On May 7th, 2005, NECINA celebrated the conclusion of the first Brown Rudnick Business Plan Contest.

The first place honors went to the team YDCTech .? The distinguished panel of judges decided that YDCTech demonstrated a great market opportunity, developed a solid business plan, built a strong team and delivered a crisp presentation.? The team was awarded $25,000 cash and in-kind services. Sam Williams, managing director of the contest lead sponsor, Brown Rudnick, presented the award to the team. Teams Web2Mobile and Laudis received first and second runner-up honors, respectively. They received award from Hong Yu, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Paul Lee, General Partner from Goodwin and Procter, a contest major sponsor.

As NECINA Honorable Chairman Cheng Wu summarized the contest, saying, all of the participants are winners. The judges were very impressed by the level of participation as well as the quality of the business plans.

There were total 23 applications submitted. Seventeen formal business plans were submitted. It is worth mentioning that two CINA teams from the west coast joined the contest. One of them advanced to the semifinals, and flew to Boston to present their plan. Second runner-up, team Laudis, came from North Carolina. IDG Ventures also just made an investment in a participating team who did not advance the semi-finalist round. This is a great testimony to the value that the contest is providing to its members and sponsors