Contest: The National Poetry Competition (UK. Open to non-UK citizens) (Website)

Organized by: The Poetry Society

Key Dates: Submission Deadline - 31st October 2008
For whom: Any person of any nationality over the age of 17.

Contest Rules: Any number of entries may be sent in. The entry fee for the first entry is 5 pounds and the charge for all subsequent entries is 3 pounds. Entries must be the original work of one author and should never previously have been published. Entries may be submitted online.

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Suggested by Ashwin Bhat

Event: Symbian Student Essay Contest 2008 (Website)

Organized By: Symbian (Website)

Key Dates:
Deadline for Submission of Essays: September 30, 2008
Winners to be announced on: October 21-22, 2008

For Whom:
Participants should be registered as a student at any university worldwide. Groups of students can choose to collaborate on an essay. Essays are welcomed from students of any discipline.

Symbian Student Essay contest, being organised and sponsored by Symbian, is an annual research essay competition for university students on Symbian-related and wider mobile technology topics. This year’s focus - “The next wave of smartphone innovation - issues and opportunities with smartphone technologies”

Essays can be submitted on one or more following areas:
1.  Device evolution / revolution through 2012-2015
2. Improved development and delivery methodologies
3. Success factors for mobile applications and mobile operating systems
4. Possible breakthrough applications and markets
5. Possible breakthrough technology improvements
6. Improved university collaboration methods

More details on the Areas here.

Prizes:
Up to ten essays will each be awarded a top prize of £1000. A special commendation will be awarded to those essays deemed of a high quality but which are not among the winning entries.

Complete rules on the Essay contest can be read here.

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Suggested By Priya Venkateshan

Event: TheScian Science Fiction Short Story Contest 2008 (Website)

Organised By: The Scientific Indian

Key Dates:
Deadline for Submission of Entries: September 30, 2008
Announcement of Results: November 15, 2008

For Whom:
Any Indian citizen living in India or abroad can participate in the contest. An author can submit only one story for the contest.

The Scientific Indian is organizing Science Fiction Short Story Contest. This is a great opportunity for aspiring writers to write on Science Fiction. The story should be no more than 6000 words. Promising stories will be considered for publication in the forthcoming TheScian Stories book to be published in 2009.

Submission:
The story must be no more than 6000 words and must be sent to thescian.contests@googlemail.com with the subject line marked as “TheScian Science Fiction Short Story 2008- Contest Entry”. The story must be attached as a plain text file (.txt file created in Notepad, for example).

The Submission email should carry the following details:

• Subject: TheScian Science Fiction Short Story 2008 - Contest entry
• Story Title:
• Author’s name/pen name:
• About the Author (not mandatory):
• Author’s note (not mandatory):
• License Terms:
• Mailing address in India (important, the prize money goes here):
• Story Attachment: as .txt file (important, don’t mess this up).

Prizes:
First Best Story: Rs. 10,000/-
Second Best Story: Rs. 7,500/-

More details can be found here.

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Event: Student Reviews Contest- NetBeans 6.1 and OpenSolaris OS (Website)

Organized By: Sun Microsystems Inc.

Key Dates:
Contest Begins: May 5, 2008
Deadline for Contest: June 6, 2008
Judging Period: June 7- June 20, 2008
Winner’s announced: June 25, 2008

About NetBeans 6.1 and OpenSolaris OS:
OpenSolaris is a full-featured OS with compelling software features such as ZFS, Dynamic Tracing (DTrace), Predictive Self-Healing and Solaris Containers, and it is built to give student developers like you a risk-free platform to quickly build, test, troubleshoot and deploy your innovations.

NetBeans is an IDE supporting whole loads of languages namely Java SE, Web & Java EE, Mobile Platform, UML, SOA, Ruby, C/C++ and servers namely GlassFish V2 UR2 and Apache Tomcat 6.0.16. In the latest 6.1 release, the award-winning NetBeans IDE has cool new features for developing AJAX web applications using JavaScript technology and delivers tighter integration with MySQL database.

Download OpenSolaris OS here
Download NetBeans IDE 6.1 here

About the Contest:
Post a review on your experience in using OpenSolaris OS and/or NerBeans IDE 6.1 and register the link of the written review here. Sun Microsystem’s judges will review all the submissions and select the winners.

