By Juliette Beaulieu – Contributor 

On Friday, Jan. 19, 2024, 20 students from Bishop’s William School of Business set out to compete in the largest business school competition for undergraduate students in Central Canada. 

Organized by the Canadian Association of Business Students, the Jeux du Commerce Central gathers university students from different provinces in Canada. One of its kind, the competition takes place over a three-day weekend and includes academic cases covering eight business disciplines, a sports tournament, a social competition and a parliament-style debate. Changing locations every year, this edition’s host was the city of Kingston in Ontario, welcoming more than 450 delegates, team captains, faculty advisors and volunteers to the Holiday Inn Kingston Waterfront Hotel. A shuttle was provided all weekend from the hotel to the different events that were taking place at the venue. 

This year, ten universities showed up ready to compete at the St. Lawrence College venue. Among them were Carleton University, York University, Concordia University and St. Francis Xavier University. Having a smaller pool of students, Bishop’s University was one of two universities to compete with a half delegation. In comparison to a full delegation where there are 40 plus delegates, a half delegation sends students to compete only in certain categories. The academic teams represented by Bishop’s undergraduate students were Business Strategy (Jérémie Tremblay Dionne, Josée-Anne Lafond and Anne-Sophie Voyer), Digital Strategy (Michael Bielawski, Vanessa Catena and Max Harrison), Finance (Jonathan Desy, Xavier Morin-Dulude and Brenan Priest), Entrepreneurship (Sara Katharina Mattheis, Dylan Torres and Beck Winsor) and Marketing (Tashalia Bekangba, William Moreau and  Charleston Turner). 

Months of preparation led up to this weekend for our delegates. They were selected from a pool of business students after competition tryouts back in September 2024. Some faculty members volunteered to be coaches for the different academic teams and helped the delegates practice various business scholar case scenarios every week. Students have three hours to solve a company’s issue and then present a solution complete with a full slide deck in front of a panel of industry experts. The panel of judges questions the delegation on their chosen proposal to the company. 

In preparation for the competition, students took the course BMG330, a case competition class that taught them how to break down business problems, analyze them and create an interesting presentation to captivate judges’ attention. They took this time to perfect their oral skills and tactics in solving real-world business problems, as well as to learn the ins and outs of a case competition. 

The sports team delegates (Henri Dessureaux, Corinne Dumas, Jérôme Lafond, Emmanuelle Morin and Justin Montpetit) also showcased their skills in the volleyball tournament on Saturday and a pickleball tournament on Sunday. They placed fourth in pickleball, losing to the winning school, the University of Ottawa, in the semifinals. For the first time in ages, Bishop’s sent a team dedicated only to the sporting events. To underline this grand return, Champion Apparel sponsored the half delegation and coaches with fleece tracksuits bearing the Arches Consulting colours. 

After a weekend filled with ceremonies, networking events, competitions, city outings and a fabulous closing gala, our delegates came back to Sherbrooke with memories and valuable experiences that they will carry throughout their career. Currently, some of them are already preparing for another case competition, while others are back practicing case cracking for next year’s JDCC event. 

As the team captain of this year’s delegation, I witnessed firsthand the hard work that went into the preparation for the competition and the great team spirit exhibited throughout the weekend.