1,300 student competitors are coming to Concordia — and they mean business
The 14-member Concordia organizing team of the 30th annual Jeux du commerce: "We are raising the bar."
Next month, the largest academic competition in Eastern Canada is taking place at Concordia, bringing hundreds of business students to Montreal to best each other in academic, athletic and social competitions.
The John Molson School of Business will be hosting the 30th annual Jeux du commerce (JDC), a three-day interuniversity event that starts Thursday, January 4.
Organizers expect 1,300 participants and more than 300 volunteers from 13 universities.
“The objectives of the competition are to foster relationships between the future generation of business people and companies, to create durable bonds among the participants, and to encourage fair competition and excellence,” says JMSB management student David Lafrenière, president of the 14-member organizing team.
The students have been preparing for the JDC since January 2016, he adds. “By the time we’re done with all the post-event activities, we’ll have been at this for about two and a half years!”
The theme of this year’s competition is “audacity.”
“We are raising the bar in terms of what we want to accomplish, and we've been in that mindset from the beginning,” Lafrenière says.
“We’re encouraging teams to strive for excellence, to innovate and be audacious.”
One of the team's goals is to facilitate participants’ discovery of JMSB and Montreal by involving Concordia alumni and other influencers. “We even have Tourisme Montréal as a partner. We’re trying to showcase the city as much as we can in all of our communications.”
The academic portion of the JDC is a case competition that includes business cases focused on accounting, project operation management, finance, taxes, human resources, marketing, management information system, international business, strategy, entrepreneurship and sustainability.
For each case, competing teams have three hours to solve a real-life business problem and prepare a 20-minute presentation in the hopes of persuading a panel of industry professionals, managers and academics that their team has come up with the best solution.
Lafrenière says hosting the competition is an honour and a way to give back to Concordia. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It's always great to see those banners and trophies in the Molson Building lobby, but without organizing committees to host JDC, those victories and memories wouldn't happen.”
Check out the Jeux du Commerce, January 4-7, at the John Molson School of Business; the event is public and no registration is required.