The contest will have two groups: one for students who are not Sun Campus Ambassadors, and another comprising Sun Campus Ambassadors. For each group, there will be a grand prize of $250 in Visa Debit Card, and 5 second prizes of $100 each in Visa Debit Card.

How to Enter:
Post a review describing your experience using the new OpenSolaris OS or NetBeans IDE 6.1, install, reliability, performance, manageability, ease of use, new features, a tutorial, insight, tech tip, code sample, request for enhancements, etc. Your review must include a link to the Student Reviews Contest site. The review can be posted as a blog entry. Entries must be new material and not copied from something already written.

Complete the submission form here.
For Review tips here.
For Contest rules here

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Event: Student Essay Competition (Website)

Organised By: SEVEN Fund Organisation

Key Dates:
Deadline For Essay Submission :December 7, 2008
SEVEN Fund Essay Award Announcements:February 7, 2009

Eligibility: Undergraduate and Graduate Students

SEVEN Fund Essay Competition is about writing an essay of or less than 2000 words. You have to assume yourself to be the policy advisor to the Entrepreneur President,Paul Kagame of Rwanda and try to put his ideas into practice and should focus on key policies.The Essay should be persuasive and use first person. You can use the following videos as a starter for the essay:

The Winner of the competition will receive an award of US10000$ (Undergraduate) and US$20000(Graduate) respectively.The participants are also requested to write a 100 word note on the essay and its contents.Also only one essay can be submitted by one student(Or Group) and the money can be used only for educational purposes or student loan .

For Further details visit the Website

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Event: Boulevard Online Poetry Contest (Website)

Organised By: Boulevard Magazine

Key Dates:
Deadline for submission of entries (Submission By Post): May 15, 2008

For Whom:
One who has not yet published a book of poetry with a nationally distributed press:

If it’s not been working out in saying nice poetic lines to that one person in this entire world , then check this out . The one chance you poets have been waiting for -The Boulevard Magazine Poets Contest .This Contest Is all for the emerging new Parrots of talent . All you have to do is write a group of three poems (with an entry fee of $15 ) and mail it to them along with a set of details which can be checked up on the site.

If you win your poems will not only be published in the Boulevard Magazine but you also get a whopping prize money of $1000. So what you waiting for, get your mighty swords and start shredding those sheets of paper and let the poet inside of you take over .

For More details on the address to which the Poems must be sent and other Rules please visit the WebLink

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Event: The Earth Vision nature writing contest 2008 (Website)

Key Dates :
Deadline for submission of entries: October 15, 2008.

The contest is open to any writer in English producing an original short piece of fiction, creative non-fiction, poetic prose, or poetry on a theme of nature, deep ecology, spiritual ecology, or any work that has some element of nature woven into it.

Submissions can be published or unpublished material, length to range between 500 and 2500 words per entry. One title per entry, one can enter as many times as they like, new entry fee to accompany each entry. Winners will retain all rights, and will be invited to post their entries on the Earth Vision website.

Entry fee: $12 (U.S.)

You can either donate $12, or purchase two or more E-books from the Earth Vision site (at $6 each).

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Event:10th Annual Poetry & Short Story Contest (Website)

Organized by: Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival

Key Dates:
Contest deadline : October 26, 2008
Winner Announcement: January 12, 2009

For Whom:
The contest is open to all writers.

Participants are required to submit finest prose and poetry to the tenth annual Writers Festival Poetry & Short Story Contest, presented by the Vancouver International Writers Festival.

i. Poetry (any style): 500 word limit
ii. Creative Short Fiction: 1,500 word limit

Prizes:
1st prize - $350
2nd prize - $250
Prizes will be awarded to the top two entries in both the poetry and creative short fiction categories. First place winners in each category will be published in the spring 2009 issue of subTERRAIN magazine and all winners will be published on the Festival website

Entries may be dropped off at Book Warehouse locations, or delivered by hand or mail to the Writers Festival office. Entries will be judged by professionals in the writing and publishing industries.

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Event: Conference- “Technology For Rural India: Challenges and Perspectives” (Website)

Organized By: ISTE Delhi Section

Venue: Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, New Delhi

Key Dates:
Deadline for:
1. Registration: May 15, 2008
2. Initial Submission of papers: April 30, 2008
3. Final Submission (After Acceptance of Initial Paper): May 15, 2008
4. Postal Submission of Student Essays: April 30, 2008
Conference Dates: May 31-June 1, 2008

In celebration of the ISTE Day 2008, the Delhi Section of the Indian Society of Technical Education (ISTE) is hosting a conference on “Technology for Rural India: Challenges and Perspectives”. The conference will focus on strategic technological development and research on problems specific to rural India. The event is targeted to educationists, researchers and students and will include technical sessions, invited lectures, special workshops, interactive sessions and student activities.

