Global Enterprise Experience Contest, 2018

The Global Enterprise Experience develops global leaders skilled in managing across cultures, time zones, and developed and developing countries with world views that are worlds apart. It builds a mindset for creating successful business ventures that tackle social and environmental issues.

Participants are in teams of eight, with members drawn from around the world. Teams compete, not countries. The team uses cloud computing to communicate with its members. To date 9,375 students from 635 universities in 113 countries have participated. Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand's capital city is the home of the contest. This is the 15th contest.

It won the 2017 Intercultural Innovation Award from the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and the BMW Group.

2018 contest

The 2018 contest will run from May 2 to May 23, it is free to enter, and there are no restrictions on who may enrol.
Teams write a six-page business concept proposal on a profitable product or service that fosters decent work and economic growth as per the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8.

The topic is deliberately broad, so projects will vary widely such as focusing on youth, people with disabilities, women, migrant workers, entrepreneurship, decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation, ending modern slavery, finance, tourism, agricultural productivity and making the best use for human wellbeing of exponential technologies like solar power, 3D printing, genetics, robotics, drones, sensors, neurotechnology, computing, biotech, driverless cars, medicine advances, blockchain and nanotechnology.

The project could be based in a developed or developing country or between countries. You will need to use your creativity to design a great project that achieves social goals but is also profitable. It just needs to be profitable, but not necessarily very profitable, as this ensures the project is sustainable rather than simply one more suggestion to governments or aid agencies on how to spend their scarce funds.

Enrolment
Enrolment is from March 1 to April 18 2018. You may choose a partner to work with or you may enroll as a single. The second enrollee of your pair needs to know the email address of the first enrollee to enrol. It is helpful to provide your team members with several avenues of communicating, so the enrolment form has the option of entering your cellphone number, and your username for Skype, FaceBook and WhatsApp. If you enter this information, only your team members will see it.

After enrolling you will be sent an email requesting a brief bio to share with your team members. If we have not received your bio by April 20 then you will not be placed in a team. Late enrolments will be considered to fit into your university calendar, but we would appreciate prior notice if this is likely.

You will receive an email at 01:00 GMT on May 2 with the names, countries and contact details of your eight team members. Your team will have three weeks to brainstorm an idea, undertake research and analysis, and write your proposal.

Leadership and awards
A New Zealand student is responsible for getting the team started, but leadership may shift to other team members during the course of the contest. All other team members are peer leaders - taking joint responsibility for team performance, creativity, culture, engagement, decision making and conflict resolution. There is a prize of NZ$1000 for the champion peer leader.

There is also NZ$1000 for each member of the winning team, as well as non-financial awards recognising team leadership, commitment, academic leadership, and social entrepreneurship. All completing participants receive a letter of commendation and a certificates.

Further details:
Global Enterprise Experience Contest, 2018