Team(s) Stockholm, Dusseldorf, Tokyo

Team Stockholm due to present at 9.45am are working on their presentation slides and making trying to keep their presentation under 20 minutes. They are into the 15th hour of the competition and one team member looks completely exhausted!

Although she was awake to tell us about her thoughts to the case question, she said "the question is of too broad a scope but she loves the concept of the nerve system and how up to date and relevant to the real world issues" the telecommunications industry is facing.

Team Dusseldorf was more generous with their comments expressing facing "ups and downs with the team and experiencing headaches and heartaches". There was one team member that was insistent on a single piece of data and has been working on it for the last few hours. The team shared their views on the case question "the case is so broad! And talking about such a broad scope in 18 minutes and the depth that is expected seems conflicting".













As I walked into Team Tokyo's team room, the team looked ready to present at that minute with beautiful slides. But not to alarm the rest of the teams, the team is still about 1/2 way through the deck and are still working on a draft of their deck and are refining the slides.

Blog for the Blogger!!!

This blog is dedicated to the blogger by the Organizing Committee!

Kudos to Debra for keeping us all engaged through the blog ... She is tired, exhausted at this time, and feels she should go back to Singapore and get married to escape Blogging!!!

But she is still going to be up and awake all night to keep the Case Competition alive through her Blogs!!!

Cheers to her!!!

Pizza Break!

It's 10.30pm - the pizzas from Bertucci's have promptly arrived! The teams (that went without dinner) will be kept alive.. The entire graduate lounge (the new headquarters) is filled with the lovely aroma of cheese and pepperoni pizzas! I think this will definitely provide some brain boost to the teams which are well into 12 hours of the competition!

Thoughts from the teams

Gossip Update: Team Santiago remarked that they "would rather forgo the prize money of $25,000 and take ipads instead". (Just wondering why they would not use the $25,000 to buy the ipads instead!) One member of the team who had worked in the telecommunications industry had remarked that "this case was very relevant to his previous job and when he returns to the industry", he would be able to use the same learning experiences that this case competition provides.

Strolling back after dinner, Team Sao Paolo thought that the case "was definitely challenging and consisted of a lot of issues to think about". The team was now progressing with structuring the presentation and working on the slides. The team were also very statisifed with the multimedia format that the case was presented unlike the previous years where the case was distributed in paper format.

Team San Jose commented that they "were on schedule" after experiencing a slowdown for 4 to 5 hours but the "last 3 hours have a been a real burst". The team had split into 2 groups, 1 group working on research and the other working on the slide deck, it was only recently that the group got back together as a team. The team also remarked that "this year, the question was more structured as compared to last year". But overall, the team was "confident and started playing the devil's advocate and were anticipating the questions from the judges tomorrow". Looks like Team San Jose is on a roll!!!

UBurger for Dinner!

The majority of the teams are heading to UBurger at Fenway / Kenmore is the dinner choice for many teams. UBurger "Above all Burgers" is only available in Boston - the teams are experiencing a little bit about Boston all within walking distance from BU's SMG building!

Team Sao Paolo can attest to UBurger's strawberry milkshake.



Team Istanbul are 10 hours into the competition and look like they are moving swiftly along with their presentation and analysis. I asked how they were working as a team and again I got a positive response. Seems like this team has got it all together!

That's me talking to Team Abu Dhabi. This team also 10 hours into the competition have accumulated massive amounts of writing on the flip charts and chalk boards. The team is skipping dinner (to save money!) and are looking forward to free pizza at 10.30pm!

Interview with Team Abu Dhabi

Team Delhi sigining out and heading to dinner. For some strange reason, looking very traumatized (see guy on extreme right!)

Earlier interview with Team Delhi

Featuring Team Tokyo!

Team Tokyo is ready for the "big shift," they would be moving shortly to the bigger room.

When asked, how do they feel 6 hours into the case - They say they are so far "ON TRACK," -- just that they have changed their plan (read "TRACK") several times until now!!!

They love the multimedia format of case delivery, as it helps the entire team to view the case together ... but they also feel that one must have the art of deciding which videos to view ... Viewing all the videos may not be the wisest idea when just a few videos are the most relevant ones ...

Double Dose Kevin!

Kevin Dugan from Team Madrid "I had a dream last night, I dreamt that when the case was distributed, I had absolutely no idea what the case was asking, I was confused and over my head with no idea where to start and no idea where to begin". "My team-mate, Dennis Pang had the exact same dream". At this point - I hope Team Madrid has some sort of approach to the case 6 hours into the competition!

Here's Kevin, after his double dose of coffee and energy drink..

Lunch! And extra volunteer duties!

The teams are done with lunch and are finally getting down to their task at hand.

Team Beijing have cleverly sealed up their room to make sure that no one knows what is going on in their room.

Fernando is doubling up as beverage trolley guy. Have you seen a delivery guy in a suit before?

The pyramid of caffine has emerged from Fernando's trolley - drink away teams!!

BU's Promotional Video!

View the video file from last year's Case Competition!

Interview with Team Abu Dhabi