Global Student Competition

The PCMA Global Student Competition aims to encourage innovative thinking and collaboration among students, worldwide, to explore fresh ideas that will expand the outlook of the business events industry while engaging their knowledge and understanding of the industry.

Overview

2023 Theme: The Evolving Place of AI in Business Events
REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!
View the requirements here.

Within the proposed theme of The Evolving Place of AI in Business Events, teams will develop a detailed proposal for a mock event, including but not limited to, a meeting, incentive trip, exhibition, tradeshow, consumer show, convention, conference, congress, or product launch. Proposals should include a focus on an array of topics, as they pertain to the theme, including, but not limited to:

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

In keeping with this year’s theme, students are encouraged to embrace the power of Project Spark, a revolutionary tool, available only to PCMA members! Applying skills of understanding with disruptive technology should allow for groundbreaking creativity with the potential to transform the business events industry!

Details:

Teams (not to exceed 5 members) will be evaluated based on their proposals, scored by a committee of industry professionals. The top five teams will then be invited to virtually present their final proposal to the panel which will include a 5-minute pitch presentation and a 5–10-minute Q&A Session.

The winning team will receive complimentary round-trip air transportation, accommodation, and registration at Convening Leaders 2024 in San Diego. The team will be invited to then present their pitch during Convening Leaders. This exposure to over 3,000 industry professionals for recognition, networking and continued education is a rare resume building opportunity for students seeking employment in the business events industry.

Timeline

August 1 – October 13 – Registration Open
November 6th – Deadline for submission of proposals

On-demand virtual meetings available at any date, through November 5th with PCMA staff. Please email Meredith Sorkin to setup. [email protected]

November 17th – Judging concludes. Finalists are announced.
Week of November 27th – Virtual presentation to judges*. Winner announced immediately following.
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.

2022 Winners: George Washington University and ISAE Universidad

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.

2022 Competition Recording

2020/2021 Competition Recording

2019 Competition Recording

Resources

Comprehensive Industry Glossary
Requirements
PPT Sample Template (for structure only, design and layout should be unique)
Global Student Competition Criteria

APAC Demo Webinar on SPARK
Get stuff done with PCMA’s AI Took, Project Spark; a once in a generation opportunity for the business events industry to understand and define how disruptive technology will shape the industry.

Webinar: Dissecting Chat GPT/Generative AI Disruption
Observe the top AI use cases for event profs and address broader shifts and implications for our industry.

Unlocking the Power of AI for Events
Meet Your Next Best Meeting Planning Tool: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Social Listening + AI = Deep Personalization
One of the benefits of social media is the ability to eavesdrop on conversations about your event or brand digitally. With AI you could gather thousands of people’s sentiments from multiple channels in any language and analyze them all in real-time. The personal nature of your responses would become an essential tool in your customer retention toolbox. Learn how to make this dynamic duo work for you.