Global Student Competition

The Business Events Industry Student Challenge engages competing teams on their knowledge and understanding of the industry to create and propose a successful event. The goal of this challenge is to have a proposal for a meeting, incentive trip, exhibition, tradeshow, consumer show, convention, conference, congress or product launch.

Overview

2022 theme: Seamless Hybrid Experiences
View the requirements here.

The teams may choose to focus on any number of the following topics, but are not limited to just these, in relation to the competition’s parameters:

Training
Event Platforms
Legislative Advocacy / Government Regulations
Registration
Venue Preparation
Integrating Virtual and In-Person
Overall Engagement

Details:

Teams will first be evaluated based on their proposals. Teams should not exceed 4-5 members. A committee of industry professionals will score the proposals, narrowing them down to the top five. The top five teams will then be invited to present their final proposal, virtually via Zoom, to the panel; this will include a 5-minute Pitch Presentation and a 5-10 minute Q&A session. These presentations will be rebroadcast to the general public.

The winning team will receive complimentary round-trip air transportation, accommodation, and registration at Convening Leaders. The team will be invited to present their pitch during a concurrent session at Convening Leaders.

REGISTER NOW

Timeline

Now through October 1 – Registration Open
September 5, 8, 13, 21, October 3 & 5 – Open zoom calls with PCMA Team members to ask questions
November 10th – Deadline for submission of proposals
November 24th – Judging concludes. Finalists are announced.
Week of December 5th – Virtual presentation to judges*. Winner announced immediately following.
December 15th – Webinar broadcast to PCMA’s Global Audience
Week of January 9th – Winning team(s) present at PCMA Convening Leaders

*Presentations can be done live or submitted as a pre-recorded video however teams are responsible for playback and at least 3 team members must be available for live Q&A with the judges.

2021 Winners: Durham College

2020/21 Winners: University of Florida

2019 Winners: California Polytechnic State University

2018 Winners: Kansas State University

View the final round proposals from 2021 here.

2020/2021 Competition Recording

2019 Competition Recording

Resources

Glossary
Requirements
PPT Sample Template (for structure only, design and layout should be unique)
Judges’ Evaluation Criteria

PCMA Business Events Compass
Compass is PCMA’s business events industry global recovery plan and is the starting point on PCMA’s Recovery Discovery journey.

COVID-19 Recovery Dashboards
As the COVID-19 crisis continues to evolve, PCMA and Convene will be surveying business event professionals — planners and suppliers — to understand our community’s short- and long-term business expectations.

The Future of Live Events (White Paper) Brought to you by Greater Fort Lauderdale
PCMA and Greater Fort Lauderdale explore the opportunities and hurdles that the industry may face going forward.

The Future of Meetings and Events
PCMA Foundation in partnership with Marriott International, Research conducted by Fahrenheit 212

Future Meeting Space
PCMA Foundation in partnership with German Convention Bureau, Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, and European Association of Event Centres (EVVC)