AB2050 CASE COMPETITION RECAP
Over 80 students from 5 Calgary post-secondary institutions assembled on November 24th and 25th at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning at the University of Calgary to compete in the first in-person AB2050 Case Competition. The competition presented a case surrounding sustainability in agriculture and produce production in Alberta.
Students and Calgary employers gathering before the networking kick off to the AB2050 Case Competition.
Fuse Collective, a student club from UCalgary, partnered with TalentED YYC to bring the AB2050 Case Competition to life. The event was supported by funding from Business + Higher Education Roundtable (BHER), and sponsored by Accenture and Propel Campus. Carbon Upcycling sponsored the top three teams with fully recyclable, 7% carbon-captured polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) material tokens and trophies as an excellent tie-in to the sustainability theme of the event.
TalentED YYC Executive Director, D’Andre Wilson, with AB2050 student participants at UCalgary.
An industry networking event kicked off the student experience. Thanks to the outreach done by Student Energy, a student club from UCalgary, 16 of Calgary’s businesses and non-profits sent representatives to introduce their organization and engage students participating in the case competition. Students learned the art of networking with individuals from local organizations they aimed to work for through work integrated learning opportunities and/or after graduation.
Accenture presented an 8-page case to the participating students on Alberta’s sustainability challenges in produce and agricultural production leading up to the year 2050. The teams of 5 had 20 hours to build and present a solution to a panel of industry judges. The nature of the open-ended question from the case allowed for the discovery and exploration of many ideas. Students from numerous areas of study, such as Natural Science, Chemistry, Commerce, Arts, Law, Social Justice, Psychology and more, created different solutions for sustainability in produce and agricultural production in Alberta – not one solution was repeated!
The first round of the competition split teams into two rooms to pitch their solutions to the judges. While the top-3 teams from each room were selected, students participated in a TalentED YYC led reflection session to identify takeaways from the case competition and how to apply them to their job search. The session also encouraged students to reflect on their individual and team challenges throughout the competition and allowed for thoughtful introspection on personal growth.
After deliberation, the panel of judges announced the top 6 teams who would be competing for the prize pool of $3,000. After deliberating on the final 6 presentations, Team Empower was announced as the 1st place winner! In 2nd place, was Team Conserve, and in 3rd Place, was Team Renew.
In addition to their cash prizes, the top 3 teams also won the opportunity to participate in a Product Management Sprint Role and Design Thinking Certificate opportunity with the team at Propel Campus.
AB2050 was a terrific innovative work integrated learning opportunity for post-secondary students across Calgary. If you are interested in sponsoring and/or introducing your organization at the next AB2050 Case Competition, please email info@talentedyyc.com
1st Place Team Empower.
2nd Place Team Conserve.
3rd Place Team Renew.