President AI Award 2026
A proven delivery partner
Plug and Play has delivered the President Tech Award for three consecutive years, 2023–2025. This is the team that has already built the numbers IT PARK is scaling.
Scope of engagement
A turnkey delivery engagement. We run the programs end to end; IT PARK retains only application intake, public relations, and the prize funds themselves.
Delivered by Plug and Play
Retained by IT PARK
How we deliver — efficiently, at scale
One dedicated calendar, one office, and an international mentor network built specifically around the President AI Award's five tracks.
All-international mentorship
Every mentor is sourced internationally — direct access to global operators and investors, a defining quality marker for a Presidential program.
Program integrity, by design
Acceleration run on separate, dedicated mentors; Acceleration mentors continue to our regional programs, sharing travel.
Six milestones per program
Two-week milestones tied to each fortnight's agenda, so mentorship, workshops and evaluation move in lockstep.
Investment-ready pipeline
Our PnP Ventures team runs progress-review calls with participants throughout the program and prepares a short due-diligence summary for IT Park Ventures to explore follow-on investment.
How we run it
July 2026 – February 2027 — what our team delivers, month by month, to run the President AI Award end to end. The program concludes with the Dec 17–18 finale; January–February cover our own reporting and tranche close-out.
Methodology Delivery
Finalize evaluation criteria & rubrics for all three tracks; mobilize international mentor sourcing.
Cohort Selection
Evaluate applicants against criteria; confirm cohort — Acceleration 20–25.
Program Weeks 1–12 · Six-Milestone Framework
All six offline weeks delivered on-site — mentorship, workshops and evaluation across all six milestones. Each of the six stages pairs an on-site offline week with a milestone evaluation checkpoint.
| Week | Stage | PAA |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | On-site Week 1 · Discovery | Advisor matching, track alignment |
| 2 | Milestone 1 · Discovery | Institutional mapping & advisor endorsement |
| 3 | On-site Week 2 · Validation | Infrastructure benchmarking, compute testing |
| 4 | Milestone 2 · Validation | Cluster performance & model scalability review |
| 5 | On-site Week 3 · MVP / Product | Multilingual localization, dataset fine-tuning |
| 6 | Milestone 3 · MVP / Product | GitHub repository audit & code verification |
| 7 | On-site Week 4 · Business Model | Institutional procurement, pilot frameworks |
| 8 | Milestone 4 · Business Model | B2G deployment gate clearance |
| 9 | On-site Week 5 · Metrics | Impact assessment, tranche KPI baseline |
| 10 | Milestone 5 · Metrics | Operational ROI validation & metric sign-off |
| 11 | On-site Week 6 · Fundraising | Venture due diligence, equity pitching |
| 12 | Milestone 6 · Fundraising | KYC compliance & investment readiness approval |
Reporting & Due Diligence
Final report compiled; PnP Ventures due-diligence summaries prepared for IT Park Ventures ahead of the finale.
Pitch-Polish Bootcamp
3-day bootcamp preparing Acceleration finalists for Demo Day — a nationally visible Presidential moment marking the program's grand finale.
Demo Day · Acceleration
Acceleration Demo Day — same consolidated visit; confirm 15 winners.
KPI & Close-out
KPI documentation and engagement close-out — all formal deliverables complete once IT PARK and the PAA committee approve the final KPI submissions. From past experience, informal check-ins with startups on KPI progress (tied to tranche disbursement) can continue for 2–3 years afterward on an as-needed basis — this isn't a fixed deliverable, and cadence varies case by case.
Commercial proposal
Where the $125,000 goes
| Delivery stage | When | Budget | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Application screening & evaluation | Aug 10–28 | $20,000 | 3 expert evaluators score ~300 applications, then run on-site selection |
| Acceleration — offline weeks | Sep–Nov · 6 on-site weeks | $25,000 | 3 rotating mentors (Acceleration) — flights, hotel, fees & per-diems |
| Acceleration — online weeks | Sep–Nov · 6 concurrent weeks | $20,000 | Weekly milestone review calls with mentors |
| December finale — bootcamp & jury | Dec 14–18 | $10,000 | 5 pitch-polish bootcamp mentors — flights, hotel, fees |
| Program logistics | Throughout | $15,000 | Team-building & kickoff events, printed materials, workshop supplies & session signage |
| Contingency | Throughout | $15,000 | Buffer for unforeseen program expenses |
| Plug and Play team & program management | Throughout | $20,000 | Marketing, legal, venture team, Uzbekistan team & broader program oversight |
| Total program fee | $125,000 |
Figures above are a program-level budget allocation illustrating how the fee is deployed, not itemized invoicing — Plug and Play manages actual costs within the fixed $125,000 fee.
Services included — one fee across Acceleration & Best Startup Project
| Installment | Trigger | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | On signature & mobilization (August 2026) | 30% |
| 2 | At commencement of offline delivery (September) | 40% |
| 3 | After all offline activities conclude & startup KPIs are submitted to IT PARK (Jan 2027) | 30% |
Validity. This proposal is valid for 30 days from the date shown.
Why Plug and Play
All three PTA tracks delivered by one team, from design through ceremony.
Acceleration and Best Startup running on one calendar, one office, one mentor network.
Regional travel-sharing, a consolidated ceremony and a flat hotel rate — reflected in the price, not the quality.
Three years delivering the President Tech Award — 2,000+ participants, 70+ international experts from 20+ countries, 30+ Plug and Play Ventures experts in evaluation across 3 seasons.