Banglalink announces the Grandmaster season-3

In a press conference organized on 27^th June, 2013, Banglalink announced the third season of Grandmaster, the idea generation competition between students for making the best apps. Channel 71 and Radio Amar are the media partners of this season. The contest will be receiving entries from today as well, till the 30^th of July, 2013, giving all prospective participants a long window of time for their idea.

Mr. Shihab Ahmad, Chief Commercial Officer, Banlglalink announced the third season of Grandmaster. Present at the press conference were Dr. Kaykobad, Professor-Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Professor Dr. Abdul Hannan Chowdhury, Dean-School of Business, North South University, Dr. Sarwar Uddin Ahmed, Dean-School of Business, Independent University Bangladesh, Professor Mamun Rashid, Vice Chairman-Financial Excellence Ltd and Dr. Md. Musa, Professor-United International University.

Following the submission stage, the top 15 teams of 2-4 members will be shortlisted by the 25^th of August, and groomed and trained over the next day for presentation of their projects. In its first year, Grandmaster registered 1585 teams and received 949 competitive projects. In the following year there were 2223 registrations and 230 competitive teams. This highlights the reach of the competition among the youth, the most active segment for making a difference.

Students being a crucial segment among the youth have always been an area of focus for Banglalink. The contest was highly appreciated among the universities and students the first two years, and is back this year considering last two years’ success. The major selection criteria will be: Number of people to be benefitted, Innovativeness, User friendliness, Technical Feasibility and Commercial Feasibility.

Similar to last year, the facebook page ‘banglalinkmela’ is an important platform of engagement during this contest. Students willing to participate need to form groups and register and submit their ideas through banglalink’s facebook fan page “banglalinkmela”. The initial short listing will be done in-house and on final event a jury panel will select the top three out of these shortlisted groups.

The Grandmaster Champion will receive BDT 200,000.00, 1^st Runners Up & 2nd Runners Up will receive BDT 150,000.00 & BDT 100,000.00 respectively. Project theme of this year will be “mobile applications that make a difference in people’s lives”. Feasible projects will be taken into account for execution as applications.

Mr. Shihab Ahmad, Chief Commercial Officer, Banglalink, said “Grandmaster has been wildly successful the first two years, which is why it is back. With the advent of 3G so close, it is more relevant than ever. Hopefully through this competition there will come out some truly amazing apps that can make a different in people’s lives.”