FedPitch 2009 Rules

To enter FedPitch 2009, you must read the official rules below and you must agree to the rules by clicking the checkbox where indicated when submitting your proposal to enter the contest.

Eligibility

FedPitch 2009 is open only to legal residents of the United States who are 18 years of age and older. All entrants must have a valid government-issued identification (e.g., drivers license, passport) and a working email address.

FedPitch 2009 is offered only in the United States, and is governed by the laws of the District of Columbia. All claims relating in any manner to this contest or to any submission must be resolved in the federal or district courts located in Washington, DC.  Void where prohibited.

Submission of Proposals

To enter a proposal to present at FedPitch 2009 , entrants must log on to the FedPitch web site (www.FedPitch.org) between 12:00:00 am Eastern Time (“ET”) on 3/4/09 and 11:59:59 pm ET on 4/11/09 (the “Entry Period”) and click on the "Submissions" link. Each entrant must then enter his or her name and contact information and a written summary of his or her proposed pitch in 1500 characters or less, including spaces and punctuation (approx. 300 words in length). Each entrant may submit only one proposal for FedPitch 2009. If an entrant submits more than one proposal, only the first proposal submitted will be considered.  The sponsors are not responsible for lost, late, incomplete, invalid, unintelligible or misdirected entries/proposals.

The content of the proposals should focus on new and innovative ways and/or approaches for improving workforce management in the federal government. These new and innovative ideas could involve ways to attract or recruit individuals to federal public service or approaches for retaining, engaging, motivating, rewarding, developing, or leading the federal workforce.

As conditions of entry into this contest, and by uploading a submission, each entrant:

•  Waives any rights of privacy, intellectual property rights, and any other legal rights that may preclude the sponsors’ use of the entrant's submission, or require the entrant's permission for sponsors to use an entrant's submission for any purpose, and agrees to never sue or assert any claim against the sponsors' use of the submission;

• Agrees to indemnify and hold the sponsors harmless from any and all claims, damages, expenses, costs (including reasonable attorneys' fees) and liabilities (including settlements), brought or asserted by any third party against any of the sponsors due to or arising out of the entrant's submission, or the entrant's conduct during and in connection with this contest, including but not limited to trademark, copyright, or other intellectual property rights, right of publicity, right of privacy or defamation; and

• Agrees to release and indemnify and hold harmless the sponsors from any and all claims that any commercial, advertising, presentation, web content or any other material subsequently produced, presented, and/or prepared by or on behalf of the sponsors infringe on the rights of entrant's work as contained in any submission.

• Agrees to have his/her name, proposed ideas, and/or hometown and state used for promotional purposes in any media without payment or consideration.

 

Consideration of Proposals

A proposal review committee will assess submitted pitch proposals and narrow the proposals to 20 finalists and 5 alternates. The proposal review committee will be composed of 5 to 10 individuals (one to two individuals designated by each of the five sponsor organizations). The committee will use the following criteria in assessing the proposals: demonstrated need, feasibility, originality, and potential impact. The committee will determine the specific method for assessing the proposals using these criteria. Depending on the number and/or type of proposals submitted, the screening committee may decide to identify fewer than 20 finalists and/or 5 alternates.

After the proposal review committee assesses the submitted pitch proposals and makes its determinations regarding finalists and alternates for FedPitch 2009, the finalists and alternatives will be notified by telephone or email. If a finalist cannot be contacted in person via telephone or email within five (5) days after the first attempt to communicate with him/her, he/she may be disqualified and an alternate entrant may be selected in a random drawing from among all designated alternate entries. If a designated finalist withdraws prior to the actual start of the FedPitch 2009 event, the proposal review committee may select an alternate from among the designated alternate entries to present his/her pitch in place of the finalist who has withdrawn. To withdraw from the competition prior to the start of the FedPitch 2009 event, any finalist or alternate must notify the sponsors by sending an email specifying such withdrawal to info@fedpitch.org.

