Accelerating Young Leaders into the Global Bio-economy
Biotechnology industries are changing more rapidly than ever before. As the next generation of biotech leaders, Leaders of Tomorrow (LoTs) must ensure their technical and business acumen and training keep pace with this rapidly evolving landscape. The Voices of Tomorrow (VoT) Competition provides LoTs a platform to tackle real-world challenges within the biotech industry.
Structured as a bio-innovation competition, VoT commences four months before GapSummit 2019, culminating in a final round of pitches during the conference. The competition provides LoTs the exciting and collaborative opportunity to further develop their skill sets and catalyze innovation to solve pressing challenges facing the global biotech community.
Goals and Objectives
The VoT Competition will provide LoTs the opportunity to work in international and intellectually diverse teams of five members with the guidance of an industry mentor to define a specific need in the biotech industry and propose a solution.
Through the VoT Competition, LoTs will further develop broadly applicable skills in the areas of:
• Market research and analysis
• Financial analysis and due diligences
• Technology assessment and regulatory considerations
• Critical thinking and problem solving
• Written and oral communication in the form of a business plan proposal and pitch deck
• International and interdisciplinary coordination, collaboration, and leadership
Timeline
Beginning in February 2019, teams will collaborate with world-class mentors and each other over the course of four months to prepare for and present to a panel of judges over two rounds of competition.
• February 18 – Teams formed
• March 11 – Problem definition proposal due
• May 17 – Business plan proposal due
• May 27 – Finalist teams announced
• June 16 – Pitch practice session at the Broad Institute
• June 17 – Final pitch decks due
• June 19 – Voices of Tomorrow final round pitches
Mentors & Judges
The judges and mentors are consultants from prominent firms, executives and scientists from leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and partners from venture capital firms. Mentors will be available to provide regular feedback and guidances to their teams as they traverse the problem solving process.