As we have seen in some of the recent blog posts on Primetime, contests present a growing number of opportunities for students to highlight their work and ideas in the area of sustainability on a global scale. The Global Business School Network (GBSN) has a yearly contest called the MBA+ Challenge Video Contest that especially focuses on how business students can impact lives in the developing world.
I recently had the chance to speak with the team at GBSN about this contest and what they are hoping to accomplish and highlight through it.
1. Tell us a little bit about GBSN
GBSN addresses the severe shortage of skilled managers in the developing world. Here at the Global Business School Network, we believe that business education is essential to improving economic and social development in the developing world. We build local management education capacity through our international network of over 50 top business schools spanning 5 continents.
Our annual conference in Tunisia this coming June will also mark our 10th anniversary. At the conference, “Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship,” we will focus our attention on the role of business education in addressing the widespread challenges in employability and entrepreneurship for young people in the developing world. More information is available at www.gbsnonline.org/2013.
2. What is the MBA+ Challenge Video Contest?
In order to capture and celebrate business students’ contributions in the developing world, GBSN holds our annual MBA+ Challenge Video Contest. The challenge is to create a powerful video demonstrating how business students are utilizing their skills and education to impact lives in the developing world. For the first time we’ve opened the contest up to ALL business, management and entrepreneurship students and recent graduates (in the past 5 years) from around the globe – hence the “+”.
3. What are the details of the contest?
The video should be no longer than 3 minutes, and can be produced and submitted by teams or individuals. First prize wins an all expense paid trip, for one team member, to GBSN’s Annual Conference in Tunis, Tunisia, June 10-12, 2013, where he or she will present the winning video. The winning teams will also be highlighted in the GBSN’s newsletter, website and Annual Conference program.
The producers of the top five videos, as determined by online voting, will each get the chance to have a mentoring session by Skype with an international leader in business or development. The contest will be open for submissions March 1st through the 31st. The online voting polls will be from April 1-14th. After the 5 finalists are chosen by votes, a panel of judges will then select the first, 2nd and 3rd place winners. This will be announced April 30th.
4. What kind of videos are you hoping for? What were some of the highlights from past contests?
We want to see creativity, but more importantly, we want to see an impactful story. Last year’s winner was a group from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Their video was inspired by the group’s participation in the “$300 House project.” A team of professors and students traveled to Fond des Blancs, Haiti to help the poverty stricken town improve living conditions. The team visited with families to better understand the problem, and came up with an architectural plan to build 100 houses over the span of five years.
Check out the rest of winning team member Jacqueline Stein’s blog post on nextbillion.net, where she shares her story of the project that inspired the winning video.
Link of winning video: http://youtu.be/rVKF8lOCRYo
Link to past winning videos: http://www.gbsnonline.org/?page=videos_mbachallenge
5. What impact are you hoping that this will have?
We are hoping this contest will spotlight business students’ impact in developing countries. We also want to show other students, faculty and parts of the business education realm the positive impact that business education can make in addressing social and economic challenges. Our mission is to improve business education in the developing world in order to foster excellent leaders and managers. This contest is one way of demonstrating the mark that business students are making on the world.
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