Student Essay Contest:
With a view to sensitizing students to rural problems that can be approached through technology, the Delhi Section of ISTE is organizing a special essay contest on the above topic. In order to participate in this contest, students have to organize a visit to some rural area to get a first-hand experience on those problems of rural life that can be solved through innovative technologies. Institutions are requested to provide all logistics support to the students in this regard. Each participant is expected to identify one problem and work out a well defined technological solution to tackle it. The essay should portray his/her personal experience along with a technical description of the problem and its solution. Essays will be judged on literary as well as technical presentation. Kindly limit the essay to 6 printed pages including diagrams if any and indicate the student’s name, contact details and the name and address of his Institution. The essays should be duly signed by the Head of the Institution should be sent to the address given below by April 30, 2008. An electronic version should also be emailed. Selected essays will be eligible for presentation at the conference during a special session. Authors of selected essays must deliver a 10 minutes presentation.

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Contest: The Bridport Prize International Creative Writing Competition 2008 (Website)

Organized by: The Bridport Arts Centre, UK

Key Dates: Closing date for entries: 30th June, 2008 (Online entries will be accepted until midnight GMT on the deadline)

For Whom: Persons of any nationality over 18 years of age

Contest Rules:
-Maximum of 5000 words for short stories and 42 lines for poems
-Entry fee is 6 pounds per entry
-Contestants may send any number of entries
-Entries must be original pieces that have never been published or broadcast partly or wholly
-Entries must be typed in English on separate sheets (single-sided) and must not contain the author’s name or address

The Bridport Prize was instituted in 1973 and is now a prestigious writing award. Contestents are free to write either Short stories or Poems which should adhere to the Contest Rules. The work of the contestant must be original and should not be published else where. Former Bridport winners have gone on to become established novelists and poets.  Winning entries may be published in an annual anthology brought out by the Bridport Prize Organization.

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Suggested By Pin-Quan Ng

Event: Essay Competition 2008 (Website)

Organized By: Global Forum for Health Research and The Lancet

Key Dates:
Deadline for submission for entries: April 30, 2008
Announcement of Shortlists: End of June 2008
Notification of Winners: August 2008

For Whom:
Participants must be below the age of 30 years i.e they must have been born on or after 1 January 1979

The Global Forum for Health Research and The Lancet are holding their third joint essay competition for the under-30s on the theme- “Climate change and health: research challenges for the health of vulnerable populations”.

Rules and Guidelines:

1. Each author may submit one essay only.
2. Essays may be submitted in English or French and should be 1500 words maximum.
3. Essays must be based on the author’s own ideas and not be derived from another source.
4. Essays must not have been previously published.
5. Entries are individual (i.e., the work of a single author).
6. They should include original, even provocative ideas and not be technical or academic texts: tables, charts and figures are probably not necessary; references should be limited.
7. Authors are free to be idealistic, passionate, to take established practices to task, albeit in a constructive fashion.
8. Within the context of research for health, the theme allows authors to include any aspect that interests them particularly – for example, extreme weather, natural disasters, fuels and energy, transport, water management, vectors, food production, demographics, urban planning, security.

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Contest: e-Author version 5.0 (Website)

Organized by: Oxford Bookstore, India

Key Dates:
Deadline for submitting entries: March 24, 2008
Long list to be announced online: May 6, 2008
Short listed entries to be announced online: June 3, 2008
Shortlisted authors to finish writing their books: June 6 - August 15, 2008
Final results: September 30, 2008

For Whom:
Authors working on either an anthology of short stories or a novel.

The contest’s rules require that individual authors submit either the first two chapters of an original novel (each chapter 5000 words or less) or a short story (5000 words or less) along with a 1000-word synopsis of the proposed novel/anthology of short stories, author profile and contact details.

All entries must be typed in Font size 12 and emailed to eauthor@apeejaygroup.com as MS Word documents.

The Oxford Bookstore’s e-Author contest has been held four times before this since 2001. Judges include such distinguished writers and journalists as Antara Dev Sen, Jaishree Mishra and Mohan Sivanand. The contest is open only to Indian nationals.

