30 national teams ready to do battle before panel of experts at the Vanier College BDC Case Challenge

Calling on their best practical and analytical skills and a healthy dose of creativity, thirty teams of marketing students from all over Canada will aim to win a medal in the 2012 Vanier College BDC Case Challenge, set for February 11-12, 2012. This is the seventh year Vanier College hosts this event which is biggest and most prestigious, bilingual collegiate marketing competition in Canada.

What is a case competition?
During a case competition students, in teams of three, have three hours to analyze a marketing problem they have never seen before, conceive a realistic marketing strategy and present their plan of action to a panel of judges. It’s a high pressure competition where they need cool heads and clear thinking to produce solutions that are both valuable and practical, and present them in a professional manner, in either English or in French before the judges.

Where is the competition taking place?
The 2012 competition will take place at the Marriott Courtyard Hotel (Montreal Airport), 7000 Place Robert-Joncas, (514-339-5333). Presentations begin at 11:30 AM and run until 4:00 PM on Saturday. Because of the large number of participants, there will be three theatres of ten presentations on Saturday. That evening, the top two teams from each theatre will be announced at a gala dinner at 7:00 PM. These six teams will then go on to compete Sunday morning, following which, an awards luncheon will take place.

Experts from education and business will judge the contestants
Judges this year include: Steven Abrams, Partner IT Venture Fund, BDC Venture Capital; Bryan Barbieri, Professor, Marketing, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University; Dave Bussiere, Assistant Provost-Admissions and Recruiting and Associate Professor Marketing, University of Windsor; Bruno Delorme, Professor Marianopolis College; Carolyn Di Murro, Partner, Eptix Electronics; Barb Gardner, School of Business, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology; Leigh-Anne Graham, Pearson Canada; Wendy Keller, Lecturer, Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University; Constantina Ioannou, District Manager Small Business Development, Scotiabank; Michael Madore, Faculty of Management-Marketing, University of Lethbridge; Robert Palmer, Assistant Professor Marketing, Williams School of Business, Bishop’s University; Joanne Photiades, Senior Account Manager, Acquisition, BDC; and Annie Potvin, Director of Product Management and Marketing, Insight Canada; Simon Restall, Director, Small Business Development, Scotiabank.

Check out the complete list of colleges and cegeps participating in the 2012 Case Challenge.

About BDC
BDC is Canada’s business development bank. From more than 100 business centers across the country, BDC promotes entrepreneurship by providing highly tailored financing, venture capital and consulting services to entrepreneurs.