The following article was written by Morison Smith, Christine Sheppard, Mackenzie Collette and Raffaele Cianflone who recently competed at the Okanagan Case Competition held at UBC Okanagan in Kelowna, British Columbia.
The Okanagan Case Competition (OCC) is an annual event that is targeted at incorporating a local focus to a case competition held by the Management Student Association (MSA) at the University of British Columbia – Okanagan in Kelowna, British Columbia. Students are tasked with generating ideas and approaches to the companies’ unique situation while providing students with the opportunity and chance to gain the experience that case competition preparations and presenting bring with them. The structure of this case is a Live Case focus, with the company partner and the problem being a current issue that students will be working on in live time.
The event also places an emphasis on competition and learning between the teams, as participants will be both from UBC-O as well as other Universities from across interior BC and other locations in Western Canada. Teams will have the ability to network and meet both during and after the event.
In total there were 14 teams that signed up for the competition. Teams came from the University of Winnipeg, the University of British Columbia – Okanagan and the University of Victoria. A majority of the teams sent were past JDC West delegates, which provided a high fierce competition. Winning first place, we were extremely satisfied with the outcome of the competition.
Upon arrival on Thursday, our team was invited to the winery so we could tour the facility, meet with the owners, and get a broader understanding of the issues the company was facing. This face-to-face contact provided us with a much more realistic view of the issues presented. Most of the judges were from the Vibrant Vine’s executives – the company of focus within the case – which provided realistic feedback. This competition in particular was interesting because of their direct involvement in the competition. We noted several times that this felt less like a school competition, and more like a real business consultation.
We are very thankful to the Commerce Student’s Association for supporting our attendance at this conference. I recommend that any student interested in improving their critical thinking and presentation skills should look into attending this conference.