The competition is open exclusively to all University of St. Thomas undergraduates, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows registered in the semester of the competition. Students can participate as individuals or as part of a team. Teams typically consist of two to three members. All members of a team must be current students with a valid St. Thomas student ID.
Submissions should be new concepts, not already existing companies. No concepts that have won or placed in the finals of a previous Fowler competition may be submitted again. Students are allowed to re-submit a concept that was previously accepted to the semifinal competition, so long as the concept did not advance to the finals round. Students may submit as many business concepts as they like, but students are limited to one concept eligible to compete in the semifinal and final competition.
All sessions of the competition, including but not limited to oral presentations, video and slide deck submissions and question/answer sessions, are open to the public at large. Any and all of these sessions may be shared with interested people, through media that may include radio, television, printed materials and the Internet. Any data or information discussed or divulged in public sessions by entrants should be considered information that could possibly enter the public realm, and entrants should not assume any right of confidentiality in any data or information discussed, divulged, or presented in these sessions. Due to the nature of the competition, we will not ask judges, reviewers, sponsors, staff or the audience to agree to or sign non-disclosure statements for any participant. By participating in the competition, entrants agree that no member of the Fowler Business Concept Challenge team — The University of St. Thomas, members of the judging panel, sponsors and their designate organizations — will assume any liability whatsoever for any disclosures of information that may be made (whether inadvertently or otherwise) by any judge, reviewer, staff member, audience member or other individual connected with, participating in, viewing, hearing, or receiving information from the competition.