Welcome to the Thunderbird Sustainable Innovation Summit and Challange Final Round!

Only the Top 10 Teams will make it this far.

The Challenge, Final Round will be held at Thunderbird's main campus in Glendale, Arizona, on November 13 - 15, 2008. Teams, Judges, and Sponsors should plan to arrive on November 13, 2008 to join us for the Welcome Reception.

The Challenge, Final Round - By Invitation Only

November 13-15, 2008

• Top 10 Finalists will be required to give live presentations to a panel of judges for two new challenge questions posed by each of our Platinum Sponsors, one on each day.
• Judges will use the same scorecard from the Online Round to quantitatively evaluate the teams innovation and sustainable solution
• Judges will deliberate over qualitative performance of teams’ presentation at the end of each day while using the online scorecard for quantitative analyses.

Global Champions of Sustainable Innovation Announced

November 15, 2008

The best team will win $20,000 cash and be crowned as the 2008 Global Champions of Sustainable Innovation, while the team in second place will win $5000 and third place will win $3000.

Other Related Information

The final round questions will be released to the Top 10 Teams on October 22, 2008, along with any supporting information from the Platinum Sponsors. Teams may also have the opportunity to ask any clarification questions to the sponsors during a Q&A teleconference.

During their stay at Thunderbird for the Final Round of the Challenge, each Top 10 Team will be assigned a meeting room equipped with Internet access. Teams will also be assigned one Thunderbird student to serve as team liaison, providing any local assistance before, during, and after the Summit.

Teams will be required to submit the final version of their presentation in Powerpoint or PDF format before non-competition events begin on the evening before each Live Round day. This  will allow organizers time to prepare needed materials needed by the judges, and allow teams to fully participate in the scheduled events and Summit festivities.

The presenting order will be decided at the beginning of each day of the presentation by the sponsors drawing team names out of a bowl in front of a live audience. Each team is required to be present for all presentations in order to ensure fair time-availability to every team, and to eliminate any unfair advantage to any team.

Teams will have to present their solution in 15 minutes and judges will have a further 15 minutes for a Q&A with each team.

Teams are permitted to use props to aid their presentation and are encouraged to be creative in presenting their solution to the judges.

Teams will have many opportunities to interact with Final Round judges and Platinum sponsors to receive feedback and to network for career opportunities and/or internships.

Additionally, all team members from every team will be required to submit their resume and a team photo to be forwarded to the sponsors.