Sailing through the competition

Guest post by Ashley Bozeman, Senior, studying International Business & Marketing

Last week Holland America Line Global Case Competition competitors had the opportunity to attend a pre-competition workshop with Leta Beard, Lecturer of Marketing and International Business. Professor Beard has had years of experience coaching and guiding numerous case competition teams to victory all over the world. She had great insight for our brand-new freshmen competitors and senior veterans alike! Here are our “Top Ten Tips” we took away from the workshop—enjoy!

Don’t panic when you get the case, you don’t need to know EVERYTHING, just focus on what’s important.
Set a timeline for your 48-hour preparation. What do you want to have accomplished by what hour?
Run through your presentation BEFORE submitting your slide deck. You will probably catch some things you want to change while you practice.
Don’t memorize. It’s important to be comfortable with your talking points, but if you memorize you could get tripped up if something unexpected happens.
Watch your pace: if it feels like you’re talking too slow, it’s probably just right.
Leave 30 seconds at the end of your presentation when you practice. You don’t want to go over the time limit, and never know when those extra seconds might come in handy.
“Tell us” three times. “Tell us what you’re going to tell us, then tell us, then tell us what you told us.” It’s important to have a clear direction and it never hurts to repeat key points.
Stay “in character”. The team and the judges will each have a role—know these roles and address the judges and your teammates as their respective characters.
Avoid jargon. The judges may not be familiar with acronyms and terms that you’ve learned in class so be sure to explain things like “SWOT” “NPV” and the “4 P’s”.
Have fun and Smile!!

Competitors have been working hard preparing for the competition this week. Teams will receive their case on Wednesday, November 13^th and present their ideas to judges on Saturday, November 16^th. The top four teams will advance to the final round to compete for a chance at the championship title and $1000 cash prize. The top scoring “Freshman Direct Track” team will also be revealed at the reception following the final round. Best of luck to all of our competitors this week! Curious about the competition? Volunteer on Saturday to help make sure it runs smoothly! Email if you’re interested.

The final round presentations are open to the public so come by and watch their creative minds at work Saturday, November 16^th at 2 pm in Anthony’s Forum, Dempsey Hall!