Photo courtesy of University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Research and ExtensionA pair of local siblings attending the University of Arkansas took the top prize in a state-wide business plan competition last month. Cara and Grant Conner of Mountain Home, competing under the name Conner Innovation, won the agricultural division of the Arkansas Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan competition and were awarded $5,000 in prize money.
The Conner siblings developed a device designed to help injured and aged animals regain their mobility and named it the “Roveround.” Cara, a pre-med freshman majoring in nutrition and dietetics in the Dale Bumpers College of Agriculture, says she originally developed the idea for the Roveround in 2012 while in seventh grade at Pinkston Middle School. She met a corgi with bedsores and a herniated disc at the veterinary clinic operated by her parents, Rob and Mindy Conner, and began considering how to take the pressure off its back and let it be more mobile.
Cara says she took some PVC pipe and an old pair of jeans, sewed a sling to fit between the PVC frame and added wheels. She says she tested it on her cousin’s dog, and it worked fairly well. Cara began modifying it to suit different dogs, and it now consists of an aluminum frame and a gusseted nylon cloth sling.
Cara invited her brother to join her team for this year’s competition. Grant is a senior in the Fulbright College having already competed in the Governor’s Cup four years earlier, and Cara says his experience in formulating business plans was the key to their success in this year’s competition.
Grant says the prize money will go toward catapulting their operation from local one-at-a-time construction to large-scale production with a manufacturer in Asia.
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