How It Works

TIMELINE

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

FAQs

CONTEST RULES

1. Eligibility
   The MyEntre.Net "Dream Big Grow Here North Iowa" grant contest is open only to legal residents of the State of Iowa, of the Counties of Cerro Gordo, Floyd, Franklin, Hancock, Mitchell, Winnebago, Worth, and Wright.
   
   Must be 18 years of age or older at the time of submitting an entry.
   
   Participants must either be:
   1) Existing businesses with 3 or more employees and less than 200 full time employees, exceptions will be at the discretion of regional contest administrator staff.
   2) Start-ups that are pre-revenue or in existence less than 1-year.
   
   Participants must be or intend to be for-profit business entities engaged in interstate commerce (revenues from out of state customers or clients) or seeking significant interstate revenues. Participants may only enter one "Dream Big Grow Here' regional contest per calendar year. Repeat winners of past Dream Big Grow Here contests are not eligible to be awarded funds, but may participate.
   
   North Iowa Pitch Off Date is December 4th, 2013. The individual registering MUST be present at both the Pitch-off and Business Recognition Event the next day to be eligible for the $5,000 prize. The individual responsible for delivering the “Pitch-Off” presentation and must be an active member of the business. No stand-in presenter allowed.
   
   The expert judging panel will make the final determination of the regional $5,000 Dream Big Grow Here winner. The top 5 businesses receiving the most popular votes* at the end of online voting will advance to the “Regional Pitch-Off”. The expert judging panel may in its discretion add up to 3 finalists based upon quality of marketing, regardless of popular vote. Each of the 5-8 businesses selected will be given 10 minutes to pitch their business to a panel of business experts who will determine the $5,000 winner. The panel will base the $5,000 award on the following: 1) business’ potential for wealth generation 2) business/marketing plan 3) potential for future job creation 4) economic diversity and 5) business’ plans to use the $5,000 prize. And 6) The purpose of digital marketing and effective use of social media is to drive sales, not just “likes”, the panel will take into account how the participant leverages marketing to drive sales and bang for the buck, with high value given to likely interstate commerce impact.
   
   All entrants are encouraged to attend the event, and will be provided with a complementary booth to showcase their products and services. The North Iowa Corridoral (Sponsor) reserves the right, at its sole and absolute discretion, to disqualify any individual and any or all of his/her Application(s) and/or votes deemed in Sponsor's sole and absolute discretion to be (a) tampering or attempting to tamper with the entry or voting process or the operation of the Grant Program or any Sponsor website; (b) violating the Official Application Guidelines; (c) violating the terms of service, conditions of use and/or general rules; or (d) acting in an unfair or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, harass any other person or act fraudulently in any manner. Void where prohibited.
   
   Employees of MyEntre.Net, NIACC JPEC, North Iowa Corridor and the University of Northern Iowa Regional Business Center and the immediate family members of such employees (parent, child, sibling, spouse) and persons living in the same household as such employees (whether related or not) are not eligible. In addition, Partnering Sponsors, their affiliates and the immediate family members of such employees (parent, child, sibling, spouse) and persons living in the same household as such employees (whether related or not) are not eligible. North Iowa Area Community College, North Iowa Corridor Economic Development Corporation (Sponsors) reserves the right, at its sole and absolute discretion, to disqualify any individual and any or all of his/her Application(s) and/or votes deemed in Sponsor's sole and absolute discretion to be (a) tampering or attempting to tamper with the entry or voting process or the operation of the Grant Program or any Sponsor website; (b) violating the Official Application Guidelines; (c) violating the terms of service, conditions of use and/or general rules; or (d) acting in an unfair or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, harass any other person or act fraudulently in any manner. Void where prohibited.


2. Grant Program Period
   Grant program dates are being finalized and will be posted here when confirmed.


3. How to Apply
   To apply for the Grant Contest visit www.DreamBigGrowHere.com and follow the links and instructions to complete your entry. Submit the completed entry and it will be reviewed by NIACC JPEC staff to make sure it conforms to our Nomination Guidelines (see our Nomination Guidelines listed below this section).  You will receive an email from the NIACC JPEC and/or affiliates letting you know if your submission has been approved or denied.


4. Voting
   Individuals may vote for as many entries as they desire, but may only vote for each dream once per day, as defined by running every day from 12:00:00 AM until 11:59:59 PM.  To help prevent vote fraud, we have imposed a limit of 1 vote per entry, per day, per person.  Entries found in violation of the Voting rules may be terminated from the Grant Contest, and votes determined to be cast in violation of these terms will be removed. Click here for details on how the voting system works. Visitors will be required to use their personal Facebook accounts to vote.  If a user who wishes to vote does not have a Facebook account, they are able to create one for free here: https://www.facebook.com/.  No data collected from Facebook will be used outside of voting verification, and voters will have the option whether or not to share their vote with their Facebook friends.


