Outdoor Weber is a three-month contest starting in January that allows students to compete for a $45,000 cash grand prize based on their outdoor recreation idea. Students compete by submitting a 90-second video on our outdoorweber.org website between January 14 and January 30 explaining their outdoor recreation concept. Students move through a round of online public voting that lasts two weeks. The 25 ideas that get the most votes move on to the semi-final round where a team of expert judges select 10 finalists. The finalists will be invited to Northern Utah for a three-day in-person competition for a chance to win cash and in-kind prizes.
WHAT IS OUTDOOR WEBER?
- Outdoor Weber is an outdoor recreation product and service IDEA competition for college students world-wide.
- Sponsored by Weber State University’s Hall Global Entrepreneurship Center and Camping World Holdings.
- First place = $45,000
- Purpose: Stimulate new outdoor rec ideas, take unrefined concepts and turn them into promising business opportunities.
- Need more? Go to OutdoorWeber.org for details, schedules, videos and more.
HOW DOES IT WORK:
- Students submit a 90-second video-pitch of their idea to OutdoorWeber.org (between Jan. 14-30, 2019).
- Students promote their video to get the most online votes (between Feb. 1 – Feb. 15, 2019).
- The 25 participants with the most online votes move on to the semi-finals.
- A group of regional judges will also select one participant from 10 regions (not in the top 25) to move on to the semi-finals.
- A panel of industry experts will select 10 finalists from the top 35 semi-finalists.
- The ten finalists will be invited to Ogden, Utah for the final competition on March 20-23, 2018.
- The students will work with expert mentors on March 21-22 to push their ideas forward as far as possible.
- The top ten will present a final ten-minute presentation to on-site judges at 2 p.m. on March 22 at the Egyptian Theater.
- Judges will make their final decision by 6:30 p.m., and…
- Winners will be announced at the keynote event that evening at the Ogden Eccles Conference Center.
WAIT… THERE’s MORE…
- Student teams will be given the VIP treatment with exclusive dinners, networking and a day on the mountain!
- RecConnect will also provide outdoor recreation students an opportunity to network with industry experts.
- Wednesday, March 20 will feature an outdoor film festival at the Egyptian Theater.
- Enjoy an outdoor themed, interactive art show prior to the keynote event at the Ogden Eccles Conference Center.
- All participants will be treated to a snow sports day and send off meal at Powder Mountain on Saturday.
WE COULD USE YOUR HELP!
- We’d love your help in getting the word out to our community about the outdoor film festival and keynote festivities.
- We need excellent mentors in fields like accounting, marketing, finance, development, sourcing, etc., on March 22-23.
- If you’d like to be an event sponsor, we have all kinds of options from in-kind to cash donations.