnection may be stored and displayed to the public within the context of the contest. Participants further agree to the free usage and publication of these data and image on any media and for any advertising or promotional campaign related to this contest.
Participants represent and warrant that they have the right to submit their idea to the contest, that they are the sole and exclusive owner of the idea, and that the idea or submission of the idea does not violate any applicable law in any country. Participants shall guarantee that their idea has not already been disclosed and that it is not the result of plagiarism. Additionally, participants agree and warrant that they will not submit any idea that infringes on any third party intellectual property, trade secret, or confidentiality obligation. The University of Iowa – Tippie College of Business, Principal, and IdeaConnection shall have the right to use, modify, and make available to the public the submitted idea for the purposes of judging, advertising, promotion, administration, testing, and demonstration. Intellectual property rights to the contest submission, if any, will remain with the participants.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, each participant indemnifies and agrees to keep indemnified the University of Iowa – Tippie College of Business, Principal, and IdeaConnection, their affiliates, agents, directors, officers, employees, representatives, and assigns harmless from and against any liability, claims, demands, losses, damages, and costs resulting from any act, default, or omission of the participant and/or a breach of any representation or warranty set forth herein. The University of Iowa – Tippie College of Business, Principal, and IdeaConnection will not be responsible for any material and immaterial damage caused to participants, to their IT equipment and their data stored therein, as well as other consequential damages. The University of Iowa – Tippie College of Business, Principal, and IdeaConnection shall under no circumstances be held liable for any physical injury to any participants during the course of the competition.
To the extent permitted by law, the rules, terms, and conditions for the contest are governed by the laws of the State of Iowa. Principal reserves the right of cancelling or postponing the competition. These rules may be modified without notice to the participants during the course of the competition.