5. Nomination Guidelines:
   
   • The nomination must be in English.
   • The Nomination cannot include matter that infringes or violates the rights of another, living or deceased including but not limited to promotion, privacy or academic property rights;
   • The Nomination cannot belittle any brand names or trademarks;
   • The Nomination cannot belittle any parties involved or affiliated with the promotion and administration of this promotion including but not limited to Sponsor and administrators;
   • The Nomination cannot contain any matter that is obscene, hateful, distasteful, offensive, malicious, tortuous or libelous;
   • The Nomination cannot contain matter that encourages or promotes racist attitudes, hatred, harm or intolerance towards any individual or group or that encourages or promotes prejudice based upon gender, sex, ethnicity, disability, religion, national origin, age or sexual orientation ; and
   • The Nomination must contain material appropriate for publication in an open forum (as determined by Sponsor and administrators ). For example, inappropriate material would include but not be limited to material relating to unlawful activities, property damage or threats thereof, profanity, threats of physical violence or material that is in violation of the laws and/or regulations in any jurisdiction where Nomination is created.”


6. Release
   By Participating in and/or accepting a Dream Big Grow Here North Iowa grant, you thereby release Sponsor, administrators, the State of Iowa, the University of Northern Iowa, NIACC JPEC as well as their respective affiliates, subsidiaries, distributors, promotion agency and Dream Big Grow Here suppliers and each of their respective parent companies and organizations, and each such entity’s/company’s/organization’s employees, directors, officers and agents from and against any claim or cause of action, including but not limited to damage to or loss of property, personal injury or death, through participation in the promotion or receipt or use or misuse of any Dream Big Grow Here Grant.


7. General Conditions
   Sponsor reserves the right to terminate, suspend and/or adjust the promotion or any part of it, if any fraud, technical failures or any other factor impairs the integrity or proper functioning of the promotion, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion. Sponsors may take all necessary steps to verify information related to claims made by entrants.  If terminated, Sponsor, in its sole discretion may determine the Dream Big Grow Here Grant recipients from among all non-suspect, eligible Nominations received up to time of such action using the judging procedure as outlined above. At the Sponsor’s sole discretion, Sponsor reserves the right to prohibit and ban any individual it finds to be tampering with or altering the Nomination process or the operation of the promotion or to be acting in violation of the official rules or of those of any other promotion or in any unfair or disruptive manner, and void all associated nomination(s). Any attempt by any person to intentionally undermine the legitimate operation of the Promotion may be a violation of criminal and/or civil laws, and if such attempt be made, Sponsor reserves the right to seek damages and other remedies (including attorney fees) from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law. Sponsor’s failure to enforce any term of these official rules shall not constitute a waiver of that rule or condition.


8. Limitations of Liability
   Through submitting an application for a Dream Big Grow Here North Iowa grant, Participants agree that:
   • Any and all claims, disputes and causes of action because of or connected with their application, the grant program and/or any grant will be resolved individually without remedy to any form of class action;
   • Any and all claims, judgments and awards will be limited to actual third-party, out-of-pocket costs sustained but in no event will attorney’s fees be awarded or recoverable;
   • Under no circumstances will participants be allowed to obtain any award for, and participants knowingly and expressly waive all rights to seek, punitive, incidental, consequential, or special damages, lost profits and/or any other damages;
   • They permanently waive any right to seek injunctive or equitable reprieve; and
   • They release and hold harmless the State of Iowa, the University of Northern Iowa, NIACC JPEC, Sponsor, all affiliated parties, and all of their employees and agents from any and all claims that any commercial, advertising, presentation, web content or any other material produced, presented, and/or prepared by or on behalf of Sponsor infringes the rights of participant as contained in any application or otherwise.
     
     
9. Winners
   Dream Big Grow Here Business North Iowa grant contest winners will be awarded funds upon submission of receipts showing funds were used towards an existing business, or business start-up. Funds may be applied in any manner that is consistent with business ideas presented in the application process.  Dream Big Grow Here North Iowa winners will be required to do an interview with the staff from MyEntre.Net for promotional purposes of the site and the Contest. Contest winners may also be asked to write blogs on our site. These blogs may contain information regarding the Dreamer's business lesson learned, their successes and failures, advice to other entrepreneurs, and plans for the future. You also agree to be a MyEntre.Net Webinar presenter covering the same basic topics as the blog. Regional winners will automatically become eligible to compete for a larger cash prize at the statewide Dream Big Grow Here contest.