Dear Global Innovation Tournament Participants:

Today, one of the world's most pressing problems is the global recession, which has had a devastating effect on individuals, communities, companies, and entire countries. Those who have been least affected know how to build financial reserves to draw upon and/or how to do more with less. However, many people around the world view these as difficult or unpleasant to do. Let's do something to change that!

Your challenge is to... MAKE SAVING MONEY FUN!

Create as much value and have as much impact as possible while making it fun to save money. You will convey your results in a short YouTube video of three minutes or less.

- Remember that "saving" can be defined in lots of different ways.

- Impact comes in many different forms:  financial, educational, artistic, humor, awareness, behavior changing, relationship building, peacemaking, etc.

- And, of course, there are LOTS of ways to have fun!!

We encourage you to come up with products, services, experiences, or anything else you can imagine... Feel free to act locally or globally, and to think small or BIG.

You must actually implement your ideas and deliver results. To be successful, be entrepreneurial by challenging assumptions, seizing opportunities, leveraging your resources, and being creative! If you haven't already done so, sign up for updates and get details on how to participate at http://www.unleashingideas.org/tournament/participate.

The 2009 Global Innovation Tournament involves thousands of students and educators in over 51 countries. Have fun and Unleash Ideas! We can't wait to see what you do!

The Global Innovation Tournament (GIT) is organized by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program at Stanford University and is generously sponsored by Intuit Inc., a leading provider of financial management solutions for consumers and small businesses.  GIT is an official activity of Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Global Innovation Tournament Instructions

The Global Innovation Tournament is open to student teams from around the world. Teams can be of any size.

Your challenge is to MAKE SAVING MONEY FUN.  Define and measure this in any way you choose. Your goal is to have an impact.

Local organizers around the world will judge and determine winners.

Here are the logistics:

• Sign up to receive updates from us at http://www.unleashingideas.org/tournament/participate. Note: We are not responsible for email bounces and rejections by spam filters, etc. Anyone who wants to receive email updates should sign up, but only one member of each team will submit a video once it is done, along with the names of all team members.

• You have until Friday, Nov 13 at 9:00 AM US Pacific Time to complete your challenge and create a video of three minutes or less. Note that production quality of the videos will NOT be a judging criterion - it's the substance that counts.

• Upload the video to Youtube and give it the tag "stanfordgit09" and add it to the group "stanfordgit09".

• Once your video is on YouTube, one person per team should fill out the Submission form on http://www.unleashingideas.org/tournament/submit by Friday, Nov 13 at 9:00 a.m. US Pacific Time.

• Local hosts will be in touch with you regarding winners in your local area. We will announce global winners on Dec 3.

• All of the details are available at http://www.unleashingideas.org/tournament/participate.

NOTE:  If you use copyright protected music in your video, it'possible that YouTube could remove it prior to judging.