Presentation of Pitches

During the FedPitch 2009 event, each presenter will have up to 2 minutes (120 seconds) to present an oral summary of his/her proposal before a panel of judges and a live audience. The panel of judges will assess each pitch using the following criteria:  demonstrated need, feasibility, originality, potential impact, and presentation. A winner will be announced immediately after all pitches have been presented.

During the FedPitch 2009 event, the individuals presenting their proposals are NOT allowed to:

• Read from a prepared written pitch.

• Use any props, prototypes, flipcharts, overheads, hand-outs, etc.

• Wear t-shirts, hats, pins, or other articles of clothing or adornment with an organizational or company name, brand name, slogan, logo, or similar information.

• Promote any products and/or services from any non-governmental organization during the presentation.

The presentation must be in spoken English, or through an interpreter.

Only one person is allowed to present during each 2-minute pitch, unless one other individual is needed to serve as an interpreter.  Every pitch must be substantially similar to the written proposal submitted by the entrant.

Participation in the FedPitch 2009 event constitutes the finalists’ and winner's consent to have their names, photographs, opinions, proposed ideas, quotations, and/or hometowns and states used for promotional purposes in any media without payment or consideration.

Limitations of Liability and Release

No liability or responsibility is assumed by the sponsors resulting from any entrant's participation in or attempt to participate in FedPitch or ability or inability to upload or download any information in connection with participating in the contest. No responsibility or liability is assumed by the sponsors for technical problems or technical malfunction arising in connection with any of the following occurrences which may affect the operation of the contest: hardware or software errors; faulty computer, telephone, cable, satellite, network, electronic, wireless or Internet connectivity or other online communication problems; errors or limitations of any Internet service providers, servers, hosts or providers; garbled, jumbled or faulty data transmissions; failure of any email transmissions to be sent or received; lost, late, delayed or intercepted email transmissions; inaccessibility of the Web site in whole or in part for any reason; traffic congestion on the Internet or the Web site; unauthorized human or non-human intervention of the operation of the contest, including without limitation, unauthorized tampering, hacking, theft, virus, bugs, worms; or destruction of any aspect of the contest, or loss, miscount, misdirection, inaccessibility or unavailability of an email account used in connection with the contest. The sponsors are not responsible for any typographical errors in these Official Rules, or any inaccurate or incorrect data contained on the Web site. Use of Web site is at entrant's own risk. The sponsors are not responsible for any personal injury or property damage or losses of any kind which may be sustained to entrant or entrants or any other person's computer equipment and other property resulting from participation in the contest, use of the Web site or the download of any information from the Web site. By participating in the contest, the entrant releases the sponsors from any and all claims, damages or liabilities arising from or relating to such entrant's participation in the contest. The sponsors are not liable in the event that any portion of the contest is cancelled due to weather, fire, strike, acts of war or terrorism, or any other condition beyond their control.

If for any reason FedPitch 2009 is not capable of running as planned, including without limitation, infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of the contest, the sponsors reserve the right, at their sole discretion, to cancel, modify or terminate the contest. Further, the sponsors reserve the right, at their sole discretion, to disqualify any individual deemed to be (a) tampering or attempting to tamper with the entry process or the operation of the contest or any sponsor or related website; (b) violating the official rules; (c) violating the terms of service, conditions of use and/or general rules or guidelines of any sponsor property or service, or (d) acting in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person and help ensure that the use of any such person in advertising or publicity for the contest will not bring contest sponsors into public disrepute, contempt, scandal or ridicule or reflect unfavorably on the contest or the sponsors, as determined by sponsors in their sole discretion.

Winners List / Rules Request

The official rules of FedPitch 2009 and a list of the finalists and winner of FedPitch 2009 will be available on the FedPitch Web site (www.FedPitch.org).

Sponsors

The sponsors of FedPitch 2009 are 13L, the Partnership for Public Service, Young Government Leaders, the Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation at American University, and the International Public Management Association for Human Resources.

Privacy Policy

Information collected from entrants is subject to the FedPitch privacy policy which can be found here.