Five members of E-Club nabbed first place and $350 for “best fundraiser” at the 2013 Collegiate Entrepreneurship Organization national conference in Chicago, Oct. 31-Nov. 2.

“Once they called our names for first place, we were just shocked,” senior Caitlyn Love said. “I think I screamed when they called our names.”

E-Club members Kevin Bell, Matt Bell, Hannah McGinnis, Kade Robinson and Love had three to five minutes in front of judges to showcase the success of this fall’s Business on the Quad event, which was held on Sept. 11 and featured around 30 booths set up by local businesses.

“We felt we should win because we were creating opportunities for not only students, but for businesses as well,” Love said. “CMU is a growing school, and [Business on the Quad] is a perfect chance for businesses to step in and take advantage of our population.”

The five winning CMU students beat out other student entrepreneurs from St. Mary’s University (Texas), Texas State University and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. While the other schools made substantially more from their fundraisers than the $3,000 CMU E-Club earned from Business on the Quad, Love said her team’s idea was the most original and all-encompassing.

“They were all really great ideas, but I felt like ours really included not only the school, but the community as well,” Love said. “As soon as we finished our presentation, people from other schools came up to us and told us what a great idea it was.”

E-Club’s victory was especially sweet considering members were initially denied a $9,515.80 request from ASG on Oct. 2 to cover travel and lodging expenses. However, the entrepreneurial students pursued funding through ASG’s Conference Committee who, according to Love, “basically met us in the middle. They didn’t give us the full funding, but they did work with us, so I was really grateful for that.”

Love said the 13 E-Club members who attended the CEO Conference also used a large chunk of the $3,000 earned from Business on the Quad as well as their own money to fund the trip.

One exception was senior Craton Edwards who, because he had won first place for his elevator pitch at last spring’s E-Day and was therefore automatically entered in the CEO Conference, was granted $1,516.60 from ASG for travel expenses. Although Edwards did not fare as well as his peers during competition time– only making it through two of three rounds of the elevator pitch competition– his elevator pitch was ranked among the top 12 in the nation of those students who competed at the CEO Conference.

“It’s really an honor just to be able to compete because not everyone gets chosen,” Love said of the conference, where E-Club members joined around 1,400 other students from around the country for business and marketing-related seminars, breakout sessions and competitions.

cblackme@mavs.coloradomesa.edu