Do you have an amazing new business idea?

Young Bright Sparks is a competition for Secondary School students in Ireland to see who can come up with the best new business ideas.

Students can enter as individuals or as a team.

The unique aspect of this competition is that students choose the winners by voting for the ideas they think are the best. There is no judging panel. Only secondary school students are entitled to vote and all secondary school students can vote, regardless of whether or not they have submitted a business idea to the competition.

The voting mechanism is by way of investing virtual funds into their favourite ideas. Each student is given a virtual €10,000 to invest.

The winning ideas with the most virtual investment will be awarded cash prizes.

Three winners will emerge from each of Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht and these 12 winners will compete for the All-Ireland prize.

Competitions will first be run to select the best new business idea from each individual secondary school in Ireland. Only students within that school will be able to enter business ideas to compete for the winner of the best idea in their own school and only students within that school will be able to vote for the winner in their own school. Voting is done by way of investing a virtual €10,000 spread across whatever ideas you think are the best. Each student will have a maximum of €10,000 to invest. There are no prizes for the winner from each school, other than the honour of being the student or the team with the best idea.

The winning idea from each school will then automatically go forward to the County final, which will have one idea from each school. All secondary school students in that County will be eligible to vote and the voting mechanism will be the exact same as during the school voting stage. Students who have not voted during the school competition will still be eligible to vote in the County Final. Students who voted during the school competition will be given a new virtual €10,000 to invest in the County final.

The winning entries from the County finals will go forward to the Provincial finals and the 4 winners from the Provincial finals will go forward to the National Final. Students in their respective Counties and Provinces will be eligible to vote at each stage. All secondary school students in Ireland will be able to vote in the National Final.

Cash prizes will be awarded to the winners at Provincial and National levels.

There is a total of €10,000 in cash prizes for the best ideas, awarded as follows:

• Leinster Winner = €1,000
• Leinster 2nd place = €750
• Leinster 3rd place = €250

• Munster Winner = €1,000
• Munster 2nd place = €750
• Munster 3rd place = €250

• Ulster Winner = €1,000
• Ulster 2nd place = €750
• Ulster 3rd place = €250

• Connacht Winner = €1,000
• Connacht 2nd place = €750
• Connacht 3rd place = €250

The All-Ireland Winners will receive an additional:

• Winner = €1,000
• 2nd place = €750
• 3rd place = €250

Only students with an official school email address may register to vote in the competition. This prevents outsiders from having a say in the winners and also prevents students from voting more than once.

Investment Rules

• All students are allocated €10,000 in virtual funds to invest regardless of whether they have submitted an idea or not.
• €5,000 - maximum investment in a campaign.
• You must spend all of your available funds before your investments will appear on your chosen campaigns. In other words, you can’t just invest €5,000 in one business idea and nothing else in any other idea. You must invest all of the €10,000 you are allocated.
• Students will receive a new €10,000 of virtual funding at the end of each round of voting.