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Competition: All-Asian Intervarsity Debating Championships (’All-Asians’) (Website)

Hosted by: North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Key dates:
Deadline for first phase of registration: March 31, 2008
Tournament - May 9 - 16, 2008

(Each Institution /University can register up to 3 teams (of 3 speakers each). Teams are also expected to bring along an equal number of adjudicators who can be drawn from students / faculty / alumni)

The ‘All-Asians’ was started in 1994 and has since grown into the world’s third largest parliamentary-style debating competition. The 14 th held in South Korea last year had 104 teams participating and this year’s edition is expected to exceed that number.Asians each year enjoys the participation of around 15 countries and almost 500 participants. Every year the most advanced youth minds of Asia gathers to share and exhibit their diverse knowledge and thoughts on various international and regional issues. Asians promotes debate as an art of constructive argumentation and fruitful communication.

The registration amount is US $ 160 per head and covers accommodation in a 5-Star hotel, food and socials arrangements throughout the duration of the tournament. Depending on the status of teams registered at the end of the first phase of registration, the organisers may consider allowing more teams from each institution.

All Details relating to official invitation letters, registration (wire-transfer payment details), accommodation, socials and help with visa-processing can be obtained here

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Contest: The Sir John M. Templeton Fellowships Essay Contest (Website)

Organised by: The John Templeton Foundation and The Independent Institute.

Key Dates:
May 1, 2008 - Deadline for submission.
October 2008 - Announcement of Winners.

For Whom:
This competition is open for students and Junior Faculty members from all over the world. More details about the Eligibility Criteria and the required Essay length and Style guidelines etc are given here.

Topic:
Are property rights human rights? How are they related? What are their similarities and differences? If property rights are human rights, why have they enjoyed fewer legal protections and intellectual champions than other human rights?

Sir John M.Templeton essay contest encourages college students and young college professors around the world to study the meaning and significance of economic and personal liberty. Created in 1974 by Olive W. Garvey, the Fellowship contest has drawn essay submissions from more than 75 countries on 5 continents. Garvey winners have since become some of the finest of scholars, business and civic leaders, and journalists, applying and advancing public knowledge and appreciation around the world for the ideas of individual liberty and personal responsibility.

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Opportunity: Membership to Mensa India (Website)

Mensa was founded in England in 1946 by Roland Berrill, a barrister, and Dr Lance Ware, a scientist and lawyer. They had the idea of forming a society for bright people, the only qualification for membership of which was a high IQ. The original aims were, as they are today, to create a society that is non-political and free from all racial or religious distinctions. The society welcomes people from every walk of life whose IQ is in the top 2% of the population, with the objective of enjoying each other’s company and participating in a wide range of social and cultural activities.

Mensa has three stated purposes: to identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity, to encourage research in the nature, characteristics and uses of intelligence, and to promote stimulating intellectual and social opportunities for its members. Today there are some 100,000 Mensans in 100 countries throughout the world.

Entrance Test Procedure:
Membership in Mensa is open to persons who have attained a score within the upper two percent of the general population on an approved intelligence test that has been properly administered and supervised. There is no other qualification or disqualification for membership eligibility.

Candidates for membership in Mensa must achieve a score at or above the 98th percentile (a score that is greater than or equal to 98 percent of the general population taking the test) on a standard test of intelligence. Admission to Mensa India is on the basis of an admission test conducted by Mensa India. Mensa has no eligibility requirements other than IQ testing.

If you want to take an on-line test, the Mensa workout is an interactive intelligence quiz, in which you have a half an hour to answer 30 questions. Then just press a button, your test is instantly scored and you can see how your score measures up. The answers to the questions are provided, along with discussion of the answers. The Workout is not an IQ test, and can’t be used for qualification to join Mensa. This workout is available at www.mensa.org

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Event: The Quiz Fest 2008 (Website)

Organised By: VNIT Nagpur and Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd.

Key Dates: February 23-24, 2008

The VNIT Quiz Fest, which took off in the year 2006 has taken a huge leap within two years of its existence.

The total event is divided into
1. General
2. Corporate
3. IT
4. Sports
5. Entertainment

The total event held on Feb 23-24, 2008 with 2 quizzes on each day — with fillers, crosswords, sudokus and informals conducted during the night. Along with these there are short quizzes on topics of interest like Harry Potter, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Tintin, Asterix etc. The fest prize money stands at Rs 150,000/-.

