ATG, eStara's parent company, announced a very cool competition this morning where they plan to award $60,000 to innovators in the field of e-commerce and online business.  According to this release, ATG will award the winner a prize of $50,000 in cash. A second “People’s Choice” winner will receive $10,000 in cash as a result of a public vote on the company’s blog, “e-Commerce Insights,” http://www.ecommerceinsights.com. Submissions, which must include an e-commerce element as a business-critical component of the success of the plan, will be judged on the inventiveness and creativity of their proposals, as well as on long-term business viability and likelihood of execution. The winner will be chosen by a panel of software and technology experts, influential industry leaders and business executives to be announced at a later date. All entries must be received by 5:00 pm ET on Wednesday, January 30, 2008.

The ATG e-Commerce Ingenuity Business Plan Competition is open to individuals or teams of e-commerce entrepreneurs, as well as seed or early-stage companies. To qualify as seed or early-stage, annual revenues or monies raised to date must be less than $100,000. Employees of ATG or its affiliates, volunteers, and their immediate family members and/or those living in same household of each are not eligible.

Examples of encouraged submission concepts could include:

• New technology offerings to attract and retain specific customer segments
• New solutions for creating loyal communities of e-commerce consumers
• Visionary user-interface developments or approaches to personalized e-commerce experiences
• Vehicles to deliver cutting-edge e-commerce experiences to new industries

To enter the competition, each individual or team must submit a completed “Competition Submission” form as found at www.atg.com/ingenuity/.