The quizzes consists of a preliminary written round. The top 6 teams out of the the whole lot of about 1000 participants, make it to the next final round where the battle just begins for the crown of one of the best quizzers in the nation. This year’s quiz to be conducted by the ace quiz-master Gautam Bose from GreyCells, Kolkata.

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Competition: The World Bank 2008 Essay Competition (Website)

Organised by: The World Bank, the Cities Alliance and the Government of Norway

Key Dates:
March 23, 2008 - Deadline for submissions
April 30, 2008 - Finalists announced
June 9-10, 2008 - Final Jury in Cape Town, South Africa
June 11, 2008 - Award Ceremony during the ABCDE Conference in Cape Town, South Africa (The World Bank will cover travel and accommodation expenses for the finalists)

For Whom:
The essay competition is open for nationals of ALL countries of the world, students and non-students alike, aged 18-25. Students enrolled in Ph.D. courses are, however, not eligible to participate.

WANTED: Your Practical Ideas
Shaping the City of Your Dreams

In 2007, for the first time in human history, the majority of people in the world, particularly in developing countries, will be living in urban areas. Life in the city is often associated with more opportunities, better access to employment, education, health and other services. Cities are often called engines of economic growth, contributing disproportionately to the national gross domestic product (GDP). They are also centers of innovation, entrepreneurship and investment. But many cities also have a large part of their population living in slums, without essential services such as water, sanitation and energy, and threatened by environmental hazards, violence and social exclusion. As more and more people move from the countryside to the city, and as city populations grow, there is a growing need for solutions to the issues of urban poverty, environment, and urban infrastructure (housing, roads, water, energy etc.).

What can you do to shape the city of your dreams?

The essay should not exceed 10 pages (4000 words), 1.5 spaced. The following elements do NOT count into the number of pages or words: abstract, content page, title page (if you provide one). Moreover, graphs and tables do NOT count into the number of words.

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Competition: The Anwarul Quadir Prize of 2008 Global Essay Contest for Bangladesh (Website)

Organised by: Center for International Development at Harvard University

Key Dates:
Submission Deadline: June 30, 2008
Results: October 15, 2008

Propose an innovative and practical idea that would improve the lives of low- and middle- income people of Bangladesh (everyone except the top-third of the population in terms of annual income). Proposals will be judged by four Harvard University faculty members, in consultation with scholars familiar with Bangladesh.

This global contest is open to any individual in the world. Any compelling essay that establishes a way to improve the lives of low- and middle-income people in Bangladesh is acceptable for submission. The essays will be rated giving equal weights to a) innovative nature of the idea; b) clarity and cogency of argument and writing; c) ease and practicality of implementation; and d) the size of impact.

The author of the winning essay will be awarded the Anwarul Quadir Prize, USD $25,000.

Edit: Essays should be no longer than 25 pages, excluding bibliography, table of contents, and any diagrams. Rules and Regulations

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Event: St. Gallen’s Symposium 2008, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland (Website)

Organised by: The International Students’ Committee (ISC), St. Gallen

Key Dates:
Application Deadline: February 2, 2008
Symposium: May 15–17, 2008

For Whom:
Undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students in all fields of study enrolled at regular universities throughout the world, born in 1978 or after.

As the world’s leading platform for dialogue on key issues in management, the entrepreneurial environment and the interfaces between business, politics and society, the St. Gallen Symposium provides an opportunity for open and constructive discussions on the fundamental challenges faced by businesses and societies across the world.

Contribute your visions and entrepreneurial ideas to the theme “Global Capitalism – Local Values”. We expect a professional work such as an essay, a scenario, a project report or proposal, a multimedia presentation or an entrepreneurial concept. It should be constructive, provocative or instructive, inspiring thoughts and actions as well as introducing a new approach or unconventional ideas. All contributions will be evaluated according to specific criteria by a panel of professors, corporate executives, entrepreneurs and politicians.

The authors of the 200 best contributions will be invited to Switzerland to add their own perspective to the St. Gallen Symposium – in the company of 600 entrepreneurs, top managers, politicians and scientists from more than 60 nations. The most outstanding pieces of work will receive the St. Gallen Wings of Excellence Award, which is endowed with a EUR 20,000 prize, and will be presented to the audience by their